A novel 2D-to-3D conversion technique based on relative height-depth cue

We present a simple depth estimation framework for 2D-to-3D media conversion. The perceptual depth information from monocular image is estimated by the optimal use of relative height cue, which is one of well-known depth recovery cues. The height depth cue is very common in photographic images. We propose a novel line tracing method and depth refinement filter as core of our depth estimation framework. The line tracing algorithm traces strong edge positions to generate an initial staircase depth map. The initial depth map is further improved by a recursive depth refinement filter. We present visual results from depth estimation and stereo image generation.