Stereo vision apparatus and method

An apparatus for efficiently extracting depth information from a stereo image, the apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store a stereo image comprising a left and a right image of a scene;
• an image smoothing filter configured to filter a row or column in the left and right images to provide a left and a right intensity profile for the row or column, the row or column corresponding to a first image dimension;
• a peak finding module configured to identify peaks in the left and right intensity profiles to provide identified left peaks and identified right peaks;
• a shape determination module configured to pair identified left and right peaks that are within a maximum disparity distance to provide peak pairs;
• the shape determination module configured to determine a shape interval for each peak pair;
• the shape determination module configured to select a peak pair with a maximum shape interval for each left peak or each right peak to provide selected peak pairs by computing a difference between adjacent pixels along the first image dimension in a profile for the row or column to provide a profile gradient for the row or column, and advancing an end offset from each peak and retreating a start offset from each peak until a gradient difference between the left and right images at the start offset and the end offset exceeds a selected gradient difference threshold;
• and
• a disparity determination module configured to determine a disparity offset for each selected peak pair.

A method for determining shapes within a stereo image, the method comprising a plurality of operations including:

• providing a stereo image comprising a left and a right image of a scene containing a plurality of shapes;
• filtering a row or column in the left and right images to provide a left and a right intensity profile for the row or column, the row or column corresponding to a first image dimension;
• identifying peaks in the left and right intensity profiles to provide identified left peaks and identified right peaks;
• pairing left and right peaks that are within a maximum disparity distance to provide peak pairs, each peak pair corresponding to a shape in the plurality of shapes in the stereo image;
• determining a shape interval for each peak pair by advancing an end offset from each peak and retreating a start offset from each peak until a gradient difference between the left and right images exceeds a selected gradient difference threshold;
• and
• selecting a peak pair with a maximum shape interval for each left peak or each right peak to provide detected shape intervals for the plurality of shapes in the stereo image.

An apparatus for determining shapes within a stereo image, the apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store a stereo image comprising a left and a right image of a scene containing a plurality of shapes;
• an image smoothing filter configured to filter a row or column in the left and right images to provide a left and a right intensity profile for the row or column, the row or column corresponding to a first image dimension;
• a peak finding module configured to identify peaks in the left and right intensity profiles to provide identified left peaks and identified right peaks;
• a shape determination module configured to pair identified left and right peaks that are within a maximum disparity distance to provide peak pairs, each peak pair corresponding to a shape in the plurality of shapes in the stereo image;
• and
• the shape determination module configured to determine a shape interval for each peak pair by advancing an end offset from each peak and retreating a start offset from each peak until a gradient difference between the left and right images exceeds a selected gradient difference threshold;
• and
• the shape determination module configured to select a peak pair with a maximum shape interval for each left peak or each right peak to provide detected shape intervals for the plurality of shapes in the stereo image.