Disparity vector based advanced inter-view prediction in 3D-HEVC

Coding multiview video content often benefits significantly from disparity compensation. More advanced inter-view predictions, to predict e.g., motion vectors and residues among views require disparity vector to identify blocks in different views corresponding to the same objects. Block-level disparity vectors in typically approaches are either transmitted thus with additional overhead, or predicted with sophisticated algorithms. This paper describes a new method to derive disparity vectors, based on which advanced inter-view predictions can be better supported. The proposed method derives a disparity vector of a block only from spatial and temporal neighboring blocks. It was implemented and adopted into the 3D-HEVC codec, which is currently developed by Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video coding development (JCT-3V). Experimental results show that with the proposed method, advanced inter-view prediction in 3D-HEVC provides in average 5.2% bitrate saving of the overall bitrate, for multiview video coding.