Hole Filling in Image Conversion Using Weighted Local Gradients

Abstract

Three-dimensional displays have become an important medium. Most of the 3D content for these displays is converted from 2D content. The conversion requires appropriate depth information from 2D images, but the information is insufficient to create high-quality 3D images in many cases. Therefore, converting 2D images into 3D images has become an important issue in emerging 3D applications. As even sophisticated equipment produces noise, cracks, and holes in the converted images, the conversion requires an improved method for creating high-quality 3D images, especially a hole-filling method. This method is one of the techniques in depth image-based rendering (DIBR), which converts 2D single-depth images into 3D images by using a multiangle virtual view and stereoscopic image generation. We propose a new algorithm for hole filling in DIBR that converts 2D images into 3D images by maintaining the depth structure of occlusions and performing morphological operations on images and the background depth levels. This algorithm uses edge information, morphology, gradient vector flow, and weighted local gradients to render holes. Multiview images generated by the proposed algorithm have synthesized virtual views of better quality than those generated by previous methods.