Subjective assessments of the resolution of viewing directions in a multi-viewpoint 3D TV system

For future 3D TV systems with multi-viewpoint (look around) capability, it is not known how many spatially adjacent images of the same scene ought to be reproduced. For an empirical test, an experimental system was developed which permitted a variation of the number of images covering a fixed range of viewing positions. Within the viewing zones of discrete stereopairs, there was constant luminance and no crosstalk between adjacent images. Twelve non-expert observers assessed the quality of the 3D reproduction as well as typical interferences with a standardized rating procedure. The essential performance feature turned out to be the maximum magnitude of the parallax shifts, which occur at the transition points between adjacent image zones (so-called flipping). It is concluded that flipping must not exceed 1.15 min of arc (0.34 mrad) for a system to be rated good on the CCIR quality scale. Hence, the requirements for a 3D reproduction covering the full depth range utilized in 3D cinematography amount to about 60 views per interocular distance.