Three-dimensional TV: A novel method for generatingsurrogate depth maps using colour information

摘要

The ability to convert 2D video material to 3D would be extremely valuable for the 3D-TV industry. Suchconversion might be achieved using depth maps extracted from the original 2D content. We previouslydemonstrated that surrogate depth maps with limited or imprecise depth information could be used to produceeffective stereoscopic images. In the current study, we investigated whether gray intensity images associatedwith the Cr colour component of standard 2D-colour video sequences could be used effectively as surrogatedepth maps. Colour component-based depth maps were extracted from ten video sequences and used to renderimages for the right-eye view. These were then combined with the original images for the left-eye view to formten stereoscopic test sequences. A panel of viewers assessed the depth quality and the visual comfort of thesynthesized test sequences and, for comparison, of monoscopic and camera-captured stereoscopic versions ofthe same sequences. The data showed that the ratings of depth quality for the synthesized test sequences werehigher than those of the monoscopic versions, but lower than those of the camera-captured stereoscopicversions. For visual comfort, ratings were lower for the synthesized than for the monoscopic sequences buteither equal to or higher than those of the camera-captured versions.