Stereoscopic image registration and color balance evaluation display

1. A method of generating a stereoscopic image registration and color balance evaluation display comprising the steps of:

receiving a stereoscopic video signal, the stereoscopic video signal comprising a left image and a right image, the left image comprising left pixels and the right image comprising right pixels;

generating, in a memory, a two-dimensional histogram representing a particular video component of the stereoscopic video signal, by

generating for the left and right pixels the particular video component,

comparing the left and right pixels in the particular video component to produce sum and difference values, and

using the sum and difference values as a pair of indices

into two respective sets of bins along two respective axes of the two-dimensional histogram, in which a plurality of bin-counts are stored in the memory, each bin-count corresponding to a particular ordered pair of indices; and

presenting the resulting two-dimensional histogram from the memory on a display screen.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of low-pass filtering the left and right pixels in a horizontal direction to produce localized averages of the left and right pixels prior to the generating step.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of low-pass filtering the particular video component prior to the comparing step.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the particular video component is selected from the group consisting of luminance, red, blue, green, hue and value.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the generating step comprises the step of generating a plurality of two-dimensional histograms representing a corresponding plurality of different video components of the stereoscopic video signal and wherein the displaying step comprises the step of displaying the plurality of two-dimensional histograms.

6. An apparatus for use in analyzing a stereoscopic video signal comprising:

a plot generator structured to generate a Cartesian plot from a particular color component of the stereoscopic video signal, the plot generator having as inputs left image pixels and corresponding right image pixels for the particular color component to produce a two-dimensional histogram by using sum and difference values of the corresponding left image pixels and right image pixels as indices into bins along two axes of the two-dimensional histogram; and

a display screen for presenting the two-dimensional histogram to provide a viewer with an indication of how well matched the particular color component for the left and right images are.

7. The apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein the particular color component is selected from the group consisting of luminance, red, blue, green, hue and value.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein the plot generator is structured to generate a plurality of Cartesian plots from a plurality of different color components of the stereoscopic video signal, each Cartesian plot representing a different one of the different color components in the form of a two-dimensional histogram, the two-dimensional histograms being displayed simultaneously on the display screen.

9. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the plurality of different video components comprise a luminance component, a red component, a blue component and a green component.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein the plurality of two-dimensional histograms are presented as a Quad Diamond display.

11. An apparatus for use in analyzing a stereoscopic video signal comprising:

a plot generator structured to generate a Cartesian plot from a particular color component of the stereoscopic video signal, the plot generator having as inputs left image pixels and corresponding right image pixels for the particular color component to produce a two-dimensional histogram; and

a display screen for presenting the two-dimensional histogram to provide a viewer with an indication of how well matched the particular color component for the left and right images are,

wherein the plot generator is structured to generate a plurality of Cartesian plots from a plurality of different color components of the stereoscopic video signal, each Cartesian plot representing a different one of the different color components in the form of a two-dimensional histogram, the two-dimensional histograms being displayed simultaneously on the display screen, and

wherein the different color components are luminance, red, green and blue and the two-dimensional histograms are presented on the display screen as a Quad Diamond display.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 in which presenting the resulting two-dimensional histogram on a display screen comprises presenting the resulting two-dimensional histogram on a display screen of a test and measurement device.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 in which a bin-count in the plurality of stored bin-counts is incremented when the sum and difference values of the corresponding pair of left and right pixels in the particular video component match the particular ordered pair of indices corresponding to the bin-count.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 in which a bin-count value is represented during the displaying step as an intensity.

15. The method as recited in claim 13 in which a bin-count value is represented during the displaying step as a color.

16. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising:

resetting the plurality of stored bin-counts to zero before repeating the generating step and the displaying step for a second pair of left and right images in the stereoscopic video signal.