A technical paper by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications Heinrich Hertz Institute has been selected as the IBC2012 Best Conference Paper, IBC2012 conference organizers announced Aug. 15.
The paper, “Fully Automatic Stereo-to-Multiview Conversion in Autostereoscopic Displays,” examines the ability to create the signals for glasses-free 3-D displays from two-camera stereoscopic origination.
The IBC Best Conference Paper Award is presented each year for the paper that, in the opinion of the IBC Technical Papers Committee, best matches innovation with clarity of expression.
The authors of this year’s winning paper include Christian Riechert, Frederik Zilly, Peter Kauff, Jens Güther and Ralf Schäfer. The paper will be delivered during the “Stereoscopic 3D Content and Display-Developments and Diagnoses” session, Sunday, Sept. 9, at 2 p.m.
The premise of the paper is that 3-D television to the home will only achieve mass popularity when it can be enjoyed by multiple viewers without the need for glasses. Current production techniques are stereoscopic, using two cameras and image chains and delivering an image to each eye using special glasses. Autostereoscopic displays — that is, glasses-free 3-D — require more than two views. At least five are necessary, and many more are preferable. What the Fraunhofer paper describes is the design of an algorithm, capable of being implemented in relatively low-cost hardware, which will reside in the television receiver to convert stereo 3-D to the required number of multiview images in real time.
“This is a great honor for me and all my co-authors,” said Christian Reichert, who will collect the award on behalf of his colleagues. “Real-time conversion of stereo content to multiview for autostereoscopic displays is indeed a hot issue in the 3-D community. It is a pleasure for a team of researchers like ours to be able to offer solutions to such a challenging task.”
“This is important, relevant work, and the detail of their research is impressive,” said Nick Lodge, chair of the IBC Technical Papers Committee. “Because of the highly mathematical nature of the work it could have been very difficult to understand, but the authors have described clearly why each stage of their algorithm is necessary, how they optimized it and how well it performs.”
“The technology is leading edge, but it is responding to a real market need, to open up the popularity of 3-D in the home,” Lodge added. “The IBC Best Conference Paper Award recognizes not just good science but the communication of good science and this is a worthy winner.”
The IBC2012 Best Conference Paper Award will be presented to Riechert as part of the IBC Awards Ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 6:30 p.m.