APPARATUS, A METHOD AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR VIDEO CODING AND DECODING

1 . A method comprising:

obtaining depth related information of a part of a picture;

receiving texture related information of the part of the picture; and

using the depth related information to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

2 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the texture related information of the part of the picture is a texture block comprising texture pixels and the depth related information of the part of the picture is a depth block comprising depth pixels, and wherein the depth block co-locates with the texture block

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the part of the picture comprises two or more texture blocks and two or more co-locating depth blocks, the method further comprising coding texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks do not contain a depth boundary before or after texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks contain a boundary.

4 . The method according to claim 2 comprising marking texture blocks whose co-locating depth block does not contain a depth boundary not available for intra prediction for texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks comprise a depth boundary or marking texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks comprise a depth boundary not available for intra prediction for texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks do not comprise a depth boundary.

5 . The method according to claim 2 comprising using the depth related information for a texture block partitioning.

6 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the size of texture block partitions whose co-locating depth pixels do not comprise a depth boundary is made as large as possible among a set of allowed block partitions.

7 . The method according to claim 6 comprising using a block partitioning of the depth block as the block partitioning for the respective or co-located texture block.

8 . The method according to claim 1 comprising comparing the depth block to a neighboring depth block, and determining an intra prediction mode of the texture block on the basis of the comparison.

9 . The method according to claim 1 comprising using the depth related information to determine whether there exist one or more texture pixels available for intra prediction.

10 . An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

obtain depth related information of a part of a picture;

receive texture related information of the part of the picture; and

use the depth related information to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

11 . The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the texture related information of the part of the picture is a texture block comprising texture pixels and the depth related information of the part of the picture is a depth block comprising depth pixels, and wherein the depth block co-locates with the texture block, wherein said at least one memory stored with code thereon, which when executed by said at least one processor, further causes the apparatus to use the depth related information to detect whether the depth block comprises a depth boundary.

12 . The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the part of the picture comprises two or more texture blocks and two or more co-locating depth blocks, said at least one memory stored with code thereon, which when executed by said at least one processor, further causes the apparatus to code texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks do not contain a depth boundary before or after texture blocks whose co-locating depth blocks contain a boundary.

13 . A computer program product including one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform the following:

obtain depth related information of a part of a picture;

receive texture related information of the part of the picture; and

use the depth related information to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

14 . An apparatus comprising:

means for obtaining depth related information of a part of a picture;

means for receiving texture related information of the part of the picture; and

means for using the depth related information to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

15 . A method comprising:

receiving encoded depth related information of a part of a picture;

receiving encoded texture related information of the part of the picture; and

using the depth related information in decoding the texture related information to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

16 . The method according to claim 15 wherein the encoded texture related information of the part of the picture is a texture block comprising texture pixels and the encoded depth related information of the part of the picture is a depth block comprising depth pixels, and wherein the depth block co-locates with the texture block.

17 . The method according to claim 16 comprising using the depth related information for determining a texture block partitioning of the encoded texture information.

18 . An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

receive encoded depth related information of a part of a picture;

receive encoded texture related information of the part of the picture; and

use the depth related information in decoding to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

19 . A computer program product including one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform the following:

receive encoded depth related information of a part of a picture;

receive encoded texture related information of the part of the picture; and

use the depth related information in decoding to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.

20 . An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving encoded depth related information of a part of a picture;

means for receiving encoded texture related information of the part of the picture; and

means for using the depth related information in decoding to determine whether to use the depth related information in intra prediction of the texture related information of the part of the picture.