IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20130195347A1
• Filed: 01/18/2013
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Okada, Shintaro, Nagano, Takahiro, Hosokawa, Kenichiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,317,957 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• 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 13/128 Adjusting depth or disparity

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a modifying unit configured to modify depth information representing depths in individual pixels of an image in accordance with content included in the image, thereby generating modified depth information, and an enhancing unit configured to perform a stereoscopic effect enhancement process of enhancing a stereoscopic effect of the image by using the modified depth information generated by the modifying unit.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a modifying unit configured to modify depth information representing depths in individual pixels of an image in accordance with content included in the image, thereby generating modified depth information; and

an enhancing unit configured to perform a stereoscopic effect enhancement process of enhancing a stereoscopic effect of the image by using the modified depth information generated by the modifying unit.

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

a determining unit configured to determine the content included in the image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determining unit determines a type of scene of the image, and

wherein the modifying unit modifies the depth information in accordance with the type of scene determined by the determining unit.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the modifying unit modifies the depth information by combining the depth information and subsidiary depth information which is predefined for each type of scene.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determining unit determines a face region of a person in the image, and

wherein the modifying unit modifies a depth of the face region determined by the determining unit.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determining unit determines a region forming a target object in the image, and

wherein the modifying unit modifies a depth of the region forming the target object determined by the determining unit.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the determining unit determines an edge and texture in the image, and

wherein the modifying unit modifies a depth of a region forming the edge or a region forming the texture determined by the determining unit.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the enhancing unit enhances the stereoscopic effect of the image by using a visual characteristic related to an atmospheric perspective method.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein the enhancing unit enhances the stereoscopic effect of the image so that at least one of parameters including contrast, sharpness, brightness, saturation, and resolution increases for a pixel having a smaller depth represented by the modified depth information.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein the enhancing unit enhances the stereoscopic effect of the image so that at least one of parameters including contrast, sharpness, brightness, saturation, and resolution decreases for a pixel having a larger depth represented by the modified depth information.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein the enhancing unit enhances the stereoscopic effect of the image by performing filtering on the image by using a filter coefficient which is determined in accordance with a depth in a preliminary learning process.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein the enhancing unit classifies each pixel into one of a plurality of classes in accordance with a pixel value and a depth represented by the modified depth information, and performs filtering on a filter tap including the pixel and surrounding pixels by using the filter coefficient which is determined for each class in the learning process.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 12,

wherein the filter coefficient is determined for each class in the learning process which is performed by using a plurality of sets, each of the sets including a student image and a teacher image corresponding to the student image, the teacher image having a stereoscopic effect enhanced by using the atmospheric perspective method.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the image corresponds to one or both of a right-eye image and a left-eye image constituting a stereoscopic image, and

wherein the image processing apparatus reproduces the stereoscopic image by causing a display device to display the right-eye image and the left-eye image which include the image having a stereoscopic effect enhanced by the enhancing unit.

15. An image processing method comprising:

modifying depth information representing depths in individual pixels of an image in accordance with content included in the image, thereby generating modified depth information; and

performing a stereoscopic effect enhancement process of enhancing a stereoscopic effect of the image by using the modified depth information.

16. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an image obtaining unit configured to obtain a target image to be processed;

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the target image to another image processing apparatus which obtains depth information representing depths in individual pixels of an image, determines content included in the image, modifies the depth information in accordance with a determination result about the content to generate modified depth information, and performs a stereoscopic effect enhancement process of enhancing a stereoscopic effect of the image by using the modified depth information; and

a receiving unit configured to receive, from the other image processing apparatus, the target image having a stereoscopic effect enhanced by the other image processing apparatus.

17. An image processing method comprising:

obtaining a target image to be processed;

transmitting the target image to an image processing apparatus which obtains depth information representing depths in individual pixels of an image, determines content included in the image, modifies the depth information in accordance with a determination result about the content to generate modified depth information, and performs a stereoscopic effect enhancement process of enhancing a stereoscopic effect of the image by using the modified depth information; and

receiving, from the image processing apparatus, the target image having a stereoscopic effect enhanced by the image processing apparatus.