Patent Document ID: 9060165
Application ID: 13038055
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A 3-dimensional (3D) video communication method, comprising: obtaining timestamped video image data of a scene, wherein: the video image data comprises at least one time stamped frame of depth image and at least two respective timestamped frames of color images; the timestamped video image data are collected by one of: at least one first depth image collecting apparatus being placed at a known view point 1 , wherein the first depth image collecting apparatus being capable of outputting timestamped depth information Z of the scene, and at least two second color image collecting apparatuses with a first of the second color collecting apparatus being placed at the same known view point 1 , and a second of the second color collecting apparatus being placed at a known view point 2 , wherein both the first and the second of the second color collecting apparatuses being capable of outputting respective timestamped color/grayscale video information of the scene; encoding the respective timestamped video image data to obtain respective encoded timestamped video image data; and sending the respective encoded timestamped video image data in order to establish a mapping relation between the at least one timestamped frame of depth image and the at least two respective timestamped frames of color images for image reconstruction, wherein the timestamped depth information Z of the scene output by the first depth image collecting apparatus is utilized to calculate parallax information ∇x between the at least two second color image collecting apparatuses at the known view point 1 and the known view point 2 , respectively, utilizing the equation: Z = fB x 2 - x 1 = fB ∇ x wherein f is a known focal length of the respective at least one first depth image collecting apparatus and the at least one second color image collecting apparatus; wherein B is a known baseline separation between two respective optical centers of the at least two second color image collecting apparatuses at known view point 1 and known view point 2 , respectively, wherein x 2 −x 1 =∇x is parallax information, x 1 and x 2 being respective horizontal coordinates of a same imaging point collected by the at least two second color image collecting apparatuses at known view point 1 and known view point 2 , respectively.