Depth image-based representations for static and animated 3D objects

We describe a novel depth image-based representation (DIBR) that has been adopted into the MPEG-4 animation framework extension (AFX). The idea of this approach is to build a compact representation of a 3D object or scene without storing the geometry information in traditional polygonal form. The main formats of the DIBR family are simple texture (an image together with depth array), point texture (a view of a scene from a single input camera but with multiple pixels along each line of sight), and octree image (octree data structure together with a set of images and their viewport parameters). The designed node specifications and rendering algorithms are addressed. The experimental results show the efficacy and fidelity of the proposed approach.