We propose a new coding technology for 3D video represented by multiple views and the respective depth maps. The proposed technology is demonstrated as an extension of the recently developed high efficiency video coding (HEVC). One base views are compressed into a standard bitstream (like in HEVC). The remaining views and the depth maps are compressed using new coding tools that mostly rely on view synthesis. In the decoder, those views and the depth maps are derived via synthesis in the 3D space from the decoded baseview and from data corresponding to small disoccluded regions. The shapes and locations of those disoccluded regions can be derived by the decoder without any side information transmitted. To achieve high compression efficiency, we propose several new tools such as depth-based motion prediction, joint high frequency layer coding, consistent depth representation, and nonlinear depth representation. The experiments show high compression efficiency of the proposed technology. The bitrate needed for transmission of two side views with depth maps is mostly less than 50% than that of the bitrate for a single-view video.

This paper concerns optimization of encoding in HEVC. A novel method is proposed in which encoding modes, e.g. coding block structure, prediction types and motion vectors, are selected basing on noise-reduced version of the input sequence, while the content, e.g. transform coefficients, are coded basing on the unaltered input sequence. Although the proposed scheme involves encoding of two versions of the input sequence, the proposed realization ensures that the complexity is only negligibly larger than complexity of a single encoder. The proposal has been implemented and assessed. The experimental results show that the proposal provides up to 1.5% bitrate reduction while preserving the same video quality.

In this paper we consider immersive visual media that are currently researched within scientific community. These include the well-established technologies, like 360-degree panoramas, as well as those being intensively developed, like free viewpoint video and point-cloud based systems. By the use of characteristic examples, we define the features of the immersive visual media that distinguish them from the classical 2D video. Also, we present the representation technologies that are currently considered by the scientific community, especially in the context of standardization of the immersive visual media in the MPEG-I project recently launched by ISO/IEC.

Rate-Distortion Optimized Quantization (RDOQ) is an encoding optimization technique that may be modified with no implications to the bitstream compliance with the standard. In the paper, we propose an RDOQ variant with exact cost estimation resulting in higher compression ratios as compared to HEVC Test Model. This improvement is obtained at the cost of the complexity increase that may be scaled by replacing the individual steps of exact estimation by the simplified ones from HEVC Test Model. In that way, a family of RDOQ variants is created. The performance of the exact variant from this paper defines a kind of the performance limit for RDOQ.

The paper presents an extension of 3D-HEVC for the circular camera arrangements. It generalizes the derivation of the disparity vectors from depth data for sequences captured using cameras located on an arc. The general equation for disparity calculations has been implemented instead of the simplified equation used in 3D-HEVC. Experiments have been performed on widely recognized multiview test sequences with both circular and linear camera arrangements. In the case of sequences obtained using cameras located on an arc, the proposed extension provides about 6% bitrate reduction when compared to 3D HEVC, and does not influence the 3D-HEVC performance for linear view arranged sequences.