Patent Application
20140210943
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2013-0011404, filed on Jan. 31, 2013, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
1. Field
The following description relates to an apparatus and method for creating a three-dimensional video, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for converting a two-dimensional video into a three-dimensional video by use of combination of an automatic conversion and a manual conversion.
2. Description of the Related Art
A human can perceive depth sensation of an object by transmitting different images that are viewed by a left side eye and a right side eye at different positions, respectively, to the brain of the human, and the brain perceives the depth of the object based on a difference in phase between the two images input from the left side eye and the right side eye. Accordingly, when three-dimensional content is created, an image viewed by a left side eye and an image viewed by a right side eye need to be created in pairs.
A method of creating a left eye image and a right eye image includes a manual conversion method and an automatic conversion method.
The manual conversion method is achieved as an operator directly separates objects one by one from a two-dimensional image, assigns a depth value to the separated individual object, and then performs a re-rendering with both side eyes. Such a manual conversion is achieved by checking with the naked eye one by one, and thus a three-dimensional image has a quality that may vary with time and efforts. However, such a manual conversion method needs to separate a plurality of objects from each frame and assign a depth value, and thus a great amount of workforce and time are required. This increases manufacturing costs so that the manual conversion may be applied only to a commercial movie or large scale content. In addition, such a manual conversion is performed by only the workers who can use a high-end S/W.
Meanwhile, the automatic conversion method creates a three-dimensional image in batches through an automatic conversion algorithm that has been already developed, so that a great amount of three-dimensional content can be simply and rapidly produced in real time. Most of the automatic conversion methods developed up to now are achieved by mounting a chip on a 3DTV or a conversion H/W such that the three-dimensional content is provided in real time at any time. However, when the three-dimensional content is manufactured using such an automatic conversion method, the frequency of error occurrence is high due to the limitation of the algorithm, and thus the quality of the three-dimensional content stays below a predetermined level. That is, a user needs to be satisfied only with the quality level in which a three-dimensional sensation is temporally provided.
For this reason, general users only enjoy three-dimensional content that is converted by a high-salary technician, or views low quality three-dimensional content produced by an automatic three-dimensional conversion H/W. Accordingly, even in the trend of user-created content (UCC) becoming popular, the three-dimensional content is regarded as an inaccessible field for users, and the interest in the three-dimensional content decreases.
The following description relates to an apparatus and method that are capable of enabling a general user to create high quality three-dimensional content in an easy and rapid manner.
Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detailed description, the drawings, and the claims.
Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described, the same drawing reference numerals will be understood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative size and depiction of these elements may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience.
The following description is provided to assist the reader in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein. Accordingly, various changes, modifications, and equivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein will suggest themselves to those of ordinary skill in the art. Also, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for increased clarity and conciseness. In addition, terms described below are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention and may be changed according to the intention of a user or an operator or conventional practice. Therefore, the definitions must be based on contents throughout this disclosure.
Referring to
The present disclosure, in consideration of that frames constituting each cut have similar depth values, if a three dimension depth value of one of frames belonging to the same cut is edited, other frames can be edited with reference to the three dimension depth value of the edited frame so that the work of a user is minimized. That is, the quality is improved by enabling a user to convert one of the frames into a three dimensional form, and the working speed and time is reduced by automatically converting the remaining frames.
Referring to
The cut split unit 110 splits an input two-dimensional video into two or more cuts based on a predetermined reference. A method of splitting the video into cuts by the cut split unit 110 is implemented by various example embodiments. This will be described with reference to
The manual conversion unit 120 receives a depth value of one of frames that form each of the two or more cuts split by the cut split unit 110, and converts the frame into a three dimensional form. In accordance with an example embodiment, the one frame may be the first frame among the frames forming the cut. In addition, the manual conversion unit 120 may receive the depth value from a user in units of color segments forming a single image frame. In addition, the manual conversion unit 120, in a case in which the same object is split into two or more different segments, may merge the two or more segments. This will be described with reference to
The automatic conversion unit 130 converts other frames included in the cuts with reference to the frame, which is converted into the three dimensional form by the manual conversion unit 120, into a three dimensional form. This will be described with reference to
Referring to
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the cut split unit 110 automatically splits a video in a case in which a color variation value of successive frames forming the video is a predetermined threshold value or above. Since frames forming the same cut have similar color distributions to each other, the video may be automatically split based on a point at which color distribution information of the successive frames is greatly changed.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, the cut split unit 110 provides a user interface, and splits the video according to user cut split information that is input through the user interface. That is, in order for a user to produce a three dimensional sensation, the cut split unit 110 may provide the user interface that enables the user to clip or merge cuts.
