Multiple footprint stereo algorithms for 3D display content generation

This research focuses on the conversion of stereoscopic video material into an image + depth format which is suitable for rendering on the multiview auto-stereoscopic displays of Philips. The recent interest shown in the movie industry for 3D significantly increased the availability of stereo material. In this context the conversion from stereo to the input formats of 3D displays becomes an important task. In this paper we present a stereo algorithm that uses multiple footprints generating several depth candidates for each image pixel. We characterize the various matching windows and we devise a robust strategy for extracting high quality estimates from the resulting depth candidates. The proposed algorithm is based on a surface filtering method that employs simultaneously the available depth estimates in a small local neighborhood while ensuring correct depth discontinuities by the inclusion of image constraints. The resulting highquality image-aligned depth maps proved an excellent match with our 3D displays.