Quasi-epipolar resampling of high resolution satellite stereo imagery for semi global matching

Abstract

Semi-global matching is a well-known stereo matching algorithm in photogrammetric and computer vision society. Epipolar images are supposed as input of this algorithm. Epipolar geometry of linear array scanners is not a straight line as in case of frame camera. Traditional epipolar resampling algorithms demands for rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs), physical sensor model or ground control points. In this paper we propose a new solution for epipolar resampling method which works without the need for these information. In proposed method, automatic feature extraction algorithms are employed to generate corresponding features for registering stereo pairs. Also original images are divided into small tiles. In this way by omitting the need for extra information, the speed of matching algorithm increased and the need for high temporal memory decreased. Our experiments on GeoEye-1 stereo pair captured over Qom city in Iran demonstrates that the epipolar images are generated with sub-pixel accuracy.