Optimal Stopping Theory-Enabled VVC Intra Prediction with Texture

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) introduces the new quad-tree with a nested multi-type tree (QTMT) block division structure, which increases the flexibility of block division, the more complex block division structure increases the coding complexity of VVC by nearly 26 times compared with High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Therefore, it is urgent to reduce the coding complexity of VVC. In this paper, we propose a fast CU division method based on optimal stopping theory and block texture decision. Firstly, by analyzing the division depth of the Coding Tree Unit (CTU) at the same position as neighboring frames, we use the optimal stopping theory to determine the optimal division layer of the current CTU, to terminate the division process in advance. Then, by judging the texture direction of the current Coding Unit (CU), the calculation of several CU division methods is selected to be skipped, thus reducing the computational effort of coding. The experimental results show that the coding time of this scheme is reduced by 45.65% on average, while the BDBR only increases by 1.64%.