Color compression method increases 3D splat image quality by over 2 db

Transforming harmonic coefficients for 3D splat compression

Computer Vision and Pattern RecognitionGraphics

Summary

The paper tackles how to compress color information in 3D splat images, which are images formed by projecting colored points in 3D space. The researchers found a new mathematical way to represent all these images using certain harmonic functions combined with color channels and spots (called splats). They figured out how to measure errors in this representation so that compression can focus on what matters most. By changing the color coefficients into a special orthonormal form before compressing, they improved image quality by more than 2 decibels.

What this means in practice

Authors

Tam Thuc Do, Philip A. Chou, Gene Cheung

Abstract

We address the problem of color attribute compression for 3D splats. We show that all images generated by 3D splats are linear in the coefficients for each color channel, each spherical harmonic, and each splat, and we identify a basis for the space of all such images. We identify an inner product for the coefficient space that induces the squared error loss on images. We show that orthonormalizing the coefficients with respect to this innner product before coding can yield over 2 dB gain.