Perceptual Based Fast CU Partition Algorithm for VVC Intra Coding

The introduction of quad-tree with nested multi-type tree (QTMT) brings a significant reduction in bitrate to Versatile Video Coding (VVC) because QTMT enables a more flexible coding unit (CU) partition based on image content. However, the extensive rate distortion optimization (RDO) process induces a massive increase in encoding time. To mitigate this burden, a perceptual-based fast CU partition algorithm for VVC intra coding is proposed in this paper. The just noticeable difference model (JND) is adopted to simulate the human visual system, and JND variance is employed for early partition termination and division mode selection by reflecting the perceptual texture consistency. Experimental results on VTM17.0 show that the proposed method can achieve 31.13% time complexity reduction, with 1.32% Bjontegaard delta bit rate (BDBR) increase.