The H.

264 video coding standard was created to support the next generation of
multimedia applications. H.264 improves performance over previous video
coding standards, such as MPEG-2, H.263, and MPEG-4 part 2, by applying
more sophisticated techniques for intraframe and interframe prediction, transform
coding, entropy coding, and so on. The H.264 standard is unique in its broad
applicability across a range of bit rates and video resolutions and is gaining
momentum in its adoption by industry.
MULTIVIEW video coding (MVC), which is being standardized in the joint video
team (JVT) of the ITU-T video coding experts group (VCEG) and ISO/IEC
moving picture experts group (MPEG), is expected to become a new video
coding standard for the realization of future video applications such as 3D-TV
and free viewpoint video [1]. The MVC group in the JVT has chosen the
H.264/AVC [2]-based MVC method that was proposed by [3] as the MVC
reference model, since this method showed better coding efficiency than
H.264/AVC simulcast coding and the other methods that were submitted in
response to the call for proposals made by the MPEG [4]. However, when
illumination changes occur between pictures in the view-temporal direction, the
displacement vector estimation (DVE), which is the motion vector estimation or
disparity vector estimation in MVC, cannot be accurately performed, so that the
error of the displacement vector (DV) and the amounts of the residual signals
may be increased and, consequently, the coding efficiency may be decreased.
The reason why this phenomenon is taken so seriously is that the performance of
MVCis affected not only by local illumination changes due to the variations in the
viewing position and direction, but also by the global signal changes due to
imperfect camera calibration.
Multiview video has gained a wide interest recently. The huge amount of data
needed to be processed by multiview applications is a heavy burden for both
transmission and decoding. The joint video team has recently devoted part of its
effort to extend the widely deployed H.264/AVC standard to handle multiview
video coding (MVC). The MVC extension of H.264/AVC includes a number of
new techniques for improved coding efficiency, reduced decoding complexity,
and new functionalities for multiview operations. MVC takes advantage of some
of the interfaces and transport mechanisms introduced for the scalable video
coding (SVC) extension of H.264/AVC, but the system level integration of MVC is
conceptually more challenging as the decoder output may contain more than one
view and can consist of any combination of the views with any temporal level.
The generation of all the output views also requires careful consideration and
control of the available decoder resources. In this paper, multiview applications
and solutions to support generic multiview as well as 3D services are introduced.
The proposed solutions, which have been adopted to the draft MVC specification,
cover a wide range of requirements for 3D video related to interface, transport of
the MVC bitstreams, and MVC decoder resource management. The features that
have been introduced in MVC to support these solutions include marking of
reference pictures, supporting for efficient view switching, structuring of the
bitstream, signalling of view scalability supplemental enhancement information
(SEI) and parallel decoding SEI.

OR
 Multiview Video Coding

Introduction:

The need for multiview video coding is driven by two recent technological
developments: new 3D video/display technologies and the growing use of multi-
camera arrays. A variety of companies are starting to produce 3D displays that
do not require glasses and can be viewed by multiple people simultaneously. The
immersive experience provided by these 3D displays are compelling and have
the potential to create a growing market for 3D video and hence for multiview
video compression. Furthermore, even with 2D displays, multi-camera arrays are
increasingly being used to capture a scene from many angles. The resulting
multiview data sets allow the viewer to observe a scene from any viewpoint and
serve as another application of multiview video compression.

In July 2008, MPEG officially approved an amendment of the ITU-T Rec. H.264 &
ISO/IEC 14996-10 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard on Multiview Video
Coding. MVC is an extension of the AVC/H.264 standard that provides efficient
encoding or compressed representation of sequences captured simultaneously
from multiple cameras by exploiting correlation among neighboring camera
views. MVC is intended for encoding stereoscopic (two-view) video, as well as
free viewpoint television and multi-view 3D television applications. The Stereo
High profile has been standardized in June 2009; the profile is based on MVC
toolset and is used in stereoscopic Blu-ray 3D releases.

MVC stream is backward compatible with H.264/AVC, which allows older devices
and software to decode stereoscopic video streams, ignoring additional
information for the second view. 3D video (3DV) and free viewpoint video (FVV)
are new types of visual media that expand the user's experience beyond what is
offered by 2D video. 3DV offers a 3D depth impression of the observed scenery,
while FVV allows for an interactive selection of viewpoint and direction within a
certain operating range. A common element of 3DV and FVV systems is the use
of multiple views of the same scene that are transmitted to the user.
The overall structure of MVC defining the interfaces is illustrated in the figure
below. The encoder receives N temporally synchronized video streams and
generates one bitstream. The decoder receives the bitstream, decodes and
outputs the N video signals.

Fig 1: Multiview Video Coding (MVC)

Multiview video contains a large amount of inter-view statistical dependencies,

since all cameras capture the same scene from different viewpoints. Therefore,
combined temporal and inter-view prediction is the key for efficient MVC. As
illustrated in the figure below a picture of a certain camera can not only be
predicted from temporally related pictures of the same camera. Also pictures of
neighboring cameras can be used for efficient prediction.
 Fig 2: Temporal/inter-view prediction structure for MVC

Application Areas:

• Stereo Scope Video

• 3D Video/Display
• Free Viewpoint Video