• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.242-259
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• 2015

Three-dimensional video coding is one of the main challenges restricting the widespread applications of 3D video and free viewpoint video. In this paper, a novel fractal coding algorithm with motion-vector-field-based motion estimation for depth map sequence is proposed. We firstly add pre-search restriction to rule the improper domain blocks out of the matching search process so that the number of blocks involved in the search process can be restricted to a smaller size. Some improvements for motion estimation including initial search point prediction, threshold transition condition and early termination condition are made based on the feature of fractal coding. The motion-vector-field-based adaptive hexagon search algorithm on the basis of center-biased distribution characteristics of depth motion vector is proposed to accelerate the search. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can reach optimum levels of quality and save the coding time. The PSNR of synthesized view is increased by 0.56 dB with 36.97% bit rate decrease on average compared with H.264 Full Search. And the depth encoding time is saved by up to 66.47%. Moreover, the proposed fractal depth map sequence codec outperforms the recent alternative codecs by improving the H.264/AVC, especially in much bitrate saving and encoding time reduction.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.193-198
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• 2017

In this study, we propose a three-dimensional (3D) visualization technique of occluded objects using integral imaging with a plenoptic camera. In previous studies, depth map estimation from elemental images was used to remove occlusion. However, the resolution of these depth maps is low. Thus, the occlusion removal accuracy is not efficient. Therefore, we use a plenoptic camera to obtain a high-resolution depth map. Hence, individual depth map for each elemental image can also be generated. Finally, we can regenerate a more accurate depth map for 3D objects with these separate depth maps, allowing us to remove the occlusion layers more efficiently. We perform optical experiments to prove our proposed technique. Moreover, we use MSE and PSNR as a performance metric to evaluate the quality of the reconstructed image. In conclusion, we enhance the visual quality of the reconstructed image after removing the occlusion layers using the plenoptic camera.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.2434-2448
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• 2014

This research proposed the domain division depth map quantization for multiview intermediate image generation using Depth Image-Based Rendering (DIBR). This technique used per-pixel depth quantization according to the percentage of depth bits assigned in domains of depth range. A comparative experiment was conducted to investigate the potential benefits of the proposed method against the linear depth quantization on DIBR multiview intermediate image generation. The experiment evaluated three quantization methods with computer-generated 3D scenes, which consisted of various scene complexities and backgrounds, under varying the depth resolution. The results showed that the proposed domain division depth quantization method outperformed the linear method on the 7- bit or lower depth map, especially in the scene with the large object.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.31-43
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• 2014

A depth map is an important component for stereoscopic image generation. Since the depth map acquired from a depth camera has a low resolution, upsamling a low-resolution depth map to a high-resolution one has been studied past decades. Upsampling methods are evaluated by objective evaluation tools such as PSNR, Sharpness Degree, Blur Metric. As well, the subjective quality is compared using virtual views generated by DIBR (depth image based rendering). However, works on the analysis of the relation between depth map upsampling and stereoscopic images are relatively few. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between subjective evaluation of stereoscopic images and objective performance of upsampling methods using cross correlation and linear regression. Experimental results demonstrate that the correlation of edge PSNR and visual fatigue is the highest and the blur metric has lowest correlation. Further, from the linear regression, we found relative weights of objective measurements. Further we introduce a formulae that can estimate 3D performance of conventional or new upsampling methods.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.10
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• pp.920-927
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• 2013

Chroma key technique which composes images by separating an object from its background in specific color has restrictions on color and space. Especially, unlike general chroma key technique, image composition for stereo 3D display requires natural image composition method in 3D space. The thesis attempted to compose images in 3D space using depth keying method which uses high resolution depth information. High resolution depth map was obtained through camera calibration between the DSLR and Kinect sensor. 3D mesh model was created by the high resolution depth information and mapped with RGB color value. Object was converted into point cloud type in 3D space after separating it from its background according to depth information. The image in which 3D virtual background and object are composed obtained and played stereo 3D images using a virtual camera.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.02a
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• pp.620-624
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• 2009

In this paper, we present a new camera system combining a high-quality 3-D scanner and hybrid camera system to generate a multiview video-plus-depth. In order to get the 3-D video using the hybrid camera system and 3-D scanner, we first obtain depth information for background region from the 3-D scanner. Then, we get the depth map for foreground area from the hybrid camera system. Initial depths of each view image are estimated by performing 3-D warping with the depth information. Thereafter, multiview depth estimation using the initial depths is carried out to get each view initial disparity map. We correct the initial disparity map using a belief propagation algorithm so that we can generate the high-quality multiview disparity map. Finally, we refine depths of the foreground boundary using extracted edge information. Experimental results show that the proposed depth maps generation method produces a 3-D video with more accurate multiview depths and supports more natural 3-D views than the previous works.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.1175-1184
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• 2015

A depth map is an image which contains 3D distance information. Generally, it is difficult to acquire a high resolution (HD), noise-removed, good quality depth map directly from the camera. Therefore, many researches have been focused on acquisition of the high resolution and the good quality depth map by up-sampling and pre/post image processing of the low resolution depth map. However, many researches are lack of effective up-sampling for the edge region which has huge impact on image perceptual-quality. In this paper, we propose an up-sampling method, based on joint bilateral filter, which improves up-sampling of the edge region and visual quality of synthetic images by adopting different weights for the edge parts that is sensitive to human perception characteristics. The proposed method has gains in terms of PSNR and subjective video quality compared to previous researches.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.429-437
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• 2017

2D-to-3D conversion technology has been studied over past decades and integrated to commercial 3D displays and 3DTVs. Generally, depth cues extracted from a static image is used for generating a depth map followed by DIBR (Depth Image Based Rendering) for producing a stereoscopic image. Further, motion is also an important cue for depth estimation and is estimated by block-based motion estimation, optical flow and so forth. This papers proposes a new method for motion depth generation using Motion History Image (MHI) and evaluates the feasiblity of the MHI utilization. In the experiments, the proposed method was performed on eight video clips with a variety of motion classes. From a qualitative test on motion depth maps as well as the comparison of the processing time, we validated the feasibility of the proposed method.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.36 no.12C
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• pp.738-743
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• 2011

For the high quality 3-D broadcasting, depth maps are important data. Although commercially available depth cameras capture high-accuracy depth maps in real time, their resolutions are much smaller than those of the corresponding color images due to technical limitations. In this paper, we propose the depth map up-sampling method using a high-resolution color image and a low-resolution depth map. We define a random walk probability model in an operation unit which has nearest seed pixels. The proposed method is appropriate to match boundaries between the color image and the depth map. Experimental results show that our method enhances the depth map resolution successfully.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.596-601
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a new scheme to generate region-of-interest (ROI) enhanced depth maps in the hybrid camera system, which is composed of a low-resolution depth camera and a high-resolution stereoscopic camera. The proposed method creates an ROI depth map for the left image by carrying out a three-dimensional (3-D) warping operation onto the depth information obtained from the depth camera. Then, we generate a background depth map for the left image by applying a stereo matching algorithm onto the left and right images captured by the stereoscopic camera. Finally, we merge the ROI map with the background one to create the final depth map. The proposed method provides higher quality depth information on ROI than the previous methods.