Conclusions and the Future of 3DTV - 3DTV: Processing and Transmission of 3D Video Signals - page 199

A significant amount of work is going on in the MPEG 3DV group to
improve the performance of 3D compression algorithms. Standardization
of a new video codec, called HEVC, will be finalized in 2012. A new 3D
extension to HEVC will be finalized in 2013 - 2014. As HEVC has a much better
performance as regards compression than H.264, its 3D extension is likely
to perform much better than MVC, which uses H.264-based compression
algorithms.
Although compression efficiency is important, the complexity of the com-
pression algorithm is also critical. The complexity will impact on the cost
of the consumer equipment required to decompress the 3D content. One
aspect that can significantly impact on the ease of implementation is how
correlation between views is exploited. Exploiting the correlation is impor-
tant to improve the compression efficiency. However, creating dependencies
between viewpoints also limits opportunities for compressing and decom-
pressing the multiple views in parallel. This is becoming an important issue,
as many real-world systems are increasingly exploiting parallel processing
opportunities. Multi-core processing is widely seen as an important factor in
improving processing speeds.
7.2.5 LookingFurtherAhead
Of all of the many challenges that must be solved to maintain the popularity
of 3DTV, the display technology is probably the most vital. The display
technology has a major impact on the end users. Although some of the
more exotic technologies (e.g. light-field and holographic displays) are not
yet ready for mainstream use, they may prove to be an indication of
what might be seen in people's homes in the longer term. Displays that
produce an image that has real physical depth are important in removing the
accommodation-convergence visual discomfort issue. They can also provide
a real 3D experience without glasses or sweet spots.
Aside from the technological challenges involved in developing the dis-
plays, there are probably two further major challenges that must be overcome
to support these displays: content creation, and display aesthetics. The last
problem might sound trivial, but the appearance of devices plays an impor-
tant role in their uptake. Displays that produce light with physical depth
usually require a box with physical depth. Producing an aesthetically pleas-
ing flat panel version would be very challenging. The issue of content
creation cannot be dismissed, from a technical point of view (large numbers
of views are required), or from an artistic point of view. Content creators
are currently used to producing visual content where they control precisely
what the viewer sees. Allowing movie viewers to move around a scene will
require rethinking how to present the story.