A hybrid approach for stereo disparity computation

An alternative, hybrid approach for disparity estimation, based on the phase difference technique, is presented. The proposed technique combines the robustness of the matching method with the sub-pixel accuracy of the phase difference approach. A matching between the phases of the left and right signals is introduced in order to allow the phase difference method to work in a reduced disparity range. In this framework, a new criterion to detect signal singularities is proposed. The presented test cases show that the performance of the proposed technique in terms of accuracy and density of the disparity estimates has greatly improved. Received: 24 June 1997 / Accepted: 15 September 1998