Patent Document ID: 9310885
Application ID: 14072929
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of augmenting a first stereoscopic image comprising a pair of images, the method comprising the steps of: generating, by one or more processors, a disparity map from the pair of images of the first stereoscopic image, the disparity map being indicative of distances in the first stereoscopic image; generating a virtual three-dimensional model comprising a mesh based upon the distances indicated by the disparity map; modelling, by the one or more processors, an interaction of a virtual object with the three dimensional model, in which the virtual object has a physical attribute associated with it, and the interaction of the virtual object with the three dimensional model utilises the physical attribute; and outputting, for display, an image corresponding to the first stereoscopic image that comprises a visible effect of the interaction of the virtual object with the three dimensional model; in which the step of generating the virtual three-dimensional model comprises in turn the steps of: defining a series of value ranges corresponding to disparity values of the disparity map, each value range in the series having an end point corresponding to a greater disparity than an end point of preceding value ranges in the series; selecting points in the disparity map falling within the respective value range; generating a respective mesh responsive to those selected points; and merging the resulting series of generated meshes to form the 3D model of the scene; wherein: each respective mesh is within a depth range; and merging the resulting series of generated meshes to form the 3D model of the scene is done across a depth spanned by the depth ranges of the respective meshes wherein the merged 3D model of the scene is made up of a continuous geometry.