Surfaces from stereo: integrating feature matching, disparity estimation, and contour detection

An approach is described that integrates the processes of feature matching, contour detection, and surface interpolation to determine the three-dimensional distance, or depth, of objects from a stereo pair of images. Integration is necessary to ensure that the detected surfaces are smooth. Surface interpolation takes into account detected occluding and ridge contours in the scene; interpolation is performed within regions enclosed by these contours. Planar and quadratic patches are used as local models of the surface. Occluded regions in the image are identified, and are not used for matching and interpolation. A coarse-to-fine algorithm is presented that generates a multiresolution hierarchy of surface maps, one at each level of resolution. Experimental results are given for a variety of stereo images.<>