Impact of camera separation on performance of H.264/AVC-based stereoscopic video codec

The impact of camera separation on the performance of an H.264/AVC-based stereo-vision codec is investigated. To achieve this, the H.264/AVC software has been modified to support stereoscopic video coding. Results were generated using two sets of wide baseline convergent multi-view test videos: Breakdancers and Ballet. To generate a set of synchronised stereo-videos from the same scene with different inter-camera angles, all possible camera pairs are generated and classified according to their inter-camera angles. The resulting sets of stereo-videos are coded using a H.264/AVC-based stereo-vision and simulcast codecs. Results indicate that the stereo-vision codec outperforms the simulcast coding at lower inter-camera angles. Finally, a range of inter-camera angles for best use of either stereo-vision or simulcast coding is determined.