Apparatus and method for providing three dimensional media content
A system that incorporates teachings of the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, means for generating a disparity map based on a depth map, means for determining accuracy of pixels in the depth map where the determining means identifies the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate based on a confidence map and the disparity map, and means for providing an adjusted depth map where the providing means adjusts inaccurate pixels of the depth map using a cost function associated with the inaccurate pixels. Other embodiments are disclosed.
1. A system comprising:
means for generating a disparity map based on a depth map;
means for determining accuracy of pixels in the depth map, wherein the determining means identifies the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate based on a confidence map and the disparity map; and
means for providing an adjusted depth map, wherein the providing means adjusts inaccurate pixels of the depth map using a cost function associated with the inaccurate pixels.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the providing means applies one of a graph-cut analysis or a belief-propagation analysis to the cost function to provide the adjusted depth map, and wherein the accurate pixels are not adjusted.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means for rendering three-dimensional media content, wherein the rendering means uses the adjusted depth map and images from at least one vision camera to render the three-dimensional media content.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining means measures a disparity variance for a pre-determined region surrounding each pixel of the disparity map to identify the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate.
5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means for obtaining range data, wherein the obtaining means generates the depth map based on the range data.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the obtaining means generates the confidence map.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the obtaining means measures parameters associated with infrared light to obtain the range data.
8. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:
means for capturing stereo image pairs; and
means for calibrating the capturing means with the obtaining means.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the calibrating means utilizes homographic warping approximation.
10. A method comprising:
obtaining a depth map and a confidence map associated with an object;
obtaining a stereo image pair of the object;
generating a disparity map based on the depth map;
determining accuracy of pixels in the depth map based on the confidence map and the disparity map; and
adjusting inaccurate pixels of the depth map to generate an adjusted depth map using a cost function associated with the inaccurate pixels.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising transmitting the adjusted depth map and at least one of the stereo image pair to a media processor for generating three-dimensional media content.
12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining of the accuracy of the pixels is based on measuring a disparity variance for a pre-determined region surrounding each pixel of the disparity map to identify the pixels as either accurate or inaccurate.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the adjusting of the inaccurate pixels is based on a belief-propagation analysis.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the adjusting of the inaccurate pixels is based on a graph-cut analysis.
15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the obtaining of the depth map is based on measuring parameters associated with infrared light to obtain range data associated with the object.
16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
generating three-dimensional media content based on the adjusted depth map, the confidence map and at least one of the stereo image pairs; and
presenting the three-dimensional media content on a display.
17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
obtaining the stereo image pair using a pair of vision cameras;
calibrating the pair of vision cameras;
rectifying the stereo image pair; and
mapping the depth map with the rectified stereo image pair.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the mapping of the depth map with the rectified stereo image pairs utilizes homographic warping approximation.