SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRINOCULAR DEPTH ACQUISITION WITH TRIANGULAR SENSOR

• US 20130258067A1
• Filed: 12/08/2010
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Zhang, Dong-Qing, Zhai, Jiefu, Wang, Zhe
• Application Number:
  US13/991,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20130258067A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20088 Trinocular vision calculations; trifocal tensor
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/55 from multiple images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/243 using three or more 2D image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/25 using two or more image sensors with different characteristics other than in their location or field of view, e.g. having different resolutions or colour pickup characteristics; using image signals from one sensor to control the characteristics of another sensor

Abstract

A depth acquisition system utilizes at least three sensors with at least one sensor in a non-colinear configuration to increase depth information. This configuration provides both vertical and horizontal depth information to be combined to enhance image quality, especially in three-dimensional image gathering. Vertical sensor pairs aid in determining disparities for horizontal edges and make depth estimations for horizontal edges more accurate.

Claims

1. A depth acquisition system, comprising:

at least two image sensors horizontally positioned in relation to each other in view of an image; and

at least one additional image sensor vertically positioned in view of the image in relation to the other horizontally positioned image sensors.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the image sensors form at least one horizontal sensor pair and at least one vertical sensor pair.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one baseline of a horizontal sensor pair and at least one baseline of vertical sensor pair are not equal to each other.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one baseline of a horizontal sensor pair and at least one baseline of vertical sensor pair are equal to each other.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one baseline of a horizontal sensor pair and at least one baseline of vertical sensor pair are oriented perpendicular to each other.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the depth acquisition system is a trinocular depth acquisition system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the depth acquisition system is employed in a three-dimensional imaging system.

8. A method for obtaining depth information for an image, comprising the steps of:

capturing image information from at least one pair of horizontally aligned image sensors;

capturing image information from at least one pair of vertically aligned image sensors; and

determining depth information for the image based on the vertically and horizontally aligned sensor information.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

determining vertical edge pixel disparities from the horizontally aligned image sensors; and

determining horizontal edge pixel disparities from the vertically aligned image sensors.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

utilizing horizontally and vertically aligned sensors with differing baselines to capture image information.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

applying smoothness constraints to the depth determination to increase accuracy.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

combining distance information from the sensors using more than one technique.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

transforming disparity information of the horizontally aligned image sensors to vertical disparity information using baseline information of both the horizontally aligned sensors and the vertically aligned sensors.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

determining disparity information for the image using stereo match techniques applied to pairs of horizontally and vertically aligned sensors.

15. A system that acquires image depth information, comprising:

means for capturing image information from horizontally aligned image sensors;

means for capturing image information from vertically aligned image sensors; and

means for determining depth information for the image based on the vertically and horizontally aligned sensor information.