Method and apparatus of video compression for pre-stitched panoramic contents

An apparatus for video encoding of pre-stitched pictures for a video encoding system, wherein each pre-stitched picture is formed from at least two images captured by a plurality of cameras of a panoramic video capture device, and wherein two neighboring images captured by two neighboring cameras include at least an overlapped image area, the apparatus comprising one or more electronic circuits or processors arranged to:

• receive panoramic video source data comprising a current block in a current pre-stitched picture;
• receive stitching information associated with a stitching process to form the pre-stitched pictures, wherein the stitching information comprises calibration data, matching results, seam position, blending level, sensor data, or a combination thereof, wherein the stitching information corresponds to seam information associated with seam detection, and seam-based Inter prediction is used to encode the current block by utilizing the seam information;
• and
• encode the current block utilizing the stitching information associated with the stitching process.

A method of video decoding of pre-stitched pictures for a video decoding system, wherein each pre-stitched picture is formed from at least two images captured by a plurality of cameras of a panoramic video capture device, and wherein two neighboring images captured by two neighboring cameras include at least an overlapped image area, the method comprising:

• receiving compressed data comprising a coded current block for a current block in a current pre-stitched picture;
• parsing coding parameters, wherein at least one coding parameter is related to a stitching information associated with a stitching process to form the pre-stitched pictures, and wherein the stitching information comprises calibration data, matching results, seam position, blending level, sensor data, or a combination thereof, wherein the stitching information corresponds to seam information associated with seam detection, and seam-based Inter prediction is used to decode the current block by utilizing the seam information;
• and
• decoding the current block utilizing the stitching information associated with the stitching process.

An apparatus for video decoding of pre-stitched pictures for a video decoding system, wherein each pre-stitched picture is formed from at least two images captured by a plurality of cameras of a panoramic video capture device, and wherein two neighboring images captured by two neighboring cameras include at least an overlapped image area, the apparatus comprising one or more electronic circuits or processors arranged to:

• receive compressed data comprising a coded current block for a current block in a current pre-stitched picture;
• parse coding parameters, wherein at least one coding parameter is related to a stitching information associated with a stitching process to form the pre-stitched pictures, and wherein the stitching information comprises calibration data, matching results, seam position, blending level, sensor data, or a combination thereof, wherein the stitching information corresponds to seam information associated with seam detection, and seam-based Inter prediction is used to decode the current block by utilizing the seam information;
• and
• decode the current block utilizing the stitching information associated with the stitching process.