Active Depth Cuts Without Distortion of Stereoscopic Depth Reduce Annoyance

In stereo 3D (S3D) production, an active depth cut means to shift the presented scene along the depth axis in order to mitigate strong depth discontinuities at scene cuts, which would otherwise induce visual fatigue to the human visual system. This is done using the dynamic horizontal image translation (DHIT) approach, where the S3D views are slowly shifted in opposite directions to alter the distance to the perceived scenery. A problem of the DHIT is that the presented depth is distorted during the process. In this paper, a distortion-free DHIT approach is proposed. The distortions are eliminated by dynamically adjusting the distance between the two stereo views. The new approach is compared with the regular DHIT in a subjective experiment with the result that it is significantly less perceivable and annoying. The critical speeds for annoyance and perception with both approaches are reported, and an active depth cut design recommendation for S3D producers is given.