Method and apparatus for three-dimensional object segmentation
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for segmenting stereoscopic information into 3-D objects comprising the steps of:
- acquiring a set of multiple images of a scene substantially simultaneously and having a predetermined geometric relationship with each other;
using a vision system to carry out the steps of;
filtering each of said acquired multiple images to obtain multiple sets of features observed in each of said corresponding multiple images;
processing at least two pairs of sets of features to generate at least two result sets according to matching features between members of each pair of sets of features;
wherein the step of processing further includes the steps of;
matching features from a right image and a left image to form a set of horizontal disparities; and
matching features from a right image and a top image to form a set of vertical disparities, wherein said right and left images were obtained from image acquisition devices arranged along a horizontal line, and said right and top images were obtained from image acquisition devices arranged along a vertical line substantially perpendicular to said horizontal line;
selecting features from said at least two result sets according to a predetermined orientation threshold;
extracting 3-D features from said selected features;
filtering said 3-D features according to location; and
clustering any remaining 3-D features into discrete 3-D objects.
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Abstract
A three-dimensional (3-D) machine-vision involving a method and apparatus for performing segmentation of 3-D objects. Multiple stereo-related sets (left/right, top/left, top/right) of two-dimensional video pixel data are separately processed into sets of edges. Each stereo-related set is then pair-wise processed to convert pairs of sets of edge data into 3-D point data. Multiple sets of pair-wise 3-D data are then merged and used for obtaining 3-D features which are then clustered into discrete 3-D objects that can lie on any arbitrary plane.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for segmenting stereoscopic information into 3-D objects comprising the steps of:
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acquiring a set of multiple images of a scene substantially simultaneously and having a predetermined geometric relationship with each other; using a vision system to carry out the steps of; filtering each of said acquired multiple images to obtain multiple sets of features observed in each of said corresponding multiple images; processing at least two pairs of sets of features to generate at least two result sets according to matching features between members of each pair of sets of features;
wherein the step of processing further includes the steps of;
matching features from a right image and a left image to form a set of horizontal disparities; and
matching features from a right image and a top image to form a set of vertical disparities, wherein said right and left images were obtained from image acquisition devices arranged along a horizontal line, and said right and top images were obtained from image acquisition devices arranged along a vertical line substantially perpendicular to said horizontal line;selecting features from said at least two result sets according to a predetermined orientation threshold; extracting 3-D features from said selected features; filtering said 3-D features according to location; and clustering any remaining 3-D features into discrete 3-D objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for segmenting stereoscopic information into 3-D objects comprising the steps of:
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acquiring a left image, a right image and a top image of a scene, using a trinocular image acquisition device; using a vision system to carry out the steps of; separately processing each of said left, right and top images to filter each image and to create corresponding sets of edge characteristics for each image; stereoscopically matching features between said right and left images to create a set of vertical feature matches, each having a disparity vector; stereoscopically matching features between said right and top images to create a set of horizontal feature matches, each having a disparity vector; selecting all features from the set of vertical feature matches having a disparity that is substantially vertical and discarding corresponding features from the set of horizontal matches, to obtain a combined set of selected vertical features and horizontal features; extracting a set of 3-D features from said combined set of features, based upon predetermined camera geometry; filtering said set of 3-D features to eliminate features corresponding to predetermined 3-D locations; and clustering said filtered set of 3-D features into a set of 3-D objects, according to discontinuities in a range dimension among successive 3-D points in a chain of points corresponding to a 3-D feature. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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Specification