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Three-dimensional television (3DTV) is often mentioned as a logical next step following high-definition television (HDTV). A high quality 3-D broadcast service is becoming increasingly feasible based on various recent technological developments combined with an enhanced understanding of 3-D perception and human factors issues surrounding 3DTV. In this paper, perceptually relevant issues, in particular stereoscopic image quality and visual comfort, in relation to 3DTV systems are reviewed. We discuss how the principles of a quantitative measure of image quality for conventional 2-D images, based on identifying underlying attributes of image quality and quantifying the perceived strengths of each attribute, can be applied in image quality research for 3DTV. In this respect, studies are reviewed that have focussed on the relationship between subjective attributes underlying stereoscopic image quality and the technical parameters that induce them (e.g. parameter choices in image acquisition, compression and display). More specifically, artifacts that may arise in 3DTV systems are addressed, such as keystone distortion, cross-talk, cardboard effect, puppet theatre effect, and blur. In conclusion, we summarize the perceptual requirements for 3DTV that can be extracted from the literature and address issues that require further investigation in order for 3DTV to be a success.

3D-Video systems allow a user to perceive depth in the viewed scene and to display the scene from arbitrary viewpoints interactively and on-demand. This paper presents a prototype implementation of a 3D-video streaming system using an IP network. The architecture of our streaming system is layered, where each information layer conveys a single coded video signal or coded scene-description data. We demonstrate the benefits of a layered architecture with two examples: (a) stereoscopic video streaming, (b) monoscopic video streaming with remote multiple-perspective rendering. Our implementation experiments confirm that prototyping 3D-video streaming systems is possible with today's software and hardware. Furthermore, our current operational prototype demonstrates that highly heterogeneous clients can coexist in the system, ranging from auto-stereoscopic 3D displays to resource-constrained mobile devices.

Visual discomfort has been the subject of considerable research in relation to stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays, but remains an ambiguous concept used to denote a variety of subjective symptoms potentially related to different underlying processes. In this paper we clarify the importance of various causes and aspects of visual comfort. Classical causative factors such as excessive binocular parallax and accommodation-convergence conflict appear to be of minor importance when disparity values do not surpass one degree limit of visual angle, which still provides sufficient range to allow for satisfactory depth perception in consumer applications, such as stereoscopic television. Visual discomfort, however, may still occur within this limit and we believe the following factors to be the most pertinent in contributing to this: (1) excessive demand of accommodation-convergence linkage, e.g., by fast motion in depth, viewed at short distances, (2) 3D artefacts resulting from insufficient depth information in the incoming data signal yielding spatial and temporal inconsistencies, and (3) unnatural amounts of blur. In order to adequately characterize and understand visual discomfort, multiple types of measurements, both objective and subjective, are needed.

Despite many benefits that stereoscopic displays are known to have, there is evidence that stereoscopic displays can potentially cause discomfort to the viewer. The experiment reported in this paper was motivated by the need to quantify the potential subjective discomfort of viewing stereoscopic TV images. Observers provided direct subjective ratings of eye strain and quality in response to stereoscopic still images that varied in camera separation, convergence distance and focal length. Display duration of the images was varied between 1 an d15 seconds. Before and after the experiment, observers filled out a symptom checklist to assess any subjective discomfort resulting from the total experiment. Reported eye strain was on average around 'perceptible, but not annoying' for natural disparities. As disparity values increased reported eye strain increased to 'very annoying' and quality rating solved off and eventually dropped. This effect was most pronounced for the stereoscopic images that were produce using a short convergence distance. This effect may be attributed to an increase in keystone distortion in this condition. No significant effect of display duration was found. The results of the symptom checklist showed a slight increase in reported negative side-effects, with most observers reporting only mild symptoms of discomfort. Finally, our results showed that subjective stereoscopic image quality can be described as a function of reported eye strain and perceived depth.

A 3D video stream is typically obtained from a set of synchronized cameras, which are simultaneously capturing the same scene (multiview video). This technology enables applications such as free-viewpoint video which allows the viewer to select his preferred viewpoint, or 3D TV where the depth of the scene can be perceived using a special display. Because the user-selected view does not always correspond to a camera position, it may be necessary to synthesize a virtual camera view. To synthesize such a virtual view, we have adopted a depth image-based rendering technique that employs one depth map for each camera. Consequently, a remote rendering of the 3D video requires a compression technique for texture and depth data. This paper presents a predictivecoding algorithm for the compression of depth images across multiple views. The presented algorithm provides (a) an improved coding efficiency for depth images over block-based motion-compensation encoders (H.264), and (b), a random access to different views for fast rendering. The proposed depth-prediction technique works by synthesizing/computing the depth of 3D points based on the reference depth image. The attractiveness of the depth-prediction algorithm is that the prediction of depth data avoids an independent transmission of depth for each view, while simplifying the view interpolation by synthesizing depth images for arbitrary view points. We present experimental results for several multiview depth sequences, that result in a quality improvement of up to 1.8 dB as compared to H.264 compression.

Humans actively explore their visual environment by moving their eyes. Precise coordination of the eyes during visual scanning underlies the experience of a unified perceptual representation and is important for the perception of depth. We report data from three psychological experiments investigating human binocular coordination during visual processing of stereoscopic stimuli.In the first experiment participants were required to read sentences that contained a stereoscopically presented target word. Half of the word was presented exclusively to one eye and half exclusively to the other eye. Eye movements were recorded and showed that saccadic targeting was uninfluenced by the stereoscopic presentation, strongly suggesting that complementary retinal stimuli are perceived as a single, unified input prior to saccade initiation. In a second eye movement experiment we presented words stereoscopically to measure Panum's Fusional Area for linguistic stimuli. In the final experiment we compared binocular coordination during saccades between simple dot stimuli under 2D, stereoscopic 3D and real 3D viewing conditions. Results showed that depth appropriate vergence movements were made during saccades and fixations to real 3D stimuli, but only during fixations on stereoscopic 3D stimuli. 2D stimuli did not induce depth vergence movements. Together, these experiments indicate that stereoscopic visual stimuli are fused when they fall within Panum's Fusional Area, and that saccade metrics are computed on the basis of a unified percept. Also, there is sensitivity to non-foveal retinal disparity in real 3D stimuli, but not in stereoscopic 3D stimuli, and the system responsible for binocular coordination responds to this during saccades as well as fixations.