Apparatus, method and computer program product for three-dimensional image processing

• US 20100079578A1
• Filed: 03/16/2007
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Numazaki, Shunichi, Mihara, Isao
• Application Number:
  US11/794,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20100079578A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/302 for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof

Abstract

An apparatus for processing a three-dimensional image includes a specified value acquiring unit that acquires characteristics of a stereoscopic display unit as specified parameters, the stereoscopic display unit displaying a multi-viewpoint image created by mapping each pixel position included in a plurality of viewpoint images according to the characteristics; an observation value acquiring unit that acquires observation parameters indicating observation values of a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit; a calculating unit that calculates conversion information indicating inverse mapping of the mapping based on the specified parameters; an observation value converting unit that converts observation parameters into converted parameters of the same dimension as the viewpoint images based on the conversion information; and a control unit that controls image processing on a viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on the converted parameters.

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing a three-dimensional image, the apparatus comprising:

a specified value acquiring unit that acquires characteristics of a stereoscopic display unit as specified parameters, the stereoscopic display unit displaying a multi-viewpoint image that is created by mapping each pixel position included in a plurality of viewpoint images in accordance with the characteristics of the stereoscopic display unit;

an observation value acquiring unit that acquires observation parameters indicating observation values of a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit;

a calculating unit that calculates conversion information indicating inverse mapping of the mapping based on the specified parameters;

an observation value converting unit that converts the observation parameters into converted parameters of the same dimension as the viewpoint images based on the conversion information; and

a control unit that controls image processing on a viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on the converted parameters.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit that stores converted parameters converted by the observation value converting unit; and

a parameter acquiring unit that acquires the converted parameters stored in the storage unit, wherein

the control unit controls image processing on the viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on one of the converted parameters converted by the observation value converting unit and the converted parameters acquired by the parameter acquiring unit.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position acquiring unit that acquires observing-position information of an observer who observes the stereoscopic image, wherein

the observation value converting unit converts the observation parameters into values in response to the observing-position information based on the conversion information and the observing-position information, and converts the converted observation parameters into converted parameters of the same dimension as the viewpoint images, and

the control unit controls image processing on the viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on the converted parameters.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a condition setting unit that sets conditions of image processing for each of pixels included in each of the viewpoint images based on a control performed by the control unit; and

an image processing unit that performs image processing on each of pixels included in each of the viewpoint images based on image processing conditions set by the condition setting unit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the stereoscopic display unit includes image displaying elements for displaying the multi-viewpoint image, a color filter layer superposed on the image displaying elements, and a light control element for controlling light from the image displaying elements, and

the specified parameter acquiring unit acquires characteristics of at least one of the image displaying elements, the color filter layer, and the light control element as specified parameters.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the light control element is a lenticular sheet superposed on the image displaying elements.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the observation value acquiring unit acquires a position of a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the observation value acquiring unit acquires a distance between a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit and an outer edge of the stereoscopic display unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the position acquiring unit acquires positional relation between the stereoscopic display unit and the observer.

10. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the position acquiring unit acquires an observing direction of the observer toward the stereoscopic display unit.

11. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the position acquiring unit acquires a distance between the stereoscopic display unit and the observer.

12. A method for processing a three-dimensional image, the method comprising:

acquiring characteristics of a stereoscopic display unit as specified parameters, the stereoscopic display unit displaying a multi-viewpoint image that is created by mapping each pixel position included in a plurality of viewpoint images in accordance with the characteristics of the stereoscopic display unit;

acquiring observation parameters indicating observation values of a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit;

calculating conversion information indicating inverse mapping of the mapping based on the specified parameters;

converting the observation parameters into converted parameters of the same dimension as the viewpoint images based on the conversion information; and

controlling image processing on a viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on the converted parameters.

13. A computer program product having a computer readable medium including programmed instructions for processing a three-dimensional image, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform:

acquiring characteristics of a stereoscopic display unit as specified parameters, the stereoscopic display unit displaying a multi-viewpoint image that is created by mapping each pixel position included in a plurality of viewpoint images in accordance with the characteristics of the stereoscopic display unit;

acquiring observation parameters indicating observation values of a stereoscopic image displayed on the stereoscopic display unit;

calculating conversion information indicating inverse mapping of the mapping based on the specified parameters;

converting observation parameters into converted parameters of the same dimension as the viewpoint images based on the conversion information; and

controlling image processing on a viewpoint image corresponding to each pixel position of the stereoscopic image with respect to each of the viewpoint images based on the converted parameters.