The bandwidth required to transmit stereoscopic video signals is nominally twice that required for standard, monoscopic images. An effective method of reducing the required bandwidth is to code the two video streams asymmetrically. We assessed the impact of this bandwidth- reduction technique on image quality and overall sensation of depth. Images from the right-eye stream were spatially filtered on image quality and overall sensation of depth. Images from the right-eye stream were stream were spatially filtered to half and quarter resolution. Subsequently, the images were processed using an MPEG-2 codec at bit-rates of 6, 2, and 1 Mbit/s. Subjects assessed image quality and depth using a double-stimulus, continuous-quality scale method. It was found that perceived depth was relatively robust to spatial filtering and bit-rate reduction. Image quality was affected more by bit-rate reduction than by spatial filtering and, at the lower bit rates, ratings were much higher for stereoscopic than for non-stereoscopic sequences. The results indicate that asymmetrical coding of stereoscopic sequences can be an effective means of reducing bandwidth for storage and transmission.

Date Published: 3 May 2000
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 3957, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VII, (3 May 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.384476

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3957:
Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VII
John O. Merritt; Mark T. Bolas; Stephen A. Benton; Andrew J. Woods; Mark T. Bolas, Editor(s)