Vertical surround parallax correction

• US 20070236560A1
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RealD Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Real D
• Inventors: Lipton, Lenny, Akka, Bob
• Granted Patent: US 7,679,641 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/10 Processing, recording or transmission of stereoscopic or multi-view image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/144 for flicker reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/002 Eyestrain reduction by processing stereoscopic signals or controlling stereoscopic devices

Abstract

Three general designs for reducing parallax in a moving picture are disclosed. One design comprises stretching graphics content near the left and right frame edges of stereo pair elements in order to modify parallax settings. A second design comprises identifying a plurality of substantially corresponding points in a left eye view and right eye view and bringing the plurality of substantially corresponding points closer together using a morph technique. The third design entails fading a portion of a right eye view with a portion of a left eye view near or proximate an edge of the image.

Claims

1. A method for providing enhanced image viewing for a left frame and a right frame of a stereo pair, the left frame comprising left frame content and the right frame comprising right frame content, comprising:

proximate one edge of the image pair, shifting left eye content laterally relative to right eye content;

wherein said lateral shifting tends to shift negative parallax elements toward positive parallax.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shifting comprises:

selecting a leftmost region of the left frame of the stereo pair and horizontally stretching the leftmost region horizontally leftward; and

selecting a rightmost region of the right frame of the stereo pair and horizontally stretching the rightmost region horizontally rightward.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

clipping that portion of the horizontally stretched leftmost region that is stretched beyond an edge of the left frame after stretching the leftmost region; and

clipping that portion of the horizontally stretched rightmost region that is stretched beyond an edge of the right frame after stretching the rightmost region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein horizontally stretching the leftmost region and horizontally stretching the rightmost region comprises linearly varying the leftmost and rightmost region from an inner edge of each region.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein horizontally stretching the leftmost region and horizontally stretching the rightmost region comprises one from a group comprising:

horizontal image compression;

squashing; and

inverse stretching.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein horizontally stretching the leftmost region and horizontally stretching the rightmost region comprises linearly varying the leftmost and rightmost region from an inner edge of each region in combination with at least one from a group comprising:

horizontal image compression;

squashing; and

inverse stretching.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein the morphing is nonlinear and more morphing occurs toward at least one edge of the left eye view and the right eye view than away from at least one edge of the left eye view and the right eye view.

7. A method of providing enhanced image viewing of a right eye view and a left eye view of a stereo pair, comprising:

identifying a plurality of substantially corresponding points in the left eye view and the right eye view;

bringing the plurality of substantially corresponding points together by morphing the left eye view and the right eye view together proximate an edge of at least one of the left eye view and the right eye view based upon the plurality of substantially corresponding points;

wherein said bringing together reduces parallax effects of the stereo pair toward zero parallax at the edge.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein morphing the left eye view and the right eye view together comprises morphing the left eye view into the right eye view.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein morphing the left eye view and the right eye view together comprises morphing the right eye view into the left eye view.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said morphing comprises morphing negative parallax scene elements in the left eye view and the right eye view.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein said identifying a plurality of substantially corresponding points comprises identifying such points within defined regions in the left eye view and the right eye view.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the defined regions comprise regions toward at least one edge of the left eye view and right eye view.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the morphing is nonlinear and less morphing is applied at an inner portion of at least one defined region than at an outer portion of the at least one defined region.

15. The method of claim 7 wherein said morphing is linear.

16. A method of providing enhanced image viewing of a right eye view and a left eye view of a stereo pair, comprising:

identifying at least one edge portion of the right eye view and at least one portion the left eye view; and

cross fading the portion of the right eye view with the portion of the left eye view, wherein said fading comprises applying an image blend process using weighted averages of corresponding pixel values in the left eye view and the right eye view.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the cross fading comprises spatially cross fade dissolving the right eye view into the left eye view.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the cross fading comprises spatially cross fade dissolving the left eye view into the right eye view.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the portion of the left eye view and the portion of the right eye view comprise corresponding edge regions in each respective view.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the fading cause parallax values in the left eye view and the right eye view of the stereo pair to gradually diminish at a measured rate and reduce negative parallax values toward zero.