Apparatus and method for providing three dimensional media content

• US 9,153,018 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tian, Chao, Vaishampayan, Vinay Anant, Zhang, Yifu
• Primary Examiner(s): Carter, Aaron W
• Application Number:
  US14/609,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20150138195A1
• Time in Patent Office: 249 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10012 Stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10028 Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/77 Retouching; Inpainting; Scratch removal
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/50 Depth or shape recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/128 Adjusting depth or disparity
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/204 using stereoscopic image cameras stereoscopic photography G03B35/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/246 Calibration of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/271 wherein the generated image signals comprise depth maps or disparity maps
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/00 Diagnosis, testing or measuring for television systems or their details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0081 Depth or disparity estimation from stereoscopic image signals

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, means for generating a disparity map based on a depth map, means for determining accuracy of pixels in the depth map where the determining means identifies the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate based on a confidence map and the disparity map, and means for providing an adjusted depth map where the providing means adjusts inaccurate pixels of the depth map using a cost function associated with the inaccurate pixels. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A machine-readable storage device, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining an accuracy of pixels in a depth map by identifying pixels as either accurate or inaccurate based on a confidence map and a disparity map;

adjusting the depth map by adjusting pixels identified as inaccurate pixels in the depth map to generate an adjusted depth map; and

generating media content according to images captured by a camera and the adjusted depth map.

2. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a media processor.

3. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the inaccurate pixels are identified by measuring a disparity variance for a pre-determined region surrounding each pixel of a disparity map generated from the depth map.

4. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the depth map is captured by a range camera.

5. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a graph-cut analysis.

6. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a belief-propagation analysis.

7. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a cost function.

8. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating the depth map by measuring parameters associated with infrared light to obtain range data associated with an object in the images captured by the camera.

9. The machine-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise providing the media content for presentation at a display device.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, images captured by a camera;

determining, by the processor, an accuracy of pixels in a depth map by identifying pixels as either accurate or inaccurate according to a confidence map and a disparity map;

adjusting, by the processor, the depth map by adjusting pixels identified as inaccurate pixels in the depth map to generate an adjusted depth map; and

generating, by the processor, media content according to the images and the adjusted depth map.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising presenting the media content at a display device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises determining inaccurate pixels by measuring a disparity variance for a pre-determined region surrounding each pixel of the disparity map generated from the depth map.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the depth map is captured by a range camera.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a graph-cut analysis.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a belief-propagation analysis.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the inaccurate pixels in the depth map are adjusted according to a cost function.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating the depth map by measuring parameters associated with infrared light to obtain range data associated with an object in the images captured by the camera.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein homographic warping approximation is used for calibration of the media content.

19. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining an accuracy of pixels in a depth map by identifying pixels as either accurate or inaccurate according to a confidence map and a disparity map; and

adjusting the depth map by adjusting pixels identified as inaccurate pixels in the depth map to generate an adjusted depth map.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving images captured by a camera; and

generating media content based on the images and the adjusted depth map.