Stereo by integration of two algorithms with/without occlusion handling

This paper proposes a polynocular stereo algorithm that is the integration of two algorithms with/without occlusion handling mechanism. The algorithm is useful to improve the sharpness of depth map at occluding boundaries obtained by video-rate stereo machines without occlusion handling capability. In order to realize the integration, we have developed an algorithm for detecting occlusion area and a correspondence algorithm with occlusion handling mechanism. Using the evaluation values that are computed in the correspondence search process without considering occlusion, occlusion area can be extracted with small additional computational cost. We have developed a polynocular stereo algorithm based on sort-oriented occlusion handling mechanism. Experimental results using ground-truthed stereo images show the effectiveness of the integration