Methods for carrying and transmitting 3D z-norm attributes in digital TV closed captioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9426441-B2
Application number	US-201113040449-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2011
Priority date	Mar 8, 2010
Publication date	Aug 23, 2016
Grant date	Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

Methods for carrying and transmitting overlay depth data of an overlay of a stereoscopic image of a display device as a fraction of a viewer distance from the overlay are described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying a stereoscopic image on a playback display device, comprising executing on a processor the steps of:
A) determining a normalized pixel separation offset based on an interocular separation at infinity for a screen resolution of a normalized display device and a percentage of viewer distance from a screen plane of the normalized display device of an object in the stereoscopic image;
B) generating overlay depth data of an overlay of the stereoscopic image for the playback display device, the overlay depth data comprising the normalized pixel separation offset;
C) allocating the overlay depth data in an available portion of a layer of a multilayer protocol system for transmission of overlays;
D) transmitting the overlay depth data to the playback display device;
E) converting, for the playback display device, the normalized pixel separation offset to a device specific pixel separation offset using the ratio of resolutions of the normalized display device and the playback display device; and
F) displaying the stereoscopic image on the playback display device using the device specific pixel separation offset.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the overlay depth data are close captioning depth data and the multilayer protocol system for transmission of overlays is a multilayer protocol system for transmission of close captioning.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the multilayer protocol system for transmission of close captioning operates according to a CEA-708-D standard.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the available portion is a portion of a packet layer of the multilayer protocol system.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the multilayer protocol system for transmission of close captioning operates according to a CEA-708-D standard and wherein an augmented cc_data ( ) structure is provided to carry the overlay depth data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a first section of the augmented cc_data( ) structure carries a sign bit and a second section of the augmented cc_data( ) structure carries a binary value of the overlay depth data.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the available portion is a portion of a service layer of the multilayer protocol system.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the multilayer protocol system for transmission of close captioning operates according to a CEA-708-D standard and wherein extended services are adopted to carry the overlay depth data.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the extended services are selected between service #7 and service #73.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the extended services comprise a size portion and a data portion, and wherein a first section of the data portion carries a sign bit and a second section of the data portion carries a binary value of the overlay depth data.

11. The method of claim 2 , wherein the available portion is a portion of a coding layer of the multilayer protocol system.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the multilayer protocol system for transmission of close captioning operates according to a CEA-708-D standard and wherein the overlay depth data are supported through 1-byte, 2-byte or 3-byte character code extensions.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the overlay depth data are supported through an undefined window command.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the window command is selected between window commands 0x93 and 0x96.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein a first section of the window command carries a sign bit and a second section of the window command carries a binary value of the overlay depth data.

16. A computer-implemented method for displaying a stereoscopic image to a client device, the method comprising executing on a processor the steps of:
determining a normalized pixel separation offset based on an interocular separation at infinity for a screen resolution of a normalized display device and a percentage of viewer distance from a screen plane of the normalized display device of an object in the stereoscopic image:
generating overlay depth data of an overlay of the stereoscopic image of for the client device, the overlay depth data comprising the normalized pixel separation offset a normalized fraction of a viewer distance from a screen plane of the display device;
coding the overlay depth data in an available portion of a layer of a multilayer protocol system for transmission of overlays;
transmitting the coded overlay depth data to the client device;
converting, for the client device, the normalized pixel separation offset to a device specific pixel separation offset using the ratio of resolutions of the normalized display device and the display device; and
displaying the stereoscopic image on the client device using the device specific pixel separation offset.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the client device is selected from set-top box, television and personal computer.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the client device processes the coded overlay depth data.

19. A method of rendering an overlay of a stereoscopic image by means of a client device, the method comprising:
transmitting overlay depth data to the client device according to the method of claim 16 ;
processing the overlay depth data received; and
rendering the overlay of a stereoscopic image at a normalized fraction of a viewer distance from a screen plane of a display of the client device as a function of the overlay depth data.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the overlay is a closed caption.

Assignees

• Dougherty James
• Zato Thomas
• Filippini Gianluca
• Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp

Inventors

• Dougherty James
• Zato Thomas
• Filippini Gianluca

Classifications

• H04N13/00 Primary

  Stereoscopic video systems; Multi-view video systems; Details thereof · CPC title

• H04N2213/003

  Aspects relating to the "2D+depth" image format · CPC title

• H04N13/183

  On-screen display [OSD] information, e.g. subtitles or menus · CPC title

• H04N13/156

  Mixing image signals · CPC title

• H04N19/597

  specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding · CPC title