Region-Based Predictors for Intra Block Copy

Intra block copy is a prediction technique in intra coding, which has high compression performance for screen content or computer generated videos. Accordingly, this tool has become part of the upcoming video coding standard H.266/VVC (Versatile Video Coding). Intra block copy is analogous to motion-compensated prediction for the usual inter-picture case with the additional constraint that the reference picture is given by the current partially reconstructed picture. Moreover, the entropy coding of the displacement information of the reference block is carried out in the same way as in inter-picture motion compensation. This publication proposes a set of region-based predictors to improve the current intra block copy approach. The proposed method achieves up to -3.81% of Bjontegaard-Delta bit-rate saving on top of the existing intra block copy for an all-intra picture configuration.