Depth Map Upsampling and Refinement for FTV Systems

In free-viewpoint television, high-quality depth maps are substantial for a virtual view synthesis for free navigation purposes. In this paper, we propose a new method of depth map quality improvement and resolution increase. Our method is intended for low resolution depth maps acquired through estimation using multiview video. The proposed depth map quality improvement is based on segmentation of an acquired high-resolution image. In the estimated depth map, searching for outliers is performed in the neighborhood created from similar segments in the acquired view. Experimental results show high effectiveness of the presented method of depth maps refinement, especially for object edges.