A novel method for 2D-to-3D video conversion using bi-directional motion estimation

In this paper, we proposed a novel semi-automatic 2D-to-3D video conversion method. Our method requires just a few user-scribbles to generate depth maps for key frames and propagates these depth maps to non-key frames automatically. For key frames, foreground objects and the corresponding depth maps can be obtained by an interactive method. Then, both forward and backward motion vectors are estimated and compared to decide the depth propagation strategy. For pixels that failed the motion vectors comparison, a compensation process is adopted to refine their depth propagation results. Finally, stereoscopic pairs are generated by the warping method based on the original frames and associated depth maps. Our method is validated by both subjective and objective quality assessments. The experimental results show that our method outperforms several state-of-the-art 2D-to-3D video conversion methods.