Stereoscopic Three-Dimensional Television
3D to the Home: from Acquisition to Display
(Working Titles)
OVERVIEW
The theme for this book is Stereoscopic 3D digital technologies. The focus of the book will be the “3D to the Home” ecosystem.
The projected scope is to thoroughly analyze and describe the work-flow across the 3D value chain. This includes the deliverables of Video content, Games, and Images. The 3D chain is, in order : Acquisition, Post Production, Distribution Formatting, Ingest, Distribution across several pipelines and infrastructures, Decoding, Display preparation and finally, Display.
3D to the Home technologies have sparked the interest of CE Manufacturers, Content Producers, Broadcasters, and Consumers. The success of a string stereoscopic motion pictures, culminating with the record shattering epic, AVATAR have boosted the interest in 3D to a fever-pitch.
Challenges reside in promoting general understanding from consumers, industry professionals and other interested parties of stereoscopic home technologies
Confusion about what are 3D to the Home technologies, how they differ, and their functioning is widespread.
This book will serve as a helpful guide to those who are interested in knowing more about these technologies which are exponentially gaining market share.
Books have been written on 3D, but there is not a single volume that can get people up to speed on the latest in 3D to the Home technologies.
From Novice to intermediate user, and even the expert who may have a certain strengths and weaknesses in stereoscopy, this book will bring light to many subjects.
This book will take a new approach to 3D to the Home by organizing the information along the lines of the content chain.
AUDIENCE
The book will be invaluable to professionals who already do work in HD and Digital Video and need to get up to speed for the 3D transition.
This book will be very useful to members of the following organizations:
- Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
- Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)
- Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)
- Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)
- Society of Television Engineers (STE)
- 3D@Home Consortium
- Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB)
- International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
- International Standards Organization (ISO)
- Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
- MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF)
- American Society of Cinematographers (ASC)
- Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA)
- International Stereoscopic Union (ISU)
- National Stereoscopic Association (NSA)
- Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)
- DVD Forum
- Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB)
- Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)
- International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
- 3D Consortium
- Society for Information Display (SID)
- Web3D consortium
- Stereoscopic 3D Game Developers Association (S-3DGA)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreward
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Getting Started
What is 3D?
History of 3D
3D in the Cinema
3D to the Home
The 3D to the Home Ecosystem Map
Chapter Two: Stereoscopic Acquisition
Stereopsis, the Human Visual System and how this relates to 3D capture
How do we perceive 3D?
Depth Cues, Stereopsis, and pattern recognition
What is the correlation between stereoscopic capture and the human visual system?
Binocular Disparity
Retinal Rivalry
Vergence and Focus / Accomodation
The Stereoscopic Window
Stereoscopic Zone of Comfort
Inter-Axial Distance
Convergence
Dwarfism and Gigantism
Window Violations
Blur, Depth of Field, and 2D compatibility
Capturing for different screen sizes
Digital 3D Capture using motion picture cameras
Stereoscopic Rigs
Beam Splitter Rigs
Side by Side Rigs
Single Camera Rigs
Lenses and attachments
Digital 3D using Computer Generated Information
Virtual Camera Rigs
Layered Rendering
Compositing CG and live Action
Video Game and Virtual Reality Environments
The 3D internet
2D to 3D conversion techniques
Rotoscoping
Depth Map
Realistic Vs. Creative
Realtime Vs. Offline
Acquisition metadata
Chapter Three: Post Production and Mastering:
The 3D Home Master and it’s Associated Metadata
Post Production of 3D content
Color imbalances
Dealing with luminance
Ensuring uniformity across the views
Stereoscopic Dynamic Floating Windows
Shifting the perceived configuration of the stereoscopic Window
Stereoscopic Audio
One version or two?
Graphics, Subtitles, and Menus
Depth Maps
Disparity Maps
Rendering objects in Z-Space
Mastering for different screen sizes from large screen to mobile
Chapter Four: Distribution Formatting
Full HD 3D and Backward Compatible Coding methods
2D+Delta
MultiView Video Coding
Achieving optimal compression between stereoscopic views
Motion Vectors Vs. Disparity Vectors
Backward compatibility
Metadata and Flags
Simulcasting
Issues and challenges
Frame Compatible (Pixel Sub-sampled) methods
Sub-sampling techniques
Quincunx (checkerboard)
other sub sampling techniques
Frame Compatible arrangements (Half Resolution)
Over / Under
Checkerboard
Side by Side
Tagging Frame Compatible Images
Half Resolution Hybrid formats
Chromatic Shifting techniques
Anaglyph
ColorCode
SpaceSpex
Infitec
Temporal Frame Packing
Frame Sequential
Multiple View distribution techniques
Depth Map Formats
WowVX Declipse
MPEG-C
3DV
Multiple View Formats
MVC
Stereoscopic Content Security
Chapter Five: Stereoscopic Distribution pipelines
Broadcast
ATSC
Legacy Compatibility
Bandwidth Constraints
ATSC 2.0
DVB
ATSC-M
Scalability
Cable
VOD
Live events
Set Top Box Considerations
Transcoding
IPTV
Stereoscopic Marketplaces
IPTV infrastructures for 3D
Optical Media
DVD
Blu-ray
Satellite
Cinecasting
The Head End
Local plant Ingest
Emission Encoders
Local station infrastructures
Chapter Six: Decoding Stereoscopic Content
MPEG Decoding
PC
Set Top Box
ATSC Tuner
Pixel Interpolation
Frame interpolation
Transcoding considerations
Display Preparation techniques
The uncompressed interfaces
HDMI
Displayport
InfoFrames and Metadata
Chapter Seven: Stereoscopic Displays
Two View 3D Displays
Active
What is Active 3D?
Image response time
Plasma
LCD
Frame Interpolation
OLED
DLP
DLP Link
Checkerboard
Active Glasses Design and operation:
Nvidia
XpanD
RealD
Others
Passive Displays
Xpol, Row Interleaved
Active Retarder
Dual LCD
Passive Glasses and their operation
Circularly Polarized passive glasses
Linearly Polarized passive glasses
Head Mounted Displays
OLED
LCOS
LCD
Auto-stereoscopic (glasses free) Displays
Lenticular
light field
volumetric
holographic
Mobile 3D displays
Other Topics
Medical
Military
Oil and Gas exploration
Scientific
Altered Reality
Conclusions
Ethan,
You have a very thorough outline for the book and the Interview with Dr. Banks was very informative. Thanks for posting it.
Bob Johnston
International Director
3D Film Festival & Market – Hollywood
3D Producer/Technology Strategist/International Media Development
Bob,
Thank you for your kind words. If you think it’s appropriate to add a short section on planning for a 3D production, your help on that would be great, we could do a similar interview of you and post it on the blog as well.
Ethan
Your book will be a welcome addition to the field, Ethan. Thanks as well for posting the interview with Dr. Banks. What I hope you can incorporate in the book is something about what the user can do about maximizing the viewing experience when problems originate in the viewer’s visual system rather than within the technology. Mendiburu alluded to this in his book (see:
http://visionhelp.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/the-3ds-of-stereoscopic-3d-viewing-problems-part-3/)
There is a nice short video alluding to this concept at:
Best wishes for success,
Leonard J. Press, O.D., FCOVD, FAAO
Optometric Director, The Vision & Learning Center
Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Thanks for sharing.. Regards.