Abstract: A method and apparatus for three-dimensional video encoding or decoding using the disparity vector derived from an associated depth block are disclosed. The method determines an associated depth block for a current texture block and derives a derived disparity vector based on a subset of depth samples of the associated depth block. The subset contains less depth samples than the associated depth block and the subset excludes a single-sample subset corresponding to a center sample of the associated depth block. The derived disparity vector can be used as an inter-view motion (disparity) vector predictor in Inter mode, an inter-view (disparity) candidate in Merge mode or Skip mode. The derived disparity vector can also be used to locate a reference block for inter-view motion prediction in Inter mode, inter-view candidate in Merge or Skip mode, inter-view motion prediction, inter-view disparity prediction, or inter-view residual prediction.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deriving aligned inter-view prediction for uni-prediction and bi-prediction in three-dimensional and multi-view coding with illumination compensation enabled are disclosed. When the illumination compensation is enabled, the derivation process for a single reference block in reference list_0 or reference list_1 in the case of uni-prediction is aligned with the derivation process for a reference block in reference list_0 and a reference block in reference list_1 in the case of bi-prediction. The reconstruction process generates the reference block based on a temporal reference block when Inter prediction is used and based on an inter-view reference block when inter-view prediction is used. For the uni-prediction and bi-prediction, the same clipping process can be included in the reconstruction process, the illumination compensation process, or both.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for temporal motion vector prediction for a current block in a picture are disclosed. In the present method, one temporal block in a first reference picture in a first list selected from a list group comprising list 0 and list 1 is determined. When the determined temporal block has at least one motion vector, a candidate set is determined based on the motion vector of the temporal block. The temporal motion vector predictor or temporal motion vector predictor candidate or temporal motion vector or temporal motion vector candidate for the current block is determined from the candidate set by checking a presence of a motion vector pointing to a reference picture in a first specific list in said at least one motion vector, wherein the first specific list is selected from the list group based on a priority order.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for a three-dimensional encoding or decoding system incorporating view synthesis prediction (VSP) with reduced computational complexity and/or memory access bandwidth are disclosed. The system applies the VSP process to the texture data only and applies non-VSP process to the depth data. Therefore, when a current texture block in a dependent view is coded according to VSP by backward warping the current texture block to the reference picture using an associated depth block and the motion parameter inheritance (MPI) mode is selected for the corresponding depth block in the dependent view, the corresponding depth block in the dependent view is encoded or decoded using non-VSP inter-view prediction based on motion information inherited from the current texture block.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deriving MV/MVP (motion vector or motion vector predictor) or DV/DVP (disparity vector or disparity vector predictor) associated Skip mode, Merge mode or Inter mode for a block of a current picture in three-dimensional (3D) video coding are disclosed. The 3D video coding may use temporal prediction and inter-view prediction to exploit temporal and inter-view correlation. MV/DV prediction is applied to reduce bitrate associated with MV/DV coding. The MV/MVP or DV/DVP for a block is derived from spatial candidates, temporal candidates and inter-view candidates. For the inter-view candidate, the position of the inter-view co-located block can be located using a global disparity vector (GDV) or warping the current block onto the co-located picture according to the depth information. The candidate can also be derived as the vector corresponding to warping the current block onto the co-located picture according to the depth information.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deriving a motion vector predictor (MVP) candidate set for a block are disclosed. Embodiments according to the present invention generate a complete full MVP candidate set based on the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set if one or more redundant MVP candidates exist. In one embodiment, the method generates the complete full MVP candidate set by adding replacement MVP candidates to the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set and a value corresponding to a non-redundant MVP is assigned to each replacement MVP candidate. In another embodiment, the method generates the complete full MVP candidate set by adding replacement MVP candidates to the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set and a value is assigned to each replacement MVP candidate according to a rule. The procedure of assigning value, checking redundancy, removing redundant MVP candidate are repeated until the MVP candidate set is complete and full.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for processing a 360°-VR frame sequence are disclosed. According to one method, input data associated with a 360°-VR frame sequence are received, where each 360°-VR frame comprises one set of faces associated with a polyhedron format. Each set of faces is rearranged into one rectangular whole VR frame consisting of a front sub-frame and a rear sub-frame, where the front sub-frame corresponds to first contents in a first field of view covering front 180°×180° view and the rear sub-frame corresponds to second contents in a second field of view covering rear 180°×180° view. Output data corresponding to a rearranged 360°-VR frame sequence consisting of a sequence of rectangular whole VR frames are provided.

