Integration of monocular cues to create depth effect

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach for using monocular cues in a single 2D image to improve depth perception. Monocular depth cues-blur, shading, brightness, and occlusion-are applied to 2D images. The contribution of the first three cues to depth perception is additive, each weight being equivalent. Since occlusion cues modify the object geometry, they are applied after the application of other cues. Results show that monocular depth cues can successfully improve depth perception in a single 2D image, creating a pseudo 3D image. The advantage of this approach is that it requires a single image, rather than an image pair used in traditional methods. The main limitation is that only depth perception, not precise depth measurements, is possible. This work looks very promising for low bitrate video coding and other applications where bandwidth is limited.