Stereo video compression for mobile 3D services

This paper presents a study on different techniques for stereo video compression and its optimization for mobile 3D services. Stereo video enables 3D television, but as mobile services are subject to various limitations, including bandwidth, memory, and processing power, efficient compression is required. Three of the currently available MPEG coding standards are applicable for stereo video coding, namely H.264/AVC with and without stereo SEI message and H.264/MVC. These methods are evaluated with respect to the limitations of mobile services. The results clearly indicate that for a certain bitrate inter-view prediction as well as temporal prediction with hierarchical B pictures lead to a significantly increased subjective and objective quality. Although both techniques require more complex processing at the encoder side, their coding efficiency offers the chance to realize 3D stereo at the bitrate of conventional video for mobile services.