3DV quality model based depth maps for view synthesis in FTV system

Depth maps are used for synthesis virtual view in free-viewpoint television （FTV） systems. When depth maps are derived using existing depth estimation methods, the depth distortions will cause undesirable artifacts in the synthesized views. To solve this problem, a 3D video quality model base depth maps （D-3DV） for virtual view synthesis and depth map coding in the FTV applications is proposed. First, the relationships between distortions in coded depth map and rendered view are derived. Then, a precisely 3DV quality model based depth characteristics is develop for the synthesized virtual views. Finally, based on D-3DV model, a multilateral filtering is applied as a pre-processed filter to reduce rendering artifacts. The experimental results evaluated by objective and subjective methods indicate that the proposed D-3DV model can reduce bit-rate of depth coding and achieve better rendering quality.