Depth Map Coding Based on Synthesized View Distortion Function

This paper presents an efficient depth map coding method based on a newly defined rendering view distortion function. As compared to the conventional depth map coding in which distortion is measured by only investigating the coding error in depth map, the proposed scheme focuses on virtually synthesized view quality by involving co-located color information. In detail, the proposed distortion function estimates rendered view quality, where area-based scheme is provided in order to mimic the warping/view-rendering process accurately. Moreover, the coding performance of the proposed distortion metric is even improved by involving the additional SKIP mode derived by co-located color coding information. The simulation results show the proposed scheme could achieve approximately 30% bit-rate saving for depth data, and about 10% bit-rate saving for overall multi-view data.