A fast encoder of frame-compatible format based on content similarity for 3D distribution

Through packing the two neighboring views after down-sampling into one frame, frame-compatible format coding allows stereo video to be encoded on the conventional video applications. Using the content similarity which leads to similar prediction between the two packed planes, a fast algorithm is discussed in this paper. The target of the proposed algorithm is to reduce the computational complexity and maintain the compression performance. By operating the candidate predictions solely on the half of a frame (plane-1) according to the encoded half of the frame (plane-0), it introduces an average of 75.7% and 90.4% reduction in plane-1's computational complexity for Intra and Inter encoding, respectively. The statistic analysis illustrates the prediction correlation due to the content similarity, and contributes to the prediction candidate sets for Intra and Inter coding. In addition, a shift obtaining method integrated in the fast algorithm is also introduced.