Rate-distortion performance-invariant early termination algorithm for depth coding

An efficient early termination algorithm for depth coding is presented by considering the textureless characteristic of depth maps. In the proposed algorithm, all candidate modes are sorted in ascending order according to their inherent minimum rate-distortion costs (IMRDcost), resulting from the minimum number of head information coding bits. After finishing the rate-distortion cost (RDcost) calculation of each candidate mode, a termination decision will be made with IMRDcost of the next candidate mode to decide whether or not to terminate the mode decision process. Experimental results show that the algorithm can save encoding time by 84.20% on average, while the rate-distortion performance is invariant.