The manual conversion unit 120 supports a user editing work for a three-dimensional video conversion, and allows the user editing to be performed in units of color segments.
The color segment represents information grouping regions that have similar color values in an image, and the manual conversion unit 120 may create a color segment image shown in
In order that a user performs editing in units of color segments, the manual conversion unit 120 allows a color segment (as shown in
In a case in which the same object is split into different segments since the object has different color values, the segment regions may be merged as shown in
Referring to
In addition, it is impossible to split one segment into a plurality of segments, but a parameter may be designated so as to split the segments more minutely during an image segmentation process.
The automatic conversion unit 130, as a frame #0 is manually converted into a three dimensional form by user editing, automatically converts a frame #1 following the frame #0 with reference to segment region information and a depth value of the frame #0, and automatically converts a frame #2 with reference to segment region information and a depth value of the frame #1. That is, the automatic conversion unit 130 sequentially converts frames following the second frame, each frame converted with reference to segment region information and a depth value of a frame prior to the each frame.
The automatic conversion on
Referring to
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the three-dimensional video creating apparatus automatically splits the video in a case in which a color variation value between successive frames forming the video is a predetermined threshold value or above. Since frames forming the same cut have similar color distributions to each other, the video may be automatically split based on a point at which color distribution information of the successive frames is greatly changed.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, the three-dimensional video creating apparatus provides a user interface, and splits the video according to user cut split information that is input through the user interface. That is, in order for a user to produce a three dimensional sensation, the user interface enabling the user to clip or merge cuts is provided.
The three-dimensional video creating apparatus receives a depth value of one of frames that form each of two or more split cuts (n+1), and manually converts the one frame into a three dimensional form in 630. In accordance with an example embodiment, the one frame may be the first frame among the frames forming the cut. In addition, the three-dimensional video creating apparatus may receive the depth value in units of color segments forming a single image frame. Here, the color segment represents information grouping regions having similar color values in an image, and the three-dimensional video creating apparatus may create a color segment image from one original image frame by converting a region having a small color variation with a color value. Such a frame segment image may serve as object information of an image since regions of the frame segment image are divided in units of objects or in units of object details.
In addition, in a case in which the same object is split into two or more different segments, the two or more segments may be merged. In addition, a parameter that adjusts a degree of splitting segments may be received from a user, and the degree of splitting segments may be set.
The three-dimensional video creating apparatus automatically converts other frames included in the cuts with reference to the frame, which is converted into the three dimensional form in 640.
In accordance with an example embodiment, the three-dimensional video creating apparatus, as a frame #0 is manually converted into a three dimensional form by user editing, automatically converts a frame #1 following the frame #0 with reference to segment region information and a depth value of the frame #0, and automatically converts a frame #2 with reference to segment region information and a depth value of the frame #1. That is, the three-dimensional video creating apparatus sequentially converts frames following the second frame, each frame converted with reference to segment region information and a depth value of a frame prior to the each frame.
The three-dimensional video creating apparatus outputs the three dimension video created by the manual conversion and the automatic conversion as the above in 650.
The present disclosures, in order to provide an easy tool that enables a general user to convert a two-dimensional video into a three-dimensional video, without performing a three dimension conversion on each frame of the video, splits a video in units of cuts and allows a user to edit one frame included in the cut, so that if one of frames included in the cut is edited, other frames are automatically converted, thereby simplifying the work of a user. In addition, a user directly produces a three dimensional sensation, thereby correcting an error of three dimension values that may be generated from an automatic conversion.
As is apparent from the present disclosure, the three-dimensional content is produced in an easy manner and thus the production of three-dimensional content can be increased, so that three dimension related industries having a difficulty due to a lack of content can also be activated.
A number of examples have been described above. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made. For example, suitable results may be achieved if the described techniques are performed in a different order and/or if components in a described system, architecture, device, or circuit are combined in a different manner and/or replaced or supplemented by other components or their equivalents. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2013-0011404 | Jan 2013 | KR | national |
