3D geometry representation using multiview coding of image tiles

Compression of dynamic 3D geometry obtained from depth sensors is challenging, because noise and temporal inconsis-tency inherent in acquisition of depth data means there is no one-to-one correspondence between sets of 3D points in con-secutive time instants. In this paper, instead of coding 3D points (or meshes) directly, we propose to represent an ob-ject’s 3D geometry as a collection of tile images. Specifically, we first place a set of image tiles around an object. Then, we project the object’s 3D geometry onto the tiles that are inter-preted as 2D depth images, which we subsequently encode using a modified multiview image codec tuned for piecewise smooth signals. The crux of the tile image framework is the “optimal ” placement of image tiles—one that yields the best tradeoff in rate and distortion. We show that if only planar and cylindrical tiles are considered, then the optimal place-ment problem fo