Display-Independent 3D-TV Production and Delivery Using the Layered Depth Video Format

This paper discusses an approach to 3D-Television that is based on the Layered Depth Video (LDV) format. The LDV format contains explicit depth and occlusion information, allowing for the generation of novel viewpoints for stereoscopic and auto-stereoscopic multi-view displays. Thus, the format is effectively invariant to the display type and also allows the depth impression to be easily changed to best meet viewers´ preferences for visual comfort. The major aspects of a content delivery chain based on the LDV format are discussed in this paper. The requirements placed on data acquisition are introduced, and a multi-camera system, which is well suited for LDV compliant data capture, is presented. Also discussed is the conversion of different input data streams, like standard stereo videos, multi-view data supplemented by depth data, and videos from wide baseline setups, to the LDV format. Moreover, the advantages of the LDV format in editing and mixing are examined. The paper also presents a transmission system based on currently available coding and transmission standards. Optimization of the bandwidth via different approaches to the compression of the LDV signal is analyzed, and the results of conducted experiments in this field are discussed. Finally, the aspects of perceptual human factors for the proper evaluation of 3D-TV services and the implemented LDV system are examined. This contribution reflects the efforts of the EU-funded project 3D4YOU to unify all aspects of 3D-TV production.