Stereoscopic image processing apparatus and the method of processing stereoscopic images
AssigneeFuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorYoshiyuki Sogawa
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Abstract
A stereo matching section of a stereoscopic image processing unit evaluates a correlation of brightness between a reference pixel block picked up from a right image and a comparison pixel block picked up from a left image and calculates a parallax between these two pixel blocks having the correlation. A region control section changes over the size of these pixel blocks according to the area in which the stereo matching is performed so as to obtain a more accurate three-dimensional recognition.
Claims19
A stereoscopic image processing apparatus for calculating a parallax between a pair of stereographic images, comprising:
- correlation evaluating means for evaluating a correlation of brightness between a first pixel block provided in one of said pair of stereographic images and a second pixel block provided in the other of said pair of stereographic images;
- and
- region size changing means for changing a size of said first and second pixel blocks for said correlation evaluating means,
- wherein a size of said first and second pixel blocks is changed in accordance with an area where said first pixel block is located in the respective pair of images.
A stereoscopic image processing apparatus for calculating a parallax between a pair of images, comprising:
- correlation evaluating means for evaluating a correlation of brightness between a first pixel block provided in one of said pair of images and a second pixel block provided in the other of said pair of images;
- weighting factor means for applying a weighting factor to each pixel constituting said first and second pixel blocks in evaluating said correlation;
- and
- weighting factor changing means for changing said weighting factor for said correlation evaluating means, wherein:
- the weighting factor is established to ZERO at a surrounding region away from a central region of the first and second pixel blocks to reduce a size of the first and second pixel blocks in a small pixel block comparison, and
- the weighting factor is established to ONE at the surrounding region away from the central region of the first and second pixel blocks, to increase the size of the first and second pixel blocks in a larger pixel block comparison.
A stereoscopic image processing method of calculating a parallax between a pair of stereographic images in a stereoscopic image processing apparatus, the method comprising:
- evaluating a correlation of brightness between a first pixel block provided in one of said pair of stereographic images and a second pixel block provided in the other of said pair of stereographic images;
- and
- changing a size of said first and second pixel blocks,
- wherein the changing of the size of the first and second pixel blocks includes changing the pixel blocks in accordance with an area where the first pixel block is located.
A stereoscopic image processing method of calculating a parallax between a pair of images in a stereoscopic image processing apparatus, the method comprising:
- evaluating a correlation of brightness between a first pixel block provided in one of said pair of images and a second pixel block provided in the other of said pair of images;
- dividing each of said pair of images into two areas, an upper area and a lower area, by a horizontal boundary line;
- applying a weighting factor to each pixel constituting said first and second pixel blocks for said evaluating said correlation based on whether each said pixel is in the upper area or in the lower area;
- and
- changing over said weighting factor for evaluating said correlation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.