Recognition of obstacles on structured 3D background

Abstract

A stereo vision system for recognition of 3D-objects is presented. The method uses a stereo camera pair and is able to detect objects located on a structured background constituting a repetitive 3D pattern, e.g. a staircase. Recognition is based on differencing stereo pair images, where a perspective warping transform is used to overlay the left onto the right image, or vice versa. The 3D camera positions are obtained during a learning phase where a 3D background model is employed. Correspondence between images and stereo disparity are derived based on the estimated pose of the background model. Disparity provides the necessary information for a perspective warping transform used in the recognition phase. The demonstrated application is staircase surveillance. Recognition itself is based on a pyramidal representation and segmentation of image intensity differences. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.