31,429 research outputs found
Loss-resilient Coding of Texture and Depth for Free-viewpoint Video Conferencing
Free-viewpoint video conferencing allows a participant to observe the remote
3D scene from any freely chosen viewpoint. An intermediate virtual viewpoint
image is commonly synthesized using two pairs of transmitted texture and depth
maps from two neighboring captured viewpoints via depth-image-based rendering
(DIBR). To maintain high quality of synthesized images, it is imperative to
contain the adverse effects of network packet losses that may arise during
texture and depth video transmission. Towards this end, we develop an
integrated approach that exploits the representation redundancy inherent in the
multiple streamed videos a voxel in the 3D scene visible to two captured views
is sampled and coded twice in the two views. In particular, at the receiver we
first develop an error concealment strategy that adaptively blends
corresponding pixels in the two captured views during DIBR, so that pixels from
the more reliable transmitted view are weighted more heavily. We then couple it
with a sender-side optimization of reference picture selection (RPS) during
real-time video coding, so that blocks containing samples of voxels that are
visible in both views are more error-resiliently coded in one view only, given
adaptive blending will erase errors in the other view. Further, synthesized
view distortion sensitivities to texture versus depth errors are analyzed, so
that relative importance of texture and depth code blocks can be computed for
system-wide RPS optimization. Experimental results show that the proposed
scheme can outperform the use of a traditional feedback channel by up to 0.82
dB on average at 8% packet loss rate, and by as much as 3 dB for particular
frames
In-Network View Synthesis for Interactive Multiview Video Systems
To enable Interactive multiview video systems with a minimum view-switching
delay, multiple camera views are sent to the users, which are used as reference
images to synthesize additional virtual views via depth-image-based rendering.
In practice, bandwidth constraints may however restrict the number of reference
views sent to clients per time unit, which may in turn limit the quality of the
synthesized viewpoints. We argue that the reference view selection should
ideally be performed close to the users, and we study the problem of in-network
reference view synthesis such that the navigation quality is maximized at the
clients. We consider a distributed cloud network architecture where data stored
in a main cloud is delivered to end users with the help of cloudlets, i.e.,
resource-rich proxies close to the users. In order to satisfy last-hop
bandwidth constraints from the cloudlet to the users, a cloudlet re-samples
viewpoints of the 3D scene into a discrete set of views (combination of
received camera views and virtual views synthesized) to be used as reference
for the synthesis of additional virtual views at the client. This in-network
synthesis leads to better viewpoint sampling given a bandwidth constraint
compared to simple selection of camera views, but it may however carry a
distortion penalty in the cloudlet-synthesized reference views. We therefore
cast a new reference view selection problem where the best subset of views is
defined as the one minimizing the distortion over a view navigation window
defined by the user under some transmission bandwidth constraints. We show that
the view selection problem is NP-hard, and propose an effective polynomial time
algorithm using dynamic programming to solve the optimization problem.
Simulation results finally confirm the performance gain offered by virtual view
synthesis in the network
Navigation domain representation for interactive multiview imaging
Enabling users to interactively navigate through different viewpoints of a
static scene is a new interesting functionality in 3D streaming systems. While
it opens exciting perspectives towards rich multimedia applications, it
requires the design of novel representations and coding techniques in order to
solve the new challenges imposed by interactive navigation. Interactivity
clearly brings new design constraints: the encoder is unaware of the exact
decoding process, while the decoder has to reconstruct information from
incomplete subsets of data since the server can generally not transmit images
for all possible viewpoints due to resource constrains. In this paper, we
propose a novel multiview data representation that permits to satisfy bandwidth
and storage constraints in an interactive multiview streaming system. In
particular, we partition the multiview navigation domain into segments, each of
which is described by a reference image and some auxiliary information. The
auxiliary information enables the client to recreate any viewpoint in the
navigation segment via view synthesis. The decoder is then able to navigate
freely in the segment without further data request to the server; it requests
additional data only when it moves to a different segment. We discuss the
benefits of this novel representation in interactive navigation systems and
further propose a method to optimize the partitioning of the navigation domain
into independent segments, under bandwidth and storage constraints.
Experimental results confirm the potential of the proposed representation;
namely, our system leads to similar compression performance as classical
inter-view coding, while it provides the high level of flexibility that is
required for interactive streaming. Hence, our new framework represents a
promising solution for 3D data representation in novel interactive multimedia
services
Disparity map generation based on trapezoidal camera architecture for multiview video
Visual content acquisition is a strategic functional block of any visual system. Despite its wide possibilities,
the arrangement of cameras for the acquisition of good quality visual content for use in multi-view video
remains a huge challenge. This paper presents the mathematical description of trapezoidal camera
architecture and relationships which facilitate the determination of camera position for visual content
acquisition in multi-view video, and depth map generation. The strong point of Trapezoidal Camera
Architecture is that it allows for adaptive camera topology by which points within the scene, especially the
occluded ones can be optically and geometrically viewed from several different viewpoints either on the
edge of the trapezoid or inside it. The concept of maximum independent set, trapezoid characteristics, and
the fact that the positions of cameras (with the exception of few) differ in their vertical coordinate
description could very well be used to address the issue of occlusion which continues to be a major
problem in computer vision with regards to the generation of depth map
3D video coding and transmission
The capture, transmission, and display of
3D content has gained a lot of attention in the last few
years. 3D multimedia content is no longer con fined to
cinema theatres but is being transmitted using stereoscopic
video over satellite, shared on Blu-RayTMdisks,
or sent over Internet technologies. Stereoscopic displays
are needed at the receiving end and the viewer needs to
wear special glasses to present the two versions of the
video to the human vision system that then generates
the 3D illusion. To be more e ffective and improve the
immersive experience, more views are acquired from a
larger number of cameras and presented on di fferent displays,
such as autostereoscopic and light field displays.
These multiple views, combined with depth data, also
allow enhanced user experiences and new forms of interaction
with the 3D content from virtual viewpoints.
This type of audiovisual information is represented by a
huge amount of data that needs to be compressed and
transmitted over bandwidth-limited channels. Part of
the COST Action IC1105 \3D Content Creation, Coding
and Transmission over Future Media Networks" (3DConTourNet)
focuses on this research challenge.peer-reviewe
- …