Multiview image coding scheme transformations: artifact characteristics and effects on perceived 3D quality

Roger Olsson and Mårten Sjöström

Abstract

Autostereoscopic multiview 3D displays have been available for number of years, capable of producing a perception of depth in a 3D image without requiring user-worn glasses. Different approaches to compress these 3D images exist. Two compression schemes, and how they affect the 3D image with respect to induced distortion, are investigated in this paper: JPEG 2000 and H.264/AVC. The investigation is conducted in three parts: objective measurement, qualitative subjective evaluation, and a quantitative user test. The objective measurement shows that the Rate-Distortion (RD) characteristic of the two compression schemes differ in character as well as in level of PSNR. The qualitative evaluation is performed at bitrates where the two schemes have the same RD fraction and a number of distortion characteristics are found to be significantly different. However, the quantitative evaluation, performed using 14 non-expert viewers, indicates that the different distortion types do not significantly contribute to the overall perceived 3D quality. The used bitrate, and the content of the original 3D image, are the two factors that most significantly affect the perceived 3D image quality. In addition, the evaluation results suggest that viewers prefer less apparent depth and motion parallax when being exposed to compressed 3D images on an autostereoscopic multiview display.



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Publication

"Multiview image coding scheme transformations: artifact characteristics and effects on perceived 3D quality"
Roger Olsson and Mårten Sjöström
Proceedings of Stereoscopic Displays and Applications, Januari 2010