Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding multi-view image

A method of decoding a multi-view image, the method comprising:

• extracting compression data and a user-defined information message from a bitstream;
• decoding a multi-view image from the compression data, and extracting enabled stereo pair information from the user-defined information message;
• and
• selecting a view image corresponding to the extracted enabled stereo view pair, and decoding the selected stereo views.

A method of displaying a multi-view image, the method comprising:

• determining whether a display mode is a stereo view display mode;
• extracting a user-defined message from a received bitstream if the display mode is the stereo view mode;
• detecting information on a pair-set that enables stereo pairs from the user-defined message;
• setting a stereo image from the information on the pair-set that enables stereo pairs;
• and
• decoding the stereo image of the pair-set according to a multi-view decoding algorithm, and displaying the decoded stereo view.

A method of encoding and decoding a multi-view image, the method comprising:

• compressing a multi-view image based on a reference image relative to multiple views;
• generating enabled stereo pair information in relation to the multi-view images;
• generating a bitstream by encoding the compressed multi-view image and the enabled stereo pair information;
• extracting compression data and a user-defined information message from the bitstream;
• decoding the multi-view image from the compression data, and extracting the enabled stereo pair information from the user-defined information message;
• and
• selecting a view image corresponding to the extracted enabled stereo pair information, and displaying the selected view image.

An apparatus for encoding a multi-view image, the apparatus comprising:

• a signal encoder unit which compresses a multi-view image by using a multi-view compression algorithm, and encodes the compressed multi-view image signal;
• a supplemental enhancement information (SEI) message generation unit which generates enabled stereo pair information of the multi-view image, and generates syntax of an SEI message which describes the enabled stereo pair information;
• and
• a bitstream generation unit which generates a bitstream using the multi-view image encoded in the signal encoder unit and the enabled stereo pair information generated in the SEI message generation unit.

An apparatus for decoding a multi-view image, the apparatus comprising:

• a bitstream interpretation unit which separates a network abstraction layer (NAL)header part and a data part from a bitstream;
• a supplemental enhancement information (SEI) extraction unit which extracts an SEI message from the NAL header part separated by the bitstream interpretation unit;
• a signal decoder unit which decodes a multi-view image signal related to a selected view, by using a multi-view signal decoding method;
• and
• a control unit which detects enabled stereo pair information in relation to multi-view images from the SEI message extracted by the SEI extraction unit, and provides a view selection signal which corresponds to the stereo pair information to the signal decoder unit.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program for executing a method of encoding a multi-view image, wherein the method comprises:

• compressing a multi-view image based on a reference image relative to multiple views;
• generating enabled stereo pair information in relation to the multi-view image;
• and
• generating a bitstream by encoding the compressed multi-view image and the enabled stereo pair information.