Critical Alignment of Parallax Images for Autostereoscopic Display

• US 20120176479A1
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vision III Imaging, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Vision III Imaging, Inc.
• Inventors: Mayhew, Christopher Alan, Martin, Michael Burgess
• Granted Patent: US 8,953,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/47
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/27 involving lenticular arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/122 Improving the 3D impression of stereoscopic images by modifying image signal contents, e.g. by filtering or adding monoscopic depth cues H04N13/128 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/133 Equalising the characteristics of different image components, e.g. their average brightness or colour balance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/139 Format conversion, e.g. of frame-rate or size
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/20 Image signal generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/261 with monoscopic-to-stereoscopic image conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/271 wherein the generated image signals comprise depth maps or disparity maps
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/282 for generating image signals corresponding to three or more geometrical viewpoints, e.g. multi-view systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/296 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/302 for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/327 Calibration thereof

Abstract

A method is provided for generating an autostereoscopic display. The method includes acquiring a first parallax image and at least one other parallax image. At least a portion of the first parallax image may be aligned with a corresponding portion of the at least one other parallax image. Alternating views of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image may be displayed.

Claims

1. A method of generating an autostereoscopic display, including:

acquiring a first parallax image and at least one other parallax image;

aligning at least a portion of the first parallax image with a corresponding portion of the at least one other parallax image; and

displaying alternating views of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the aligning step is performed during a time period over which the displaying step is also performed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the aligning step includes applying a transformation to at least one of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image, the transformation including at least one of translation, rotation, and scaling.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the transformation is performed with sub-pixel resolution.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing alignment parameters associated with at least one of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image, and applying the alignment parameters to the at least one of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step includes displaying alternating views of the first parallax image and the at least one other parallax image in a randomly selected order.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternating views are displayed on at least one of a computer monitor, a television, a projection screen, and a moving image display.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parallax image and the at least one other image were captured by two different cameras viewing a common scene.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parallax image and the at least one other image were captured from a video image stream.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parallax image and the at least one other image were captured using a single camera whose position was moved between capturing the first parallax image and the at least one other image.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parallax image and the at least one other image were generated by a computer.

12. A system for generating a set of aligned parallax images, comprising:

a computer; and

an application running on the computer, the application configured to display alternating views of two or more parallax images at a desired viewing rate and manipulate the two or more parallax images such that at least a portion of a first one of the parallax images is aligned with at least a portion of a second one of the parallax images.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to apply a set of transformations to at least one of the two or more parallax images.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of transformations includes at least one of translation, rotation, and scaling.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to accept an input from an operator designating one of the two or more parallax images as a reference image and to accept transformation parameters from the operator that affect the manipulation of the two or more parallax images.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to accept inputs from an operator identifying convergence points in the two or more parallax images and to calculate transformation parameters for performing the manipulation of the two or more parallax images.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to perform pattern matching to determine whether any significant rotational disparities exist among the two or more parallax images, a degree of the rotational disparities, a point of rotation, and rotational translations needed to correct for the rotational disparities.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to measure an amount of apparent shift associated with a point appearing in each of the two or more parallax images and to calculate a quantitative position value for the point.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to compute a depth map for objects appearing in the at least two parallax images.

20. A method of generating an autostereoscopic display, including:

capturing a first image at a first point of view with an image capture device;

using the image capture device to capture at least one other image from a second point of view different from the first point of view;

displaying alternating views of the first image and the at least one other image at a desired viewing rate; and

generating a set of aligned images by manipulating at least one of the first image and the at least one other image such that at least a portion of the first image is aligned with at least a portion of the at least one other image.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the image capture device is a video camera.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the desired viewing rate is between about 3 Hz and about 6 Hz.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising storing the set of aligned images and replaying alternating views of the aligned images in a video format.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising storing alignment parameters associated with one or more images in the set of aligned images, and applying the alignment parameters to related versions of the one or more images.