Interestingness of stereoscopic images

摘要

The added value of stereoscopy is an important factor for stereoscopic product development and content production. Previous studies have shown that 'image quality' does not encompass the added value of stereoscopy, and thus the attributes naturalness and viewing experience have been used to evaluate stereoscopic content. The objective of this study was to explore what the added value of stereoscopy may consist of and what are the content properties that contribute to the magnitude of the added value. The hypothesis was that interestingness is a significant component of the added value. A subjective study was conducted where the participants evaluated three attributes of the stimuli in the consumer photography domain: viewing experience, naturalness of depth and interestingness. In addition to the no-reference direct scaling method a novel method, the recalled attention map, was introduced and used to study attention in stereoscopic images. In the second part of our study, we use eye tracking to compare the salient regions in monoscopic and stereoscopic conditions. We conclude from the subjective results that viewing experience and naturalness of depth do not cover the entire added value of stereoscopy, and that interestingness brings a new dimension into the added value research. The eye tracking data analysis revealed that the fixation maps are more consistent between participants in stereoscopic viewing than in monoscopic viewing and from this we conclude that stereoscopic imagery is more effective in directing the viewer's attention.