The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 01, 1997
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1995
Belle L Tseng, New York, NY (US);
Dimitris Anastassiou, Tenafly, NJ (US);
The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
The multi-viewpoint video encoder disclosed herein comprises a depth estimator, a predictor connected to the depth estimator, and a comparator connected to the predictor. In addition, the multi-viewpoint video encoder has an output, preferably including a multiplexer for multiplexing the first image, the depth map, the second viewpoint vector and the prediction errors into a signal. The multi-viewpoint video encoder also includes a depth map encoder/compressor. The depth map is compressed according to a video compression standard, preferably compatible with the MPEG-2 standard. The multi-viewpoint video encoder further includes a first image encoder. The first image is encoded according to a video coding standard, preferably compatible with the MPEG-2 standard. In this manner, an MPEG-2 monitor can display the first image video without any further modifications. Many of the elements described above are already found in MPEG-2 encoders. Accordingly, a multi-viewpoint video encoder only requires the addition of the depth estimator and the predictor mentioned above. A multi-viewpoint video decoder as well as methods to encode and decode multi-viewpoint video are also disclosed herein.