Method, system and computer program product for adjusting a convergence plane of a stereoscopic image

A system for adjusting a convergence plane of a stereoscopic image, the system comprising:

• a combination of electronic circuitry components for:
• receiving first and second views of the stereoscopic image;
• in response to the stereoscopic image, generating a disparity map that assigns respective disparity values to pixels of the stereoscopic image, wherein the respective disparity values are indicative of respective depths of the pixels;
• determining whether the stereoscopic image has a predominance of foreground features versus a predominance of background features;
• in response to determining that the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features, adjusting the convergence plane by horizontally shifting at least one of the first and second views to improve a depth resolution of at least one foreground feature within the stereoscopic image for display to a human by a display device;
• and, in response to determining that the stereoscopic image has the predominance of background features, adjusting the convergence plane by horizontally shifting at least one of the first and second views to position at least most of the stereoscopic image as background features for display to the human by the display device;
• wherein determining whether the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features versus the predominance of background features includes:
• computing a skew of the disparity values;
• and, in response to the computed skew, determining whether the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features versus the predominance of background features.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that are processable by an instruction execution apparatus for causing the apparatus to perform a method comprising:

• receiving first and second views of a stereoscopic image;
• in response to the stereoscopic image, generating a disparity map that assigns respective disparity values to pixels of the stereoscopic image, wherein the respective disparity values are indicative of respective depths of the pixels;
• determining whether the stereoscopic image has a predominance of foreground features versus a predominance of background features;
• in response to determining that the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features, adjusting a convergence plane of the stereoscopic image by horizontally shifting at least one of the first and second views to improve a depth resolution of at least one foreground feature within the stereoscopic image for display to a human by a display device;
• and, in response to determining that the stereoscopic image has the predominance of background features, adjusting the convergence plane by horizontally shifting at least one of the first and second views to position at least most of the stereoscopic image as background features for display to the human by the display device;
• wherein determining whether the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features versus the predominance of background features includes:
• computing a skew of the disparity values;
• and, in response to the computed skew, determining whether the stereoscopic image has the predominance of foreground features versus the predominance of background features.