PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ENCODING AND PLAYBACK OF STEREOSCOPIC VIDEO SEQUENCES

• US 20110187821A1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3DN, LLC
• Original Assignee: SENSIO Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: CARPENTIER, Pierre-Paul, ROUTHIER, Nicholas, DALLAIRE, Martin, BELZILE, Jean, THIBEAULT, Claude, MALOUIN, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,743,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/43
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/139 Format conversion, e.g. of frame-rate or size
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/144 for flicker reduction
• 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 13/167 Synchronising or controlling image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/339 using spatial multiplexing H04N13/337 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/341 using temporal multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/344 with head-mounted left-right displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0096 Synchronisation or controlling aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/002 Eyestrain reduction by processing stereoscopic signals or controlling stereoscopic devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2213/007 Aspects relating to detection of stereoscopic image format, e.g. for adaptation to the display format

Abstract

A method for decoding a compressed image stream, the image stream having a plurality of frames, each frame consisting of a merged image including pixels from a left image and pixels from a right image. The method involves the steps of receiving each merged image; changing a clock domain from the original input signal to an internal domain; for each merged image, placing at least two adjacent pixels into an input buffer and interpolating an intermediate pixel, for forming a reconstructed left frame and a reconstructed right frame according to provenance of the adjacent pixels; and reconstructing a stereoscopic image stream from the left and right image frames. The invention also teaches a system for decoding a compressed image stream.

Claims

1-15. -15. (canceled)

16. A decoder for decoding a digital image stream containing merged image frames having a plurality of spatially compressed subimage areas of pixels subsampled from different image frames wherein subsampling coordinates within said different image frames are different for said different image frames, the decoder comprising at least one processor configured to perform:

reading pixels from said subimage areas of pixels of said digital image stream; and

producing, using pixel interpolation respecting a difference in said subsampling coordinates, spatially uncompressed images representing said different image frames.

17. The decoder as claimed in claim 16, wherein said subsampling coordinates are complementary.

18. The decoder as claimed in claim 16, wherein said spatially uncompressed image frames have in one dimension a same number of pixels as said spatially compressed subimage areas, and said spatially uncompressed image frames have in an orthogonal dimension twice as many pixels as said spatially compressed subimage areas.

19. The decoder as claimed in claim 18, wherein said subimages are concatenated side-by-side.

20. The decoder as claimed in claim 17, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

21. The decoder as claimed in claim 18, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

22. The decoder as claimed in claim 19, wherein said subimages contain one left-eye image field and one right-eye image field of a stereoscopic image stream, said spatially uncompressed images representing left eye and right eye images.

23. The decoder as claimed in claim 22, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

24. The decoder as claimed in claim 16, wherein said subimages contain one left-eye image field and one right-eye image field of a stereoscopic image stream, said spatially uncompressed images representing left eye and right eye images.

25. The decoder as claimed in claim 16, wherein said decoding further comprises decoding said digital image stream to obtain said merged video frames.

26. The decoder as claimed in claim 25, wherein said decoding comprises an MPEG standard decoding of said merged video frames.

27. The decoder as claimed in claim 26, wherein said decoding comprises MPEG-2 decoding of said merged video frames.

28. A method for encoding one or more image streams into a digital stream containing merged video frames each containing spatially compressed subimages, the method comprising:

spatially compressing in a processor a plurality of frames from said streams by keeping pixels from each of said frames according to different spatial subsampling patterns to form subimages so as to have pixels sampled from different spatial coordinates; and

arranging in a processor said subimages to form merged video frames.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28, wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are complementary.

30. The method as claimed in claim 29, wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are checkerboard mosaics.

31. The method as claimed in claim 28, wherein said subimages are 2 in number.

32. The method as claimed in claim 31, wherein said subimages are concatenated side-by-side.

35. The method as claimed in claim 28, further comprising:

encoding in a processor said merged video frames.

36. The method as claimed in claim 35, wherein said encoding comprises an MPEG-standard encoding.

37. The method as claimed in claim 35, wherein said encoding comprises MPEG-2 encoding of said merged video frames.

33. The method as claimed 31, wherein said subimages represent left-eye and right eye images of a stereoscopic image stream.

34. The method as claimed 31, wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are checkerboard mosaics, and said subimages represent left-eye and right eye images of a stereoscopic image stream.

38. A method for decoding a digital image stream having a plurality of spatially compressed subimage areas of pixels subsampled from different image frames wherein subsampling coordinates within said different image frames are different for said different image frames, the method comprising:

reading pixels from said subimage areas of pixels of said digital image stream; and

producing, using pixel interpolation respecting a difference in said subsampling coordinates, spatially uncompressed images representing said different image frames.

39. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein said subsampling coordinates are complementary.

40. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein said spatially uncompressed image frames have in one dimension a same number of pixels as said spatially compressed subimage areas, and said spatially uncompressed image frames have in an orthogonal dimension twice as many pixels as said spatially compressed subimage areas.

41. The method as claimed in claim 40, wherein said subimages are concatenated side-by-side.

42. The method as claimed in claim 39, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

43. The method as claimed in claim 40, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

44. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein said subimages contain one left-eye image field and one right-eye image field of a stereoscopic image stream, said spatially uncompressed images representing left eye and right eye images.

45. The method as claimed in claim 44, wherein said subsampling coordinates follow a checkerboard pattern.

46. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein said subimages contain one left-eye image field and one right-eye image field of a stereoscopic image stream, said spatially uncompressed images representing left eye and right eye images.

47. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein said decoding further comprises decoding said digital image stream to obtain said merged video frames.

48. The decoder as claimed in claim 47, wherein said decoding comprises an MPEG standard decoding of said merged video frames.

49. The decoder as claimed in claim 48, wherein said decoding comprises MPEG-2 decoding of said merged video frames.

50. An encoder for processing one or more image streams comprised of a plurality of image frames into a digital stream containing merged video frames each containing spatially compressed subimages, the encoder comprising at least one processor configured to perform:

spatially compressing a plurality of frames from said streams by keeping pixels from each of said frames according to different spatial subsampling patterns to form subimages so as to have pixels sampled from different spatial coordinates; and

arranging said subimages to form merged video frames.

51. The encoder as claimed in claim 50 wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are complementary.

52. The encoder as claimed in claim 51, wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are checkerboard mosaics.

53. The encoder as claimed in claim 50, wherein said subimages are 2 in number.

54. The encoder as claimed in claim 53, wherein said subimages are concatenated side-by-side.

57. The encoder as claimed in claim 50, wherein said processor is further configured to perform:

encoding in a processor said merged video frames.

58. The encoder as claimed in claim 57, wherein said encoding comprises an MPEG-standard encoding.

59. The encoder as claimed in claim 58, wherein said encoding comprises MPEG-2 encoding of said merged video frames.

55. The encoder as claimed 53, wherein said subimages represent left-eye and right eye images of a stereoscopic image stream.

56. The encoder as claimed 54, wherein said different spatial subsampling patterns are checkerboard mosaics, and said subimages represent left-eye and right eye images of a stereoscopic image stream.