Enhanced ghost compensation for stereoscopic imagery
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for reduction of ghost images in stereoscopic images. This disclosure provides a ghost compensation apparatus and methods that detect affected regions where ghosting may occur in a stereoscopic image, yet where conventional ghost compensation techniques are ineffective because there is insufficient luminance overhead to conduct a conventional ghost compensation process. Luminance values are modified in such regions prior to applying a ghost compensation process.
1. A method for processing a stereoscopic image pair having a left eye image and a right eye image, the method comprising:
determining at least one region in a ghost artifact of the stereoscopic image pair where a ghost compensation process has a low probability of success; and
when the ghost compensation process has a low probability of success:
applying a ghost compensation overhead primarily to the at least one region in the ghost artifact, and
performing the ghost compensation process on the at least one region.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the ghost compensation overhead comprises modifying luminance values in the at least one region.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying luminance values comprises increasing the luminance.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the increase in luminance provides a substantially inconspicuous increase in luminance.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the substantially inconspicuous increase in luminance comprises a spatially-varying patch of luminance.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the spatially-varying patch of luminance decreases in luminance relative to distance from a bright/dark object edge.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the ghost compensation overhead comprises increasing brightness in the at least one region.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the ghost compensation overhead comprises modifying luminance of at least one color component in the at least one region.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ghost compensation process has a low probability of success when there is insufficient luminance in the left eye image or right eye image to perform the ghost compensation process on the at least one region.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ghost compensation process has a low probability of success when a region of negligible luminance proximate to a region of significant luminance is determined.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
when the ghost compensation process has a high probability of success:
performing the ghost compensation process without applying a ghost compensation overhead to the at least one region.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the ghost compensation process has a high probability of success when there is sufficient luminance in the left eye image or right eye image to perform the ghost compensation process on the at least one region.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ghost compensation process comprises:
evaluating the left eye image to determine a ghost amount that can be present in the right eye image; and
modifying the right eye image to compensate for the ghost amount that can be present in the right eye image.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ghost compensation process comprises:
evaluating the right eye image to determine a ghost amount that can be present in the left eye image; and
modifying the left eye image to compensate for the ghost amount that can be present in the left eye image.
15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising buffering an incoming stream of a plurality of stereoscopic image pairs.
16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising projecting the ghost-compensated image pair in a polarization-encoded stereoscopic cinema environment.
17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the magnitude of the ghost artifact.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
when the magnitude of the potential ghost artifact exceeds a predetermined threshold, applying the ghost compensation process.
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining at least one region in the image pair where a conventional ghost compensation process has a low probability of success further comprises:
determining whether there is sufficient luminance overhead in the at least one region.
20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
prior to determining at least one region in the stereoscopic image pair where the ghost compensation process has a low probability of success, converting the stereoscopic image pair from a nonlinear representation to a linear representation.
21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after performing the ghost compensation process, converting the stereoscopic image pair from a linear representation to a nonlinear representation.
22. Apparatus for processing a stereoscopic image pair having a left eye image and a right eye image, the apparatus comprising:
a detection module configurable to determine at least one region in a ghost artifact of the stereoscopic image pair where a ghost compensation process has a low probability of success;
an image adjustment module-configurable, when the detection module determines a low probability of success, to adjust the at least one region to provide a ghost compensation overhead primarily to the at least one region in the ghost artifact; and
a ghost compensation module configurable to perform ghost compensation to the at least one region.
23. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein providing the ghost compensation overhead comprises modifying luminance values in the at least one region.
24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein modifying luminance values comprises increasing the luminance of at least one color component in the at least one region.
25. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the detection module is configurable to determine a low probability of success when there is insufficient luminance in the left eye image or right eye image to perform the ghost compensation process on the at least one region.
26. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a path from the detection module to the ghost compensation module, wherein when the detection module determines a high probability of success, the stereoscopic image pair is transmitted on the path from the detection module to the ghost compensation module.
27. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the ghost compensation process has a high probability of success when there is sufficient luminance in the left eye image or right eye image to perform the ghost compensation process on the at least one region.
28. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the ghost compensation module is configurable to:
evaluate the left eye image to determine a ghost amount that can be present in the right eye image; and
modify the right eye image to compensate for the ghost amount that can be present in the right eye image.
29. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the ghost compensation module is configurable to:
evaluate the right eye image to determine a ghost amount that can be present in the left eye image; and
modify the left eye image to compensate for the ghost amount that can be present in the left eye image.
30. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a buffer module configurable to buffer an incoming stream of a plurality of stereoscopic image pairs.
31. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the apparatus is located in a polarization-encoded stereoscopic cinema environment.
32. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a nonlinear to linear conversion module configurable to convert the stereoscopic image pair from a nonlinear representation to a linear representation.
33. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a linear to nonlinear conversion module configurable to convert a ghost-compensated stereoscopic image pair from a linear representation to a nonlinear representation.
34. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a data processing system, the application program being operable to process a stereoscopic image pair having a left eye image and a right eye image, comprising:
a data structure stored in the memory, the data structure including:
a detection module data structure operable to determine at least one region in a ghost artifact of the stereoscopic image pair where a ghost compensation process has a low probability of success;
an image adjustment module data structure operable, when the detection module determines a low probability of success, to adjust the at least one region to provide a ghost compensation overhead primarily to the at least one region in the ghost artifact; and
a ghost compensation module data structure operable to perform ghost compensation to the at least one region.