Our research paper on light field image compression using the upcoming video coding standard VVC (Versatile Video Coding) has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics in Berlin, Germany.
Light field cameras (or plenoptic cameras) made it possible to not only capture information about the light intensity in a scene, but also the light direction traveling in space. The resulting light field images added two extra spatial dimensions to conventional 2D images by capturing a scene from different angles. Light field technology has all the potential needed to deliver the needed six-degrees-of-freedom in virtual reality, and it is a cornerstone technology in holography.
Due to the vast amount of data a light field needs to capture for representing high-resolution images, the need of new coding solutions has been considered. While coding standards aiming at plenoptic images are something to be expected in the near future, video coding standards are one of the most efficient solutions to compress light fields. There are countless scanning topologies for restructuring a light field image into a 2D video.
An interesting comparison of light field image coding performance using the three latest generations of video compression standards will be presented during ICCE-Berlin 2019. Moreover, an evaluation of a set of coding structures aiming for both optimal compression rates and random access capabilities will be presented as well. The result is a useful benchmark for future development of light field image coding solutions using video coding standards.
The full paper can be found here.
The key configuration files for the VVC reference software can be found here.
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