Capturing and grouping SDR frames containing sections of HDR from a video feed to artificially expand the dynamic range of SDR screens

Bachelor thesis (2021)

Authors

R.R. Schreuder Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

R.T. Wiersma Computer Graphics and Visualisation - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
E. Eisemann Computer Graphics and Visualisation - EEMCS (supervisor 2)
A. Zarras Cyber Security - EEMCS (coach)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2021 Rinke Schreuder
HDR reconstruction Capturing frames SDR screen
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Published Date

01-07-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

In this paper, a method is proposed to artificially expand the dynamic range of screens with a limited dynamic range. This research is linked to a new film-making technology where, instead of using a green screen, the background of a scene is displayed on a screen in real time using a computer generated background. This provides real time lighting in the studio; however, due to the limited dynamic range of the screen, it can not fully replicate the brightness of light sources. Overcoming this problem involves capturing and synchronize frames that each display a small section of the wider dynamic range, defined as illumination maps. The method uses a pipeline in which the illumination maps are displayed on a monitor in a grouped order, which are then captured with a camera. The recording is processed by labeling the frames and selecting key frames. The key frames are then additively combined with compatible illumination maps, which result in a video of the full dynamic range.
A program was developed as a proof of concept, providing expected results. For various recording inputs, It was also found that the implemented program discarded a lot of the frames of the recordings. A variation of the proposed method also yielded a slight speed-up, for practically the same results.
The proposed method provides a good starting point tackling the problem of artificially extending the dynamic range. The program used is a step in the right direction, but has flaws that limit its usefulness.