Patent Document ID: 8749620
Application ID: 13027946
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of varying a three dimensional (3D) effect in a stereo image of a scene, the method comprising: a) at a light field data acquisition device, acquiring light field data representing light rays from the scene via one acquisition; b) in a processor, identifying a first set of at least two positions associated with the light field data acquisition device, wherein each position in the first set corresponds to a virtual aperture and further corresponds to a subset of light rays of the acquired light field data, each subset of light rays coming from a direction, and wherein: the virtual aperture corresponding to each position in the first set is different from the virtual aperture corresponding to any other position in the first set; and the subset of light rays corresponding to each position in the first set comes from a direction that is different than the direction of the subset of light rays corresponding to any other position in the first set; c) in the processor, for each of at least two of the subsets of light rays corresponding to positions in the first set, generating image data of the scene using light field data for the subset of light rays associated with the corresponding virtual aperture, wherein the image data represents an image of the scene from a perspective corresponding to the position of the virtual aperture; d) in the processor, generating a first 3D stereo image of the scene using the image data generated from at least two of the subsets of light rays corresponding to positions in the first set, wherein the first 3D stereo image has a first 3D effect; e) in the processor, identifying a second set of at least two positions associated with the light field data acquisition device, wherein each position in the second set corresponds to a virtual aperture and further corresponds to a subset of light rays of the acquired light field data, each subset of light rays coming from a direction, and wherein at least one of the positions within the second set is different from any of the positions identified in step b), and wherein: the virtual aperture corresponding to each position in the second set is different from the virtual aperture corresponding to any other position in the second set; and the subset of light rays corresponding to each position in the second set comes from a direction that is different than the direction of the subset of light rays corresponding to any other position in the second set; f) in the processor, for each subset of light rays associated with positions in the second set for which image data was not generated in step c), generating image data of the scene using light field data for the subset of light rays associated with the corresponding virtual aperture, wherein the image data represents an image of the scene from a perspective corresponding to the position of the virtual aperture; g) in the processor, generating a second 3D stereo image of the scene using the image data generated from at least two of the subsets of light rays corresponding to positions in the second set, wherein the second 3D stereo image has a second 3D effect that is different than the first 3D effect; and h) at an output device, outputting the first and second 3D stereo images.