Segmentation-based intra coding of depth maps using texture information

Emerging video technologies, such as 3DTV, increase the demand for high efficiency coding tools. To allow the transmission of a multiview video over the employed transmission channels, a new data format including texture and the corresponding depth information has been proposed. In this paper we present a novel segmentation-based intra codec for depth maps, utilizing the correlation between depth and color data. Our system performs a low-complexity color segmentation on the texture image and encodes the depth values within the segments. The same segmentation is calculated at the decoder, ensuring the closed-loop property of the system. Experimental results show that the proposed system is a viable alternative for 3D-HEVC in low-complexity applications.