Method And Apparatus For Downscaling Depth Data For View Plus Depth Data Compression

A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for compression of a 2D-plus-depth representation based on spatial downsampling of an initial depth map. By utilizing the color image accompanying the initial depth map, it is possible to infer structural information that refines and reconstructs the initial depth map out of a heavily subsampled version of the depth map. In the process, no indexing of the exact positions of the subsampled depth values is needed, which leads to very efficient compression. An example method causes segmentation of the color image into a set of super-pixel segments, and causes downsampling of the initial depth map based on the set of super-pixel segments. The method subsequently causes generation and storage of a compressed representation based on the segmented color image and the downsampled depth map. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.