An efficient distortion model configuration for depth coding in 3D-HEVC

3D-HEVC is the latest 3D video project of MPEG for 3D video coding. To compress the depth videos in 3D-HEVC efficiently, depth distortion models considering the distortions in synthesized views have been introduced. However, these models introduce a big burden in coding complexity. In this paper, a configuration of depth distortion models applied at each encoding decision stage of 3D-HEVC is proposed based on a comprehensive analysis of typical depth distortion models and different configurations of representative models. It provides better trade-off between compression efficiency and coding complexity for depth map coding. An average of 12.6% reduction in time complexity is achieved without compression efficiency loss.