Edge information based fast selection algorithm for intra prediction of HEVC

High efficiency video coding (HEVC) achieves a better coding efficiency compared with previous video coding standards. To enhance the intra coding efficiency, HEVC employs flexible coding unit structure as prediction unit (PU) sizes which are defined from 4×4 to 64×64 and plenty of prediction modes. These new features of intra prediction in HEVC improves coding efficiency, meanwhile, brings high computational complexity. This paper presents a fast algorithm for intra prediction of HEVC. An edge information based fast image preprocessing stage is designed. Based on the result of edge detection, reasonable PU size is decided efficiently. Intra prediction mode selection optimization based on edge information also helps to achieve the goal of computational complexity reduction. Compared to the original HEVC, the result of the complexity reduction is over 27%, in the meantime, the increased BD-Rate and declining BD-PSNR is almost negligible.