• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.99-111
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• 2010

This paper proposes an efficient hardware architecture to estimate disparities between 2D images for generating 3D depth images in a stereo vision system. Stereo matching methods are classified into global and local methods. The local matching method uses the cost functions based on pixel windows such as SAD(sum of absolute difference), SSD(sum of squared difference) and NCC(normalized cross correlation). The NCC-based cost function is less susceptible to differences in noise and lighting condition between left and right images than the subtraction-based functions such as SAD and SSD, and for this reason, the NCC is preferred to the other functions. However, software-based implementations are not adequate for the NCC-based real-time stereo matching, due to its numerous complex operations. Therefore, we propose a fast pipelined hardware architecture suitable for real-time operations of the NCC function. By adopting a block-based box-filtering scheme to perform NCC operations in parallel, the proposed architecture improves processing speed compared with the previous researches. In this architecture, it takes almost the same number of cycles to process all the pixels, irrespective of the window size. Also, the simulation results show that its disparity estimation has low error rate.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.4 no.1 s.6
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• pp.93-102
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• 1996

For an atomatic generation of DEM(Digital Elevation Model) by computer, it is a time-consumed work to determine adquate matches from stereo images. Correlation and evenly distributed area-based method is generally used for matching operation. In this paper, we propose a new approach that computes matches efficiantly by changing the size of mask window and search area according to the given terrain information. For image segmentation, at first edge-preserving smoothing filter is used for preprocessing, and then region growing algorithm is applied for the filterd images. The segmented regions are classifed into mountain, plain and water area by using MRF(Markov Random Filed) model. Maching is composed of predicting parallex and fine matching. Predicted parallex determines the location of search area in fine matching stage. The size of search area and mask window is determined by terrain information for each pixel. The execution time of matching is reduced by lessening the size of search area in the case of plain and water. For the experiments, four images which are covered $10km{\times}10km(1024{\times}1024\;pixel)$ of Taejeon-Kumsan in each are studied. The result of this study shows that the computing time of the proposed method using terrain information for matching operation can be reduced from 25% to 35%.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07b
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• pp.1615-1618
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• 2005

In this paper, implementation of object-based multiview 3D display using object segmentation and adaptive disparity estimation is proposed and its performance is analyzed by comparison to that of the conventional disparity estimation algorithms. In the proposed algorithm, firstly we can get segmented objects by region growing from input stereoscopic image pair and then, in order to effectively synthesize the intermediate view the matching window size is selected according to the extracted feature value of the input stereo image pair. Also, the matching window size for the intermediate view reconstruction (IVR) is adaptively selected in accordance with the magnitude of the extracted feature value from the input stereo image pair. In addition, some experimental results on the IVR using the proposed algorithm is also discussed and compared with that of the conventional algorithms.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.12B no.4 s.100
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• pp.429-436
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• 2005

A simple stereo matching algorithm using population-based incremental learning(PBIL) is proposed in this paper to decrease the general problem of genetic algorithms, such as memory consumption and inefficiency of search. PBIL is a variation of genetic algorithms using stochastic search and competitive teaming based on a probability vector. The structure of PBIL is simpler than that of other genetic algorithm families, such as serial and parallel ones, due to the use of a probability vector. The PBIL strategy is simplified and adapted for stereo matching circumstances. Thus, gene pool, chromosome crossover, and gene mutation we removed, while the evolution rule, that fitter chromosomes should have higher survival probabilities, is preserved. As a result, memory space is decreased, matching rules are simplified and computation cost is reduced. In addition, a scheme controlling the distance of neighbors for disparity smoothness is inserted to obtain a wide-area consistency of disparities, like a result of coarse-to-fine matchers. Because of this scheme, the proposed algorithm can produce a stable disparity map with a small fixed-size window. Finally, an alterative version of the proposed algorithm without using probability vector is also presented for simpler set-ups.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.902-915
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• 2011

Recently in the area-based stereo matching field, Adaptive Support-Weight (ASW) method that weights matching cost adaptively according to the luminance intensity and the geometric difference shows promising matching performance. However, ASW requires more computational cost than other matching algorithms do and its real-time implementation becomes impractical. By applying Integral Histogram technique after approximating to the Bilateral filter equation, the computational time of ASW can be restricted in constant time regardless of the support window size. However, Integral Histogram technique causes loss of the matching accuracy during approximation process of the original ASW equation. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that maintains the ASW algorithm's matching accuracy while reducing the computational costs. In the proposed algorithm, we propose Sub-Block method that groups the pixels within the support area. We also propose the method adjusting the disparity search range depending on edge information. The proposed technique reduces the calculation time efficiently while improving the matching accuracy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.32B no.12
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• pp.1591-1602
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• 1995

