New version of HD stereoscopic camera and its picture quality assessment concerning the camera parameters

We have improved the HD stereoscopic camera system reported last year. Though the previous version shows good performance in many aspects, we felt some more accurate control mechanism should be realized after various types of trial shooting in field. So we have changed several parts of it. For controlling the separation between two cameras and the convergence of the parallel-axis style stereoscopic camera system, we replaced the linear motor system in the first version with small DC motors. And by changing the lens with full-digitally controlled HD lens, we could control both of the lenses more accurately. For the preparation of the real-time image composition with computer graphics, namely mixed-reality, in this version we fixed the updating frequency of the camera parameters to 60 Hz. In addition, for better zoom-convergence interlocked control, we made the look-up table with much more steps so even smoother operation of zoom-convergence control is accomplished. And, we have done subjective evaluation test on the acquired pictures. As we have implemented the function of storing and retrieving the major parameters of the stereoscopic camera, we could precisely analyze the relationship between the result of picture quality assessment and the camera parameters.