초록 ▼

A system for generating images of a scene as the scene would be observed from an arbitrary location. A plurality of discrete images, typically video images, taken at different viewpoints, as, for example, by a plurality of cameras pointing outwardly on a curving locus are converted to an offset epip

A system for generating images of a scene as the scene would be observed from an arbitrary location. A plurality of discrete images, typically video images, taken at different viewpoints, as, for example, by a plurality of cameras pointing outwardly on a curving locus are converted to an offset epipolar image. The offset epipolar image includes a plurality of linesets, each such lineset incorporating one scanning line from each of the discrete video images. Each line in the virtual image is reconstructed from a lineset of the epipolar image. The reconstruction may include interpolation between pixel data representing lines from adjacent discrete images and mapping of pixels from one or more lines representing one or more adjacent discrete images onto the pixel line of the virtual image. The nature of the mapping depends upon the viewpoint selected for the virtual image. The system can provide real time stereoscopic telepresence, i.e., a virtual viewpoint images for each eye as the observer moves his or her head.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of synthesizing an image of a scene corresponding to the image of said scene which would be observed from a virtual viewpoint comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of discrete images corresponding to the images of the scene observed from a plurality of discrete viewpoints, each

A method of synthesizing an image of a scene corresponding to the image of said scene which would be observed from a virtual viewpoint comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of discrete images corresponding to the images of the scene observed from a plurality of discrete viewpoints, each said discrete image including an array of pixel data in a first image dimension corresponding to position of depicted objects in a first dimension of said scene and in a second image dimension orthogonal thereto; (b) constructing a first epipolar image from said discrete images, said first epipolar image including a plurality of line sets, each one of said line sets including one line of pixel data in said first image dimension from each one of said discrete images, all of the lines in each one of said line sets corresponding to the same location in said second image dimension, said lines of pixel data within each line set being ordered in an order corresponding to an order of positions of said discrete viewpoints in said first dimension of said scene, each pair of adjacent lines of pixel data within each line set being offset from one another by an initial offset; (c) providing pixel data for said synthetic image as a plurality of virtual viewpoint pixel lines extending in said first image dimension and displaced from one another in said second image dimension by (i) associating each virtual viewpoint line with a line set in said first epipolar image formed from lines having location in said second image dimension corresponding to the location in said second image dimension of that virtual viewpoint line and (ii) for each pixel within each virtual viewpoint line, deriving synthetic pixel data from pixel data in the associated line set.