Hybrid stopping model-based fast PU and CU decision for 3D-HEVC texture coding

As an extension of High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, 3D-HEVC needs to encode multiple texture views and depth maps, which further increases the computational complexity. To reduce the complexity of dependent texture view coding, a fast prediction unit (PU) and coding unit (CU) decision method is proposed for 3D-HEVC based on hybrid stopping model. The inter-view correlation is used as a priori information to roughly predict the possible optimal PU and CU sizes. Then, by exploiting the encoded posterior information, the rate distortion cost correlation and the code block flag, the optimal PU and CU are further examined as being optimal or not. Experimental results show that the proposed fast PU and CU decision method achieves 52.7% encoding time saving on average with negligible loss of coding efficiency for 3D-HEVC-dependent texture view coding.