Representation, coding, and rendering of 3D video objects with MPEG-4 and H.264/AVC

3D video objects provide the same functionalities as virtual computer graphics objects but depict the motion and appearance of real world moving objects. They can be viewed interactively from any direction and integrated in complete 3D scenes with other virtual and real world elements. So far, related work only considered extraction, representation, and rendering methods. Compression and transmission has not yet been studied in detail and combined with the other components into one complete system. In this paper, we present such a complete system for efficient 3D video object extraction, representation, coding, and interactive rendering. Data representation is based on 3D mesh models and view-dependent texture mapping using video textures. The geometry extraction is based on a shape-from-silhouette algorithm. The resulting voxel models are converted into 3D meshes that are coded using MPEG-4 SNHC tools. The corresponding video textures are preprocessed taking the object´s shape into account and coded using an H.264/AVC codec. The presented results illustrate that based on the proposed methods a complete transmission system for 3D video objects can be built.