Image display device, image display method, and program

An image display method, comprising:

• extracting a region of interest from a two-dimensional image a region of interest desired to be noted by an observer, by i) generating a depth image signal through depth image conversion employing a depth threshold generated by an amount of movement of images in a 2D/3D mixed display, the depth image signal including information on a distance in a three-dimensional space between a viewpoint and each pixel of the two-dimensional image including the region of interest, the depth image conversion being such that a depth value for each pixel, the depth value indicating the distance between the viewpoint and each pixel of the two-dimensional image is converted to a new depth value for 2D display when the depth value is equal to or larger than the depth threshold, and ii) extracting the region of interest based on the generated depth image signal;
• generating a parallax image by generating left-and right-eye parallax images each having a parallax in a new region of interest resulting from the new depth value and having no parallax in a region other than the new region of interest, from said two-dimensional image and an image obtained by conversion of a region of interest image to be displayed in the region of interest at each of right and left viewpoints, based on said two-dimensional image and said depth image signal;
• and
• displaying a 3D image by displaying the left-eye parallax image and the right-eye parallax image.

A computer program embedded in a non-transient recording medium, for causing a computer comprising an image display device to execute:

• a region of interest extraction process of extracting a region of interest from a two-dimensional image a region of interest desired to be noted by an observer, by i) generating a depth image signal through depth image conversion employing a depth threshold generated by an amount of movement of images in a 2D/3D mixed display, the depth image signal including information on a distance in a three-dimensional space between a viewpoint and each pixel of the two-dimensional image including the region of interest, the depth image conversion being such that a depth value for each pixel, the depth value indicating the distance between the viewpoint and each pixel of the two-dimensional image is converted to a new depth value for 2D display when the depth value is equal to or larger than the depth threshold, and ii) extracting the region of interest based on the generated depth image signal;
• a parallax image generation process of generating a parallax image by generating left-and right-eye parallax images having a parallax in a new region of interest resulting from the new depth value and having no parallax in a region other than the new region of interest, from said two-dimensional image and an image obtained by conversion of a region of interest image to be displayed in the region of interest at each of right and left viewpoints, based on said two-dimensional image and said depth image signal;
• and
• a 3D image display process by displaying the left-eye parallax image and the right-eye parallax image.

An image display device, comprising:

• a region of interest extraction unit that
• i) receives two-dimensional images including a first region desired to be noted by an observer and a second region which is other than the first region,
• ii) generates a depth threshold by an amount of movement of images in the two-dimensional images which are received,
• iii) when a depth value, which indicates a distance between a viewpoint and each pixel of the two-dimensional image, for each pixel of the two-dimensional image is equal to or larger than the depth threshold, generates a depth image signal including information on a distance between a viewpoint in a three-dimensional space and each pixel of the two-dimensional image by depth image conversion, the depth image conversion being such that the depth value for each pixel is converted to a new depth value for 2D display,
• iv) extracts the first region from the two-dimensional image, based on the depth image signal which is generated;
• a parallax image generation unit that generates a left-and right-eye parallax images each having a parallax in the first region resulting from the new depth value and having no parallax in the second region, from said two-dimensional image and an image obtained by
• conversion of interest image to be displayed in the first region at each of right and left viewpoints, based on said two-dimensional image and said depth image signal;
• and
• a 3D image display unit that displays the left-eye parallax image and the right-eye parallax image.