Patent ID: 8654843

Claim:
A method of coding a plurality of digital image signals in a bitstream, the signals each corresponding to a view of a scene, wherein the coding method uses a pre-determined predictive coding structure that defines hierarchized coding dependencies between input views, and the views of the scene are associated with input views in the predictive coding structure, the method comprising the steps of: determining, for at least one pair of views of the scene, a spatial intersection zone between photographic volumes corresponding to each view which is more than a single point between the views of the at least one pair; calculating a value representing the similarity on the spatial intersection zone between the signals corresponding to the views of the at least one pair from at least some of the signals contained in the spatial intersection zone; and associating at least one of the views of the at least one pair with an input view of the predictive coding structure according to at least one calculated similarity value, so as to define hierarchized coding dependencies between the views of the at least one pair for encoding them.