"Incomplete 3D". A new technique for multiview data representation

We have developed a disparity-based technique to combine texture data of video objects, which are captured simultaneously with multiple-camera configurations. The resulting texture surface can be encoded like any 2D video object plane, while the 3D information is contained in the associated disparity map. It is then possible to reconstruct different viewpoints from the texture surface by simple disparity-based projection. We have performed experiments with the MPEG-4 video verification model, where the disparity map is encoded by use of the tools provided for gray-scale alpha data encoding. Due to its simplicity, the technique is suitable for applications with requirements for real-time viewpoint adaptation towards video objects.