Patent Document ID: 20060114253
Application ID: 11334591
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented process for generating a two-layer representation of a digital or digitized image from the image and a disparity map of the image, comprising: a first identifying step for identifying the location of depth discontinuities in the image using its disparity map; a second identifying step for identifying the pixels of the image that are found within prescribed sized areas surrounding the depth discontinuities and designating these pixels as being in depth discontinuity areas of the image; a first estimating step for estimating a foreground and background color, and an alpha value, for each pixel in the depth discontinuity areas; a second estimating step for estimating a foreground and background disparity value for each pixel in the depth discontinuity areas; a first establishing step for establishing a boundary layer of the image comprising a pixel at each respective location that corresponds to a pixel of the depth discontinuity areas, wherein each boundary layer pixel is assigned the foreground color, foreground disparity and alpha value associated with the corresponding pixel of the depth discontinuity areas; and a second establishing step for establishing a main layer of the image comprising, a pixel at each respective location that corresponds to a pixel of the depth discontinuity areas, wherein each of said pixels is assigned the background color and background disparity value associated with the corresponding pixel of the depth discontinuity areas, and a pixel at each location that does not correspond to a pixel of the depth discontinuity areas, wherein each of said pixels is assigned the color and disparity value associated with the corresponding pixel of the image.