Learning and feature selection in stereo matching

We present a novel stereo matching algorithm which integrates learning, feature selection, and surface reconstruction. First, a new instance based learning (IBL) algorithm is used to generate an approximation to the optimal feature set for matching. In addition, the importance of two separate kinds of knowledge, image dependent knowledge and image independent knowledge, is discussed. Second, we develop an adaptive method for refining the feature set. This adaptive method analyzes the feature error to locate areas of the image that would lead to false matches. Then these areas are used to guide the search through feature space towards maximizing the class separation distance between the correct match and the false matches. Third, we introduce a self-diagnostic method for determining when apriori knowledge is necessary for finding the correct match. If the a priori knowledge is necessary then we use a surface reconstruction model to discriminate between match possibilities. Our algorithm is comprehensively tested against fixed feature set algorithms and against a traditional pyramid algorithm. Finally, we present and discuss extensive empirical results of our algorithm based on a large set of real images