Lucent Technologies Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

Richard V Kollarits

Atul Puri

Barin Geoffry Haskell

Richard Dennis Gitlin

Clark B Woodworth

John F Ribera

Jane Deborah LeGrange

Timothy M Miller

A method for increasing compression efficiency of a stereoscopic image encoder employed for compressively encoding first and second signals representing respective first and second views of a stereoscopic image, comprises: providing a first histogram of the first view and a second histogram of the second view, the first and second histograms representing a frequency of occurrence of a characteristic component of the first and second views, respectively; comparing the first histogram of the first view with the second histogram of the second view and estimating the mismatch in gain, a, and mismatch in offset, b, between the first and second views; correcting the stereoscopic image by multiplying the gain a and the second signal to obtain a gain corrected second signal for the stereoscopic image and adding the offset b to the gain corrected second signal to obtain a gain and offset corrected second signal, the gain and offset corrected second signal being obtained prior to encoding to increase encoding efficiency. The quality of the resulting stereoscopic image formed from decoding the first signal and gain and offset corrected second signal is greatly improved.

Gain and offset correction for efficient stereoscopic coding and

In a system and method for transmitting and displaying multiple different views of a scene, three or more simultaneous scene signals, representing multiple different views of a scene, are provided by an appropriate camera arrangement to a spatial multiplexer. The size and resolution of the scene signals are reduced as necessary to combine the multiple scene signals into two super-view signals. The super-view signals are encoded using compression based on redundancies between the two super-views and then transmitted. A decoder receives the transmitted data signal and extracts the two super-view signals according to the inverse of the encoding operation. A spatial demultiplexer recovers the individual scene signals from the decoded super-view signals in accordance with a defined multiplexed order and arrangement. The scene signals are then interpolated as needed to restore the original resolution and size and subsequently displayed.

Digital multi-view video compression with complexity and compatibility

For use in the display screen of a teleconferencing system, a shutter capable of assuming alternative transparent and scattering states and a method of manufacture therefor. In one embodiment, the shutter includes a film of a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) composition of a polymer and a liquid crystal material wherein the liquid crystal material makes up about 78% by weight of the film. The film is cured at a temperature ranging from about 32.degree. C. to about 38.degree. C., thereby decreasing the time it takes for the film to switch between the transparent and scattering states. The shutter further includes first and second layers of a transparent conductor for containing the film therebetween and driver circuitry, coupled to the film, for causing the film to have a response time equal to or less than 8 ms.

Fast transition polymer dispersed liquid crystal shutter for display

Efficient digital compression of 3D/stereoscopic video is achieved by a novel technique in which various views forming 3D/stereoscopic video are coded by utilizing the redundancies among the views. Coding is performed in a manner compatible with existing equipment to allowing decoding of one layer of video for display on normal (i.e., monoscopic) displays. The motion compensated discrete cosine transform ('DCT') coding framework of existing standards such as the Motion Pictures Expert Group-Phase 2 ('MPEG-2') video standard is exploited, and when necessary extended, to result in highly efficient, yet practical, coding schemes. In constrast with known techniques of encoding the two views forming stereoscopic video which rely on the use of a disparity estimate between the two views (where one of the views is the reference, coded by itself and the other is disparity compensated predicted and coded with respect to the reference view), the present techniques invention utilize one disparity estimate and one motion compensated estimate. Two novel methods for combining these estimates for prediction are provided. The first method provides an average between the two estimates; the second method allows choice between various combinations resulting from prespecified weightings applied to the estimates. Such a technique, advantageously, represents a significant improvement over known techniques in achieving high-efficiency digital compression of 3D/Stereoscopic video, and advantageously is fully compatible with existing video compression standards. Furthermore, although digital broadcast service for 3D/stereoscopic television can be realized by the practice of the invention immediately, full compatibility with normal video displays is provided, allowing gradual introduction of high quality stereoscopic displays in future.

Digital 3D/stereoscopic video compression technique utilizing disparity

Efficient digital compression of 3D/stereoscopic video is achieved by a novel technique in which various views forming 3D/stereoscopic video are coded by utilizing the redundancies among the views. Coding is performed in a manner compatible with existing equipment to allowing decoding of one layer of video for display on normal (i.e., monoscopic) displays. The motion compensated discrete cosine transform ('DCT') coding framework of existing standards such as the Motion Pictures Expert Group-Phase 2 ('MPEG-2') video standard is exploited, and when necessary extended, to result in highly efficient, yet practical, coding schemes. In constrast with known techniques of encoding the two views forming stereoscopic video which rely on the use of a disparity estimate between the two views (where one of the views is the reference, coded by itself and the other is disparity compensated predicted and coded with respect to the reference view), the present techniques utilize two disparity estimates: one disparity estimate which allows forward prediction and other disparity estimate allowing backward prediction with respect to the reference view.

Digital 3D/stereoscopic video compression technique utilizing two

The advantages of both a color display and a high-resolution monochrome display are realized in a single display system by eliminating color filters from the display screen of the display system and illuminating the display screen with either colored light or white light to provide color or high-resolution monochrome capability, respectively. Simultaneous color and high-resolution monochrome capability is realized by illuminating predetermined portions of the display screen with only colored light while illuminating different portions of the display screen with only white light.

Combined color and monochrome display

Improved image quality is realized in a parallax-free teleconferencing display by increasing the camera light budget, that is, by increasing the light available to the camera, while maintaining a common optic axis between the camera and the display screen. Light-attenuating devices, such as color filters, are repositioned out of the path of light entering the camera. In this manner, image quality is improved while color capability is maintained.

Color parallax-free camera and display

A color printing system employing a large area pattern of controllable light sources, where the pattern includes rows that are aligned substantially with the movement of a print medium in relation to the light sources. All of the light sources in each row contribute to the exposure of each pixel in a corresponding row of the resulting color print. The large area pattern of light sources can be realized with a range of approaches, from the use of a plurality of light sources to the use of a single light source coupled with an appropriate light modulator. In one embodiment, a liquid crystal light modulator was employed for each of the three primary colors.

Growing community of inventors

Colts Neck, NJ, United States of America

Richard V Kollarits