A 3D-TV Approach Using Depth-Image-Based Rendering (DIBR)

This paper will present details of a system that allows for an evolutionary introduction of depth perception into the existing 2D digital TV framework. The work is part of the European Information Society Technologies (IST) project “Advanced Three-Dimensional Television System Technologies” (ATTEST), an activity, where industries, research centers and universities have joined forces to design a backwards-compatible, flexible and modular broadcast 3D-TV system [1]. In contrast to former proposals, which often relied on the basic concept of “stereoscopic” video, this new idea is based on a more flexible joint transmission of monoscopic video and associated per-pixel depth information. From this data representation, one or more “virtual” views of the 3D scene can then be synthesized in real-time at the receiver side by means of so-called depthimage-based rendering (DIBR) techniques. This paper (a) highlights the advantages of this new approach on 3DTV and (b) develops an efficient algorithm for the generation of “virtual” 3D views that can be reproduced on any stereoscopicor autostereoscopic 3D-TV display.