Video retargeting for stereoscopic content under 3D viewing constraints

The imminent deployment of new devices such as TV, tablet, smart phone supporting stereoscopic display creates a need for retargeting the content. New devices bring their own aspect ratio and potential small screen size. Aspect ratio conversion becomes mandatory and an automatic solution will be of high value especially if it maximizes the visual comfort. Some issues inherent to 3D domain are considered in this paper: no vertical disparity, no object having negative disparity (outward perception) on the border of the cropping window. A visual attention model is applied on each view and provides saliency maps with most attractive pixels. Dedicated 3D retargeting correlates the 2D attention maps for each view as well as additional computed information to ensure the best cropping window. Specific constraints induced by 3D experience influence the retargeted window through the map computation presenting objects that should not be cropped. The comparison with original content of 2:35 ratio having black stripes provide limited 3D experience on TV screen, while the automatic cropping and exploitation of full screen show more immersive experience. The proposed system is fully automatic, ensures a good final quality without missing fundamental parts for the global understanding of the scene. Eye-tracking data recorded on stereoscopic content have been confronted to retargeted window in order to ensure that the most attractive areas are inside the final video.