Digital 3D/stereoscopic video compression technique utilizing two disparity estimates

• US 5,612,735 A
• Filed: 05/26/1995
• Issued: 03/18/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. /Enterprise Professional Serv Ops/ (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Kollarits, Richard V., Puri, Atul, Haskell, Barin G.
• Primary Examiner(s): AU, AMELIA MEGAN
• Application Number:
  US08/452,464
• Time in Patent Office: 662 Days
• Field of Search: 348/42, 348/43, 348/48, 348/46, 348/47, 348/384, 348/390, 348/401, 348/409, 348/412, 348/415, 348/416
• US Class Current: 348/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/161 Encoding, multiplexing or demultiplexing different image signal components for multi-view video sequence encoding H04N19/597
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/239 using two 2D image sensors having a relative position equal to or related to the interocular distance H04N13/243 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/302 for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/337 using polarisation multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/341 using temporal multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/349 Multi-view displays for displaying three or more geometrical viewpoints without viewer tracking for viewing without the aid of special glasses using fly-eye lenses H04N13/307
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/363 using image projection screens volumetric display H04N13/388
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0081 Depth or disparity estimation from stereoscopic image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0085 Motion estimation from stereoscopic image signals

Abstract

Efficient digital compression of 3D/stereoscopic video is achieved by a novel technique in which various views forming 3D/stereoscopic video are coded by utilizing the redundancies among the views. Coding is performed in a manner compatible with existing equipment to allowing decoding of one layer of video for display on normal (i.e., monoscopic) displays. The motion compensated discrete cosine transform ("DCT") coding framework of existing standards such as the Motion Pictures Expert Group-Phase 2 ("MPEG-2") video standard is exploited, and when necessary extended, to result in highly efficient, yet practical, coding schemes. In constrast with known techniques of encoding the two views forming stereoscopic video which rely on the use of a disparity estimate between the two views (where one of the views is the reference, coded by itself and the other is disparity compensated predicted and coded with respect to the reference view), the present techniques utilize two disparity estimates: one disparity estimate which allows forward prediction and other disparity estimate allowing backward prediction with respect to the reference view.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a three-dimensional stereoscopic video signal, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first digital video signal representative of a first succession of frames containing left views of a scene, said first succession of frames including a left current frame a left forward frame, and a left backward frame;

receiving a second digital video signal representative of a second succession of frames containing right views of a scene, said second succession of frames including a right current frame, a right forward frame, and a right backward frame;

selecting a current frame from either said first or second succession of frames as a reference frame;

producing a first disparity estimate signal representing a prediction between said reference frame and either said left or said right forward frame;

producing a second disparity estimate signal representing a prediction between said reference frame and either said left or said right backward frame;

employing said first and said second disparity estimate signals to encode said first and said second video signals to produce an encoded three-dimensional stereoscopic video signal.