Fast Mode Decision Using Global Disparity Vector for Multiview Video Coding

Since multiview video coding (MVC) based on H.264/AVC uses a prediction scheme exploiting inter-view correlation among multiview video, MVC encoder compresses multiple views more efficiently than simulcast H.264/AVC encoder. However, in case that the number of views to be encoded increases in MVC, the total encoding time will be greatly increased. To reduce computational complexity in MVC, a fast mode decision using both Macroblock-based region segmentation information and global disparity vector among views is proposed to reduce the encoding time. The proposed method achieves on the average 1.5∼2.9 reduction of the total encoding time with the PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) degradation of about 0.05dB.