Early Intra Block Partition Decision for Depth Maps in 3D-HEVC

In the three-dimensional extension of the high efficiency video coding standard (3D-HEVC), the optimal depth intra coding block partition structure with smallest rate-distortion (RD) cost is decided after recursively checking all possible partition levels (0-3). The block partition method, together with all intra modes for depth maps at each partition level, dramatically increases the computational complexity of depth intra coding. In this paper, we propose an early termination method for intra block partitioning, in which the termination decision could be decided in a simplified form associated with the current block and its first sub-block. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm could save 45.10% of depth coding time with almost no increase in BDBR.