Surface extraction from iso-disparity contours

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between iso-disparity contours in stereo disparity space and planar surfaces in the scene. We specify constraints that may be exploited to group iso-disparity contours belonging to the same planar surface, and identify discontinuities between planar surfaces. We demonstrate the use of such constraints for planar surface extraction, particularly where the boundaries between surfaces are orientation discontinuities rather than depth discontinuities (e.g., segmenting obstacles and walls from a ground plane). We demonstrate the advantages of our approach over a range of indoor and outdoor stereo images, and show that iso-disparity analysis can provide a robust and efficient means of segmenting smooth surfaces, and obtaining planar surface models. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.