Stereo reconstruction employing a layered approach and layer refinement techniques
US6320978A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 20, 1998 |
| Grant date | Nov 20, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 20, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N2013/0081
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method for extracting structure from stereo that represents the scene as a collection of planar layers. Each layer optimally has an explicit 3D plane equation, a colored image with per-pixel opacity, and a per-pixel depth value relative to the plane. Initial estimates of the layers are made and then refined using a re-synthesis step which takes into account both occlusions and mixed pixels. Reasoning about these effects allows the recovery of depth and color information with high accuracy, even in partially occluded regions. Moreover, the combination of a global model (the plane) with a local correction to it (the per-pixel relative depth value) imposes enough local consistency to allow the recovery of shape in both textured and untextured regions.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.