We propose an efficient coding scheme for a dense light field, i.e.,
a set of multi-viewpoint images taken with very small viewpoint intervals.
The key idea behind our proposal is that a light field is represented
only using weighted binary images, where several binary
images and corresponding weight values are to be chosen to optimally
approximate the light field. The coding scheme derived from
this idea is completely different from those of modern image/video
coding standards. However, we found that our scheme can achieve
comparable coding efficiency (rate-distortion performance) to that of
modern highly-sophisticated video codecs. Moreover, the decoding
process of our scheme is extremely simple, which will lead to a faster
and less power-hungry decoder than those of the modern codecs.
Furthermore, our scheme can be made scalable, where the accuracy
of the decoded light field is improved in a progressive manner as we
use more encoded information. Thanks to the divide-and-conquer
strategy adopted for the scalable coding, we can also drastically reduce
the computational complexity of the encoding process.