Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Nicolas Steven Holliman

David Ezra

Graham Roger Jones

Graham John Woodgate

Qi He Hong

Richard Robert Moseley

Delman Lee

Jonathan Harrold

David James Montgomery

Basil Arthur Omar

A stereoscopic display controller supplies serial picture element data to a scanned stereoscopic display which comprises a plurality of picture elements. Each of the picture elements includes image data for M color components, while M is greater than one. The stereoscopic display controller includes: N memories, N being an integer greater than one; a memory controller arranged to write the picture element data for N different views of a three-dimensional image in the respective memories, and arranged to control reading of the memories in turn so that image data for consecutively scanned picture elements of the display are read from different ones of the memories; and a data reordering circuit coupled to outputs of the memories and arranged to reorder the image data for at least one of the color components.

Display controller, three dimensional display, and method of reducing crosstalk

This invention relates to a method for segmenting a pixellated image, comprising: (a) selecting at least one first region from a first reference image; (b) deriving from values of pixels of the at least one first region a first threshold such that a first predetermined proportion of the pixels have values on a first side of the first threshold; (c) forming a difference image as a difference between each pixel of the image and a corresponding pixel of an image of a non-occluded background; and (d) allocating each difference image pixel to at least one first type of region if the value of the difference image pixel is on the first side of the first threshold and the values of more than a first predetermined number of neighboring difference image pixels are on the first side of the first threshold. An apparatus for performing the foregoing method is disclosed.

Method of and apparatus for segmenting a pixellated image

A method of producing a stereo image of a (real or simulated) scene using at least one (real or simulated) camera, which creates the impression of being a 3D image when viewed on a display by a user, wherein the depth of the scene is mapped onto a maximum perceived depth of the image on the display, and the maximum perceived depth is chosen to provide comfortable viewing for the user.

Stereo images with comfortable perceived depth

A method is provided for detecting a human face in an image, such as a sequence of images supplied by a video camera. The method comprises locating in each image a candidate face region and analyzing the candidate face region for a first characteristic indicative of a facial feature. The locating step may comprise detecting uniformity saturated regions of predetermined shape in a reduced resolution version of the image. The analyzing step may comprise selecting a signal color component, forming a vertical integral projection profile and detecting an omega shape in the profile characteristic of an eye region of a face.

Method of and apparatus for detecting a human face and observer tracking display

A stereoscopic display controller supplies serial picture element data to a scanned stereoscopic display which includes a plurality of picture elements. Each of the picture elements includes image data for M color components, while M is greater than one. The stereoscopic display controller includes: N memories, N being an integer greater than one; a memory controller arranged to write the picture element data for N different views of a three-dimensional image in the respective memories, and arranged to control reading of the memories in turn so that image data for consecutively scanned picture elements of the display are read from different ones of the memories; and a data reordering circuit coupled to outputs of the memories and arranged to reorder the image data for at least one of the color components.

A 3D camera includes at least two detector heads which are moveable laterally with respect to each other but whose optical are maintained parallel. Each of the detector heads includes a zoom lens and a detector. A user selects the separation between the detector heads and the camera electronics automatically select the field of view by controlling the zoom lenses as a function of the detector head separation.

3D camera

A method of detecting a face-like region of a colour image, comprises reducing the resolution of the colour image by averaging the saturation to form a reduced resolution image and searching for a region of the reduced resolution image. The searched region has, in a predetermined shape, a substantially uniform saturation which is substantially different from the saturation of the portion of the reduced resolution image surrounding the predetermined shape.

Method of and apparatus for detecting a face-like region and observer tracking display

An autostereoscopic display comprises an SLM which is controlled to provide an image display and a signal display. A parallax optic has a first portion which cooperates with the image display to form a plurality of viewing windows. A second portion of the parallax optic forms first and second images visible to an observer at alternate viewing windows so as to allow the observer to distinguish between desired orthoscopic viewing zones and undesirable viewing positions such as pseudoscopic positions.

Autostereoscopic display

An observer tracking display is provided in which the image data displayed by at least three image displays along respective different directions is updated depending on the lateral position of an observer. The image displayed in a viewing region not visible to the observer is updated with an appropriate image in anticipation of the observer moving to a position where that viewing region is visible.

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Wallingford, United Kingdom

Nicolas Steven Holliman