Patent ID: 8884953

Claim:
A method for encoding a 3D mesh model composed of triangles, the method being executed by one or more processors or processing elements and comprising determining pairs of triangles, each pair being a reference triangle and a triangle to be predicted, wherein both triangles have a common side along a first axis; for each of said pairs of triangles, determining a dihedral angle between the reference triangle and the triangle to be predicted; analyzing for the 3D mesh model the dihedral angles of the pairs of triangles and, based on said analyzing, defining a plurality of ranges of dihedral angles, wherein a plurality of said dihedral angles are within each of the ranges of dihedral angles, and wherein each dihedral angle obtained from said analyzing the 3D mesh model is within not more than one of said ranges of dihedral angles; defining for said ranges a plurality of representative dihedral angles, wherein for each range of dihedral angles a representative dihedral angle is defined; if a dihedral angle between a reference triangle and a corresponding triangle to be predicted is within a first range from one of said ranges of dihedral angles, predicting said triangle to be predicted based on an enhanced prediction triangle, wherein the dihedral angle between the reference triangle and the enhanced prediction triangle is the representative dihedral angle of the first range; calculating a residual between said triangle to be predicted and said enhanced prediction triangle, wherein the residual represents a measure of a difference between said triangle to be predicted and said enhanced prediction triangle; and encoding said residual between said triangle to be predicted and said enhanced prediction triangle, wherein an indication associated with the encoded residual indicates that the encoded residual refers to said representative dihedral angle, and wherein said indication indicates for each residual also a representative dihedral angle to which the residual refers.