INTERMEDIATE VIEW POINT IMAGE GENERATING METHOD, PARALLAX ESTIMATE METHOD AND IMAGE TRANSMISSION METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reproduce an object contour in an intermediate view point image with excellent image quality by using an image clustering result so as to conduct parallax estimate deciding a parallax at an area with low reliability in an initial parallax from the parallax in picture elements of a same cluster around it so as to make a contour line of a foreground object in matching with a parallax boarder between foreground and background. SOLUTION: Initial parallax estimate sections 3L, 3R use left and right images as a reference image to calculate the initial parallax. Reliability evaluation sections 4L, 4R calculate a corresponding evaluation values for each picture element. Clustering sections 5L, 5R conduct clustering corresponding to an image with high or low reliability. Parallax interpolation sections 6L, 6R calculates the interpolation of the parallax value at an area where the initial parallax reliability is low based on a parallax of the surrounding same cluster from the parallax of the noted picture element so as to estimate the parallax changed discontinuously at a cluster border and estimates discontinuous parallax at the border between the foreground parallax and the background parallax.