View Dependent Tone Mapping of HDR Panoramas for Head Mounted Displays

Abstract

Head mounted display(HMD)s are characterized by relatively low resolution and low dynamic range. These limitations significantly reduce the visual quality of photorealistic captures on such displays. In this paper we present an interactive view dependent tone mapping technique for viewing up to 16K wide high dynamic range panoramas on HMDs via view-adjusted mapping function stored in separate texture file. We define this technique as ToneTexture. The use of a view adjusted tone mapping allows for expansion of the perceived color space available to the end user. This yields an improved visual appearance of both high dynamic range panoramas and low dynamic range panoramas on such displays. We present comparisons of the results produced by this technique against Reinhard tone mapping operators. Demonstration systems are available for WebGL and head mounted displays such as Oculus Rift and GearVR.