On parallel stereo

Michael Drumheller, Tomaso A. Poggio

Abstract: We review some of the open issues in computational stereo. In particular, we will discuss the problem of extracting better matching primitives and of dealing with occlusions. Markov Random Field models - an extension of standard regularization - suggest sophisticated stereo matching algorithms. They are, however, ill-suited to efficient, real-time applications. We will conclude reviewing a new simple but fast algorithm implemented by one of us (Drumheller, 1986) on the TMC Connection Machine (TM) computer. Some of its features are: (a) the potential for combining different primitives, including color information; (b) the use of a stronger and new formulation of the uniqueness constraint; and (c) its disparity representation that maps efficiently into the architecture of the Connection Machine computer.