Abstract: An apparatus for dynamically adjusting video decoding complexity includes a decoding resolution control circuit and an adaptive spatial resolution decoder. The decoding resolution control circuit is arranged to dynamically determine whether at least one portion of multiple frames should be decoded in accordance with a specific resolution differing from an original resolution of the frames. In addition, the adaptive spatial resolution decoder is arranged to decode the frames according to whether the at least one portion of the frames should be decoded in accordance with the specific resolution. In particular, the apparatus further includes a system capability analyzing circuit arranged to analyze system capability of at least a portion of the apparatus, in order to generate analyzing results for being sent to the decoding resolution control circuit. An associated method is also provided.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of depth coding using depth modelling mode 1 (DMM1) are disclosed to reduce the wedgelet pattern table size. In one embodiment, a size-reduced wedgelet pattern for a reduced wedgelet pattern table is generated by excluding at least one non-corner adjacent-edge sample for adjacent-edge partition or at least one opposite-edge sample for opposite-edge partition from starting positions or from ending positions. The reduced wedgelet pattern table may also include at least one omitted wedgelet pattern in at least one wedgelet direction category. For the adjacent-edge partition, the starting positions and the ending positions may correspond to every other even non-corner adjacent-edge samples in a first and a second adjacent edges respectively. For the opposite-edge partition, the starting positions correspond to every other even opposite-edge samples in a first opposite edge and the ending positions include all opposite-edge samples in a second opposite edge.

Abstract: A method for a three-dimensional encoding or decoding system incorporating restricted sub-PU level prediction is disclosed. In one embodiment, the sub-PU level prediction associated with inter-view motion prediction or view synthesis prediction is restricted to the uni-prediction. In another embodiment, the sub-PU partition associated with inter-view motion prediction or view synthesis prediction is disabled if the sub-PU partition would result in sub-PU size smaller than the minimum PU split size or the PU belongs to a restricted partition group. The minimum PU split size may correspond to 8×8. The restricted partition group may correspond to one or more asymmetric motion partition (AMP) modes.

Abstract: A method of improved texture-partition-dependent depth partition is disclosed. First, the available texture partitions for a collocated texture block are classified into two or more groups, and a set of candidate depth partitions is determined for each group. In one embodiment, at least one set of the candidate depth partitions contain more than one candidate depth partition and less than all candidate depth partitions. In another embodiment, the collocated texture blocks are classified into two groups, and one of the two groups includes the N×N texture partition and at least another texture partition. In yet another embodiment, the collocated texture blocks are classified into three groups or more. A current depth partition for the current depth block is then selected from a corresponding set of candidate depth partitions according to a corresponding group that a current texture partition associated with the collocated texture block belongs.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for three-dimensional or multi-view video encoding and decoding using VSP (view synthesis prediction) with uniform sub-block partition are disclosed. For a current texture block comprising multiple partition blocks, the system derives a single partition decision and partitions each partition block of the current texture block into multiples sub-blocks according to the single partition decision. The VSP processing is then applied to each sub-block to derive the inter-view prediction using VSP. The single partition decision is derived using depth samples of the depth block in a reference view.

