The scalable extension of the high efficiency video coding standard (SHVC) combines the large compression efficiency and high visual quality of HEVC, with the possibility of encoding different versions of the same video in a single bitstream. However, this comes at the cost of high computational complexity. In this context, many research works aim to reduce this complexity for texture images. We aim at achieving the same objective, but for depth maps whose characteristics make them different from conventional texture images. Depth maps are indeed characterized by areas of smoothly varying grey levels separated by sharp discontinuities at object boundaries. Preserving these discontinuities is crucial to enable high quality of synthesized views at the receiver side. In this paper, we propose a fast depth maps encoding scheme for quality scalable HEVC while exploiting depth maps characteristics, SHVC Coding Unit (CU) depth information and the correlation between the Base Layer (BL) and the Enhancement Layers (ELs) of SHVC. If a CU corresponds to a depth smooth region, we maintain the same best coding depth of its co-located in the BL. If a CU is a sharp region, the best coding depth is computed in the same way as in the original SHVC. Experiments are conducted and satisfying results are obtained as the proposed method improves the SHVC coding speed without a significant impact on the synthesized views Rate-Distortion tradeoff

高效视频编码标准（SHVC）的可扩展扩展结合了HEVC的高压缩效率和高视觉质量，并可以在单个比特流中编码同一视频的不同版本。但是，这是以高计算复杂度为代价的。在这种情况下，许多研究工作旨在降低纹理图像的这种复杂性。我们的目标是达到相同的目标，但深度图的特征使其不同于传统的纹理图像。实际上，深度图的特征在于平滑变化的灰度级区域，这些区域由对象边界处的不连续点分隔开。保留这些不连续性对于在接收器端实现高质量的合成视图至关重要。在本文中，我们提出了一种用于质量可缩放HEVC的快速深度图编码方案，同时利用了深度图特性，SHVC编码单元（CU）深度信息以及SHVC的基础层（BL）和增强层（EL）之间的相关性。如果CU对应于深度平滑区域，则我们将其与位于BL中的相同位置保持相同的最佳编码深度。如果CU是尖锐区域，则以与原始SHVC中相同的方式计算最佳编码深度。实验结果表明，所提方法提高了SHVC编码速度，对合成视点没有明显影响，但取得了令人满意的结果。如果CU对应于深度平滑区域，则我们将其与位于BL的相同位置保持相同的最佳编码深度。如果CU是尖锐区域，则以与原始SHVC中相同的方式计算最佳编码深度。实验结果表明，所提方法提高了SHVC编码速度，对合成视点没有明显影响，但取得了令人满意的结果。如果CU对应于深度平滑区域，则我们将其与位于BL的相同位置保持相同的最佳编码深度。如果CU是尖锐区域，则以与原始SHVC中相同的方式计算最佳编码深度。实验结果表明，所提方法提高了SHVC编码速度，对合成视点没有明显影响，但取得了令人满意的结果。