PRODUCING ENHANCED IMAGES FROM ANAGLYPH IMAGES

1 . A method for processing an anaglyph image to produce an enhanced image, comprising:

a) receiving an anaglyph image comprising a plurality of digital image channels including a first digital image channel associated with a first viewpoint of a scene and a first particular color, and a second digital image channel associated with a different second viewpoint of a scene and a different second particular color;

b) determining first and second feature locations from the first and second digital image channels and producing feature descriptions of the feature locations;

c) using the feature descriptions to find feature point correspondences between the first and second feature locations of the first and second digital image channels;

d) determining a warping function for the second digital image channel based on the feature point correspondences;

e) producing an enhanced second digital image channel by applying the warping function to the second digital image channel; and

f) producing an enhanced image from the first digital image channel and the enhanced second digital image channel.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further including:

g) determining a warping function for the first digital image channel based on the feature point correspondences;

h) producing an enhanced first digital image channel by applying the warping function to the first digital image channel; and

i) producing a second enhanced image from the enhanced first digital image channel and the second digital image channel; and

j) producing an enhanced stereo image from the enhanced image and the second enhanced image.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further including:

k) providing a 3-D display wherein the stereo image can be viewed by a viewer; and

l) displaying the stereo image on the 3-D display to the viewer to view the displayed stereo image.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further including:

g) producing a range map containing two or more range values in response to the feature point correspondences; and

h) storing the range map in association with the anaglyph image or the enhanced digital image.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the feature locations are determined by applying a spatial operator to the first and second image channels to produce filtered first and second image channels and determining feature locations from the filtered first and second image channels.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the feature locations are determined by the SIFT algorithm.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping function is a mathematical function that inputs a pixel location coordinate corresponding to a position in the second image channel and outputs a pixel location coordinate corresponding to a position in the first image channel.