US Patent 7573489 Infilling for 2D to 3D image conversion

A method for associating a portion of a stereoscopic image with a perceived depth is described. The method includes determining offset values that each indicate a displacement between image data in a first image of a stereoscopic pair and corresponding image data in a second image of the stereoscopic pair. The displacement affects a perceived depth of a point represented by the image data and the corresponding image data. The method also includes identifying image data in the second image that is not associated with a valid offset value, generating a supplementary offset value using valid offset values associated with image data substantially near the image data in the second image, and associating the image data in the second image with the supplementary offset value.