New methods to produce high quality color anaglyphs for 3-D visualization

3D visualization techniques have received gaining interest in recent years. During the last years, several methods for synthesis and projection of stereoscopic images and video have been developed. These include autostereoscopic displays, LCD shutter glasses, polarization based separation and anaglyphs. Among these methods, anaglyph based synthesis of 3D images provides a low cost solution for stereoscopic projection and allows viewing of stereo video content where standard video equipment exists. Standard anaglyph based projection of stereoscopic images, however, usually yields low quality images characterized by ghosting effects and loss of color perception. In this paper, methods for improving quality of anaglyph images, as well as conservation of the image color perception are proposed. These methods include image alignment and use of operations on synthesized depth maps. copy; Springer-Verlag 2004.