A Fast Depth-Map Generation Algorithm based on Motion Search from 2D Video Contents

Generation of a depth-map from 2D video is the kernel of DIBR (Depth Image Based Rendering) in 2D-3D video conversion systems. However it occupies over most of the system resource where the motion search module takes up 90% time-consuming in typical motion estimation-based depth-map generation algorithms. In order to reduce the computational complexity, in this paper a new fast depth-map generation algorithm based on motion search is developed, in which a fast diamond search algorithm is adopted to decide whether a 16x16 or 4x4 block size is used based on Sobel operator in the motion search module to obtain a sub-depth-map. Then the sub-depth-map will be fused with the sub-depth-maps gotten from depth from color component Cr and depth from linear perspective modules to compensate and refine detail of the depth-map, finally obtain a better depth-map. The simulation results demonstrate that the new approach can greatly reduce over 50% computational complexity compared to other existing methods.