Efficient MRF-based disocclusion inpainting in multiview video
View synthesis using depth image-based rendering generates virtual viewpoints of a 3D scene based on texture and depth information from a set of available cameras. One of the core components in view synthesis is image inpainting which performs the reconstruction of areas that were occluded in the available cameras but are visible from the virtual viewpoint. Inpainting methods based on Markov random fields (MRFs) have been shown to be very effective in inpainting large areas in images. In this paper, we propose a novel MRF-based in-painting method for multiview video. The proposed method steers the MRF optimization towards completion from background to foreground and exploits the available depth information in order to avoid bleeding artifacts. The proposed approach allows for efficiently filling-in large disocclusion areas and greatly accelerates execution compared to traditional MRF-based inpainting techniques. The experimental results show that view synthesis based on the proposed inpainting method systematically improves performance over the state-of-the-art in multiview view synthesis. Average PSNR gains up to 1.88 dB compared to the MPEG View Synthesis Reference software were observed.