Surface generation method from boundaries of stereo images

• US 5,202,928 A
• Filed: 07/21/1989
• Issued: 04/13/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: KAZO Iizuka Director-General of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Agency of Industrial Science & Technology (Government of Japan), Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Hironobu, Tomita, Fumiaki, Sugimoto, Kazuhide
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, David K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stellrecht, Barry
• Application Number:
  US07/601,657
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• Field of Search: 356/12, 358/3, 364/522, 382/21, 382/22, 382/9, 395/121
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10012 Stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 from stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/426 Graphical representations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/64 Three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/12 Acquisition of 3D measurements of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0081 Depth or disparity estimation from stereoscopic image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/0092 Image segmentation from stereoscopic image signals

Abstract

An image processing method for matching edges detected in images of the same objects in a three-dimensional scene which are taken simultaneously by two or more image pick-up devices at different positions, in which the boundary segments on the edges are classified into apparently real segments, apparently imaginary segments or undefined segments, a planar surface is found for each boundary which has all apparently real segments and no apparently imaginary segment on it by using the information of the points of occlusion, the surface is regarded as the real surface in the case where there is only one surface which has no segment under it, so that surface information and the distance information at arbitrary points on the real surface are obtained.

Claims

1. Am image processing method for matching edges described in images of the same objects present in a three-dimensional scene which are viewed simultaneously by two or more image pick-up devices located at different positions, and real planar surfaces of said objects surrounded by closed boundaries are estimated, comprising:

setting two boundary segments with opposition directions on each edge of an object,

classifying each segment on the boundary using positions of points of occlusion into apparently real segments on the surface which occlude an object or a background to the rear, apparently imaginary segments which are on the opposite side of the apparently real segments, or undefined segments which are not defined to be the apparently real segments or the apparently imaginary segments, and

for each boundary

(a) finding a planar surface which has all apparently real segments and no apparently imaginary segment on it;

(b) in the case where there is only one surface which has no segment under it, determining said one surface to be an actually existing surface to be referred to as the real surface, and

(c) classifying the undefined segments into real segments which exist on the real surface or imaginary segments which exist above the real surface.

2. An image processing method for matching edges detected in images of the same objects present in a three-dimensional scene which are viewed simultaneously by two or more image pick-up devices located at different positions, and real planar surfaces of said objects surrounded by closed boundaries are estimated, comprising:

setting two boundary segments with opposite directions on each edge of an object,

classifying each segment on the boundary using positions of points of occlusion into apparently real segments on the surface which occludes an object or a background to the rear, apparently imaginary segments which are on the opposite side of the apparently real segments, or undefined segments which are not defined to be the apparently real segments or the apparently imaginary segments, and

for each boundary

(a) finding a planar surface which has all apparently real segments and no apparently imaginary segment on it,

(b) in the case where there is only one surface which has no segment under it, determining said one surface to be an actually existing surface to be referred to as the real surface, and

(c) classifying the undefined segments to real segments which exit on the real surface or imaginary segments which exist above the real surface, and

for each edge

(a) in the case where both segments on the edge are the real segments, classifying said edge to be a ridge edge at which two surfaces intersect, and in the case where only one segment on the edge is the real segment, classifying said edge to be the occluding edge at which the front object occludes a rear object or the background, and

(b) further classifying each ridge edge into a convex edge, a concave edge, or a flat edge according to the angle between normals of the surface on both sides of the edge.