We exploit the correlations between 3D-stereoscopic left-right image pairs to achieve high compression factors for image frame storage and image stream transmission. In particular, in image stream transmission, we can find extremely high correlations between left-right frames offset in time such that perspective-induced disparity between viewpoints and motion-induced parallax from a single viewpoint are nearly identical; we coin the term `wordline correlation' for this condition. We test these ideas in two implementations, straightforward computing of blockwise cross-correlations, and multiresolution hierarchical matching using a wavelet-based compression method. We find that good 3D-stereoscopic imagery can be had for only a few percent more storage space or transmission bandwidth than is required for the corresponding flat imagery.

Date Published: 15 April 1994
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 2177, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems, (15 April 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.173899

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2177:
Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems
Scott S. Fisher; John O. Merritt; Mark T. Bolas, Editor(s)