Real-Time Disparity Map-Based Pictorial Depth Cue Enhancement

Abstract

The availability of stereoscopic image material is increasing rapidly. In contrast to the generation of distance information, displaying it is still a challenging task. To overcome the need for special 3D display hardware, we present a novel real-time video processing framework-based on edge-avoiding à trous wavelets. The framework adds and emphasizes monocular depth cues corresponding to the depth information of a supplemental disparity map. This creates a compelling depth sensation on 2D display devices. The framework enhances multiple depth cues in parallel, such as depth of field, local contrast, ambient occlusion and saturation. At the same time, it improves the disparity map quality. Depth cues control how a human explores an image, since the perception of distance is coupled to visual attention. The presented work demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed framework in guiding the viewer, without destroying the image content, by evaluating the performance in searchand- find tasks. A user study analyzes the connection between faster response times and the boosting of particular monocular depth cues.