PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR ENCODING AND PLAYBACK OF STEREOSCOPIC VIDEO SEQUENCES

• US 20170041595A1
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3DN, LLC
• Original Assignee: 3DN, LLC
• Inventors: Routhier, Nicholas, Thibeault, Claude, Belzile, Jean, Malouin, Daniel, Carpentier, Pierre-Paul, Dallaire, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 10,341,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. A method for playback of image streams comprising:

in a conventional 2D mode;

driving a single image stream to a 2D display,

in a stereoscopic 3D mode;

driving a first image stream for the left eye and driving a second image stream for the right eye to a head mounted display.

2. The method of claim 1 further using movement anticipation to perform time-interpolation of images in the stereoscopic 3D mode.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein time-interpolation of images in the stereoscopic 3D mode is performed in order to improve fluidity of playback as compared to simple repetition of frames.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the first image stream and the second image stream are generated using temporal interpolation to increase frame rate of both image streams.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein variations in the clock signals are accommodated by a rate controller to avoid de-synchronization.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first image stream and the second image stream is generated from a compressed stereoscopic image stream consisting of frames, each frame consisting of a merged image comprising a compressed left image and a compressed right image said generating comprising restoring pixels from at least one of the left compressed image and a right compressed image by spatial interpolation wherein the columnar position of the restored pixels alternates for each row position.

7. An apparatus for playback of a conventional 2D image stream and for playback of a compressed stereoscopic image stream, said compressed stereoscopic image stream consisting of frames, each frame consisting of a merged image comprising a compressed left image and a compressed right image comprising:

a decoder for decoding the conventional 2D image stream and for decoding the compressed stereoscopic image stream,

an interpolator for reconstructing a reconstructed image from at least one of the compressed left image and the compressed right image,

a head mounted display.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising a time-interpolation module for performing time-interpolation of images in the stereoscopic 3D mode using movement anticipation.