Patent ID: 7444013
Filing Date: 2008-10-28
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method of recovering depth information for pixels of a base image representing a view of a scene, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a plurality of pixels in a base image that represents a first view of a scene, wherein the first view is one of at least three relative views of a scene; determining 3-D depth of the plurality of pixels in the base image by contemporaneously matching image features between three or more relative images of a scene by matching correspondence to a plurality of pixels in three or more relative images representing the at least three relative views of the scene, wherein the three or more images are captured relative to each other and are of the same scene, and wherein each of the three or more images includes at least an overlapping portion of the scene relative to each other, wherein the at least three relative views of the scene are situated in a non-linear arrangement relative to each other and are further oriented in non-parallel planes relative to each other; and tracing pixels in a virtual piecewise continuous depth surface by spatial propagation starting from the detected pixels in the base image by using the matching and corresponding plurality of pixels in the three or more relative images to create the virtual piecewise continuous depth surface viewed from the base image, each successfully traced pixel being associated with a depth in the scene viewed from the base image.