Efficient multiple-example based super-resolution for symmetric mixed resolution stereoscopic video coding

•The proposed SMRSVC model can provide clear bitrate-reduction and visual merits.•Based on the SMRSVC model, we propose a new super-resolution (SR) method.​•The new SR method for the SMRSVC model has superior quality and bitrate performance.​ In this paper, we first propose a new symmetric mixed resolution stereoscopic video coding (SMRSVC) model which can provide clear bitrate-reduction and visual merits. Based on the newly proposed SMRSVC model, we then propose a quality-efficient multiple-example based super-resolution method. In the proposed super-resolution method, the four block examples selected from the forward and backward key-frames, the reference super-resolved frame, and the interview super-resolved frame are referred so as to effectively fuse the high frequency component of the super-resolved current block of the downsampled non-key-frame, and then an enhanced super-resolved non-key-frame is followed. Based on six test stereoscopic video sequences, the experimental results demonstrate that besides the bitrate-saving effect, the proposed super-resolution method for the proposed SMRSVC model also has better quality performance in terms of six well-known quality metrics when compared with several state-of-the-art methods for the previous asymmetric resolution stereoscopic video coding model and the SMRSVC model.