Patent ID: 7471292

Claim:
A method for synthesizing a viewpoint comprising: (a) receiving a first video stream of a scene having a first viewpoint; (b) receiving a second video stream having a second viewpoint wherein positional camera calibration between said first viewpoint and said second viewpoint is unknown; (c) a viewer selecting a viewer viewpoint generally between said first viewpoint and said second viewpoint; (d) synthesizing said viewer viewpoint based upon said first video stream and said second video stream using a disparity map that is constructed using the steps of: (i) segmenting an image from said first video stream into a plurality of segments, each said segment having a pixel height and a pixel width; ii) associating at least one of said plurality of segments with a respective associated segment of an image from said second video stream, said associated segment having the said pixel height and pixel width of the at least one of said plurality of segments, said associated segment automatically selected based on a score calculated by counting a number of corresponding pixel pairs, between said at least one segment and said respective associated segment, whose relative difference has a magnitude less than a threshold; and (iii) warping said at least one of said plurality of segments to said respective associated segment to construct said disparity map.