A hybrid approach which includes edge- and region-based methods is considered. The modified non-linear Laplacian(MNL) filter is used for feature extraction. The matching algorithm has three steps which are edge, signed region, and residual region matching. At first, the edge points are matched using the sign and direction of edges. Then, the disparity is propagated from edge to inside region. A variable window is used to consider the local method which give accurate matched points and area-based method which can obtain full-resolution disparity map. In addition, a new relaxation algorithm for considering matching possibility derived from normalized error and regional continuity constraint is proposed to reduce the mismatched points. By the result of simulation for various images, this algorithm is insensitive to noise and gives full- resolution disparity map.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.27 no.6A
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• pp.610-617
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• 2002

In this paper, a new intermediate view reconstruction technique by using a disparity estimation method based-on the adaptive matching window size is proposed. In the proposed method, once the feature values are extracted from the input stereo image, then the matching window size for the intermediate view reconstruction is adaptively selected in accordance with the magnitude of this feature values. That is, coarse matching is performed in the region having smaller feature values while accurate matching is carried out in the region having larger feature values by comparing with the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, this new approach is not only able to reduce the mismatching probability of the disparity vector mostly happened in the accurate disparity estimation with a small matching window size, but is also able to reduce the blocking effect occurred in the disparity estimation with a large matching window size. Some experimental results on the 'Parts' and 'Piano' images show that the proposed method improves the PSNR about 2.32∼4.16dB and reduces the execution time to about 39.34∼65.58% than those of the conventional matching methods.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.28 no.4C
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• pp.424-432
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• 2003

In this paper, an effective method of stereo image reconstruction through the regularized adaptive disparity estimation is proposed. Althougth the conventional adaptive disparity estimation method can sharply improve the PSNR of a reconstructed stereo image, but some problems of overlapping between the matching windows and disallocation of the matching windows can be occurred, because the matching window size changes adaptively in accordance with the magnitude of feature values. Accordingly, in thia paper, a new regularized adaptive disparity estimation technique is proposed. That is, by regularizing the estimated disparity vector with the neughboring disparity vectors, problems of the conventional adaptive disparity estimated scheme might be solved, and also the predicted stereo image can be more effectively reconstructed. From some experiments using the CCETT'S stereo image pairs of 'Man' and 'Claude', it is analyzed that the proposed disparity estimation scheme can improve PSNRs of the reconstructed images to 10.89dB, 6.13dB for 'Man' and 1.41dB, 0.81dB for 'Claude' by comparing with those of the conventional pixel-based and adaptive estimation method, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.2146-2152
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• 2008

In In this paper, we proposed a new JPEG2000 codec using multiresolution-based rendering (MRBR) technique for video compression of 3-dimensional digital cinema. We introduced discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for stereoscopic image and stereo matching technique in the wavelet domain. The disparity was extracted using stereo matching and transmitted with the reference (left) image. Since the generated right image was degraded by the occlusion lesion, the residual image which is generated from difference between the original right image and the generated one was transmitted at the same tine. The disparity data was extracted using the dynamic programming method in the disparity domain. There is high correlation between the higher and lower subbands. Therefore we decreased the calculation amount and enhanced accuracy by restricting the search window and applying the disparity information generated from higher subband.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.26 no.5B
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• pp.659-668
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• 2001

본 논문에서는 스테레오 정합시에 발생하는 투영적인 왜곡을 해결하기 위해 윈도우 와핑(warping)을 이용한 새로운 스테레오 정합방법을 제안한다. 투영된 영역에의 왜곡은 고정된 윈도우를 사용해서는 변위값을 추정하기 어렵기 때문에 본 논문에서는 블록정합 시에 윈도우 와핑기법을 사용한다. 와핑이 이루어지는 지점은 이전에 구해진 변위값의 신뢰성에 근거해서 구해진다. 초기의 신뢰성과 변위값은 계층적인 정합에서 구해진다. 실험의 결과는 제안한 방법이 정합이 향상되었음을 보여준다.