“Light-field retargeting with focal stack seam carving” by Birklbauer and Bimber

With increasing sensor resolutions of digital cameras, light-field imaging is becoming more and more relevant, and might even replace classical 2D imaging in photography sooner or later. It enables, for instance, digital refocussing and perspective changes after capturing. Rescaling light fields to different resolutions and aspect ratios, however, is challenging. As for regular image and video content, a linear scaling alters the aspect ratio of recorded objects in an unnatural way. In contrast, image and video retargeting utilizes a nonlinear and content-based scaling. Applying image retargeting to individual video frames independently does not retain temporal consistency. Similarly, applying image retargeting naively to the spatial domain of light fields will not retain angular consistency. We present a first approach to light-field retargeting. It allows compressing or stretching light-fields while retaining angular consistency.

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