Stereo imaging using a camera with stereoscopic adapter

The authors analyze the characteristics of the stereoscopic adapter, which is a cost-effective way to generate stereo video sequences with a camera. We also propose an efficient way to compensate for the inherent distortions. In general, stereo sequences can be captured using a pair of cameras but the resulting sequences tend to yield various well-known problems due to different characteristics of the pair of stereo cameras. Meanwhile, a camera with the stereoscopic adapter provides a natural way to capture and display stereoscopic video. It allows users to access all the functions built into the camera, e.g. zoom, auto-focus, auto-exposure, special effects, etc. The cost however is the reduced quality of the videos since the adapter allows capture of stereo video sequences in the field sequential format, i.e. left and right images in different scan lines, respectively. In addition, it generates size and color distortions due to the physical configuration of the mirror in the adapter. We analyze and compensate for such distortions to reduce possible errors in vision applications exploiting the stereo images. According to our preliminary study, the adapter with the proposed compensation scheme will pave the way for various low cost image based virtual reality applications at hand.