Abstract: A video encoding method includes: generating reconstructed blocks for coding blocks within a frame, respectively, wherein the frame has a 360-degree image content represented by projection faces arranged in a 360-degree Virtual Reality (360 VR) projection layout, and there is at least one image content discontinuity edge resulting from packing of the projection faces in the frame; and configuring at least one in-loop filter, such that the at least one in-loop filter does not apply in-loop filtering to reconstructed blocks located at the least one image content discontinuity edge.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of three-dimensional/multi-view coding using aligned reference information are disclosed. The present system aligns the reference information associated with the reference view of the derived DV with the reference information associated with a selected reference view by modifying the selected reference view or by modifying the derived DV or a converted DV derived from depth block pointed by the derived DV. The DV can be derived using the Neighboring Block Disparity Vector (NBDV) process. When the reference view of the derived DV is different from the selected reference view, the system scales the derived DV or changes the converted DV to refer to the selected reference view. The system may also set the selected reference view to the reference view of the derived DV.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention re-use at least a portion of motion information of the corresponding block for the motion information of the current block if a corresponding reference picture corresponding to a reference picture pointed by the corresponding block is in a current reference picture list of the current block. If the corresponding reference picture is not in the current reference picture list of the current block, the motion information of the current block is determined using an alternative process, where at least a portion of the motion information, which was used in the previous case, is not re-used for the current block according to the alternative process.

Abstract: For omnidirectional video such as 360-degree Virtual Reality (360VR) video, a video system that support independent decoding of different views of the omnidirectional video is provided. A decoder for such a system can extract a specified part of a bitstream to decode a desired perspective/face/view of an omnidirectional image without decoding the entire image while suffering minimal or no loss in coding efficiency.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for 3D coding to support fast bi-prediction having identical motion in the advanced residual prediction (ARP) are disclosed. Embodiment of the present invention use one or more aligned operations including data clipping and reference picture selection associated with motion vector derivation during residual predictor generation. When ARP mode is enabled, the residual prediction process for uni-prediction and bi-prediction perform same data clipping process and same reference picture selection process effectively. A single clipping operation or two clipping operations can be performed for both uni-prediction and bi-prediction.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deriving a scaled motion vector (MV) for a current block based on a candidate MV associated with a candidate block determines a first picture distance between a current picture corresponding to the current block and a target reference picture pointed to by a current motion vector of the current block, and then determines a second picture distance between a candidate picture corresponding to the candidate block and a candidate reference picture pointed to by the candidate MV of the candidate block. The method further determines a pre-scaled distance division having a first value related to dividing a pre-scaling factor by the second picture distance, and determines an intermediate scaling factor by right-shifting a multiplication result associated with the first picture distance and the pre-scaled distance division by q bits, wherein q is a positive integer.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for deriving a motion vector predictor (MVP) candidate set for a block are disclosed. Embodiments according to the present invention generate a complete full MVP candidate set based on the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set if one or more redundant MVP candidates exist. In one embodiment, the method generates the complete full MVP candidate set by adding replacement MVP candidates to the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set and a value corresponding to a non-redundant MVP is assigned to each replacement MVP candidate. In another embodiment, the method generates the complete full MVP candidate set by adding replacement MVP candidates to the redundancy-removed MVP candidate set and a value is as signed to each replacement MVP candidate according to a rule. The procedure of assigning value, checking redundancy, removing redundant MVP candidate are repeated until the MVP candidate set is complete and full.

Abstract: A method for deriving a motion vector predictor (MVP) receives motion vectors (MVs) associated with reference blocks of the current block. The method determines at least one first spatial search MV associated with a first MV searching order and at least one second spatial search MV associated with a second MV searching order for each neighboring reference block. Then, the method determines whether a first available-first spatial search MV exists for said at least one neighboring reference block according to the first MV searching order, and provides the first available-first spatial search MV as a spatial MVP for the current block. Finally, the method determines whether a first available-second spatial search MV exists for said at least one neighboring reference block according to the second MV searching order only if none of first spatial search MVs for said at least one neighboring reference block is available.