Vergence control and disparity estimation with energy neurons: Theory and implementation

Abstract

The responses of disparity-tuned neurons computed according to the energy model are used for reliable vergence control of a stereo camera head and for disparity estimation. Adjustment of symmetric vergence is driven by minimization of global image disparity resulting in greatly reduced residual disparities. To estimate disparities, cell activities of four frequency channels are pooled and normalized. In contrast to previous active stereo systems based on Gabor filters, our approach uses the responses of simulated neurons which model complex cells in the vertebrate visual cortex. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.