Visual Information Sensing Technology. Efficient Representation of 3-D Spatial Data Based on Orthogonal Projection of Ray Data Samples.

First, this paper introduces the concept of “Integrated 3-D Visual Communication”. The key feature in this concept is the display-independent neutrality and flexibility of the representation of visual data. Secondly, a ray-based approach is examined in order to realize this concept. The advantage of a ray-based approach is that any view can be synthesized from ray data independently of any geometric representations. All the visual data is represented by a set of ray data which is defined in five-dimensional data space. Assuming that rays go straight on without any variations in the direction of propagation, any individual ray data can be efficiently stored in the fewer dimensions. This paper proposes and formulates three methods for projecting five-dimensional data space onto a space with fewer dimensions. The experimental results show how the proposed methods could be used in the next-generation 3-D image communication and photo-realistic virtual reality systems.