Patent ID: 7092015

Claim:
A stereo matching apparatus comprising: a stereo camera system for taking pictures of a predetermined area and producing first and second images of the predetermined area; a memory for storing first image data within a reference pixel region in the first image and second image data on a horizontal line in the second image, the horizontal line being corresponding to a vertical position of the reference pixel region in the first image; a correction table for storing values based on a calibration process carried out with respect to the stereo camera system; an address generator for setting a search range in the second image for a stereo matching and instructing to read out from said memory a part of the second image data within the search range and the first image data within the reference pixel region, the search range being set according to a value read from the correction table; and a stereo matching unit for identifying a correlated destination of the reference pixel region by the stereo matching based on the part of the second image data within the search range and the first image data within the reference pixel region and calculating a parallax of the reference pixel region based on the correlated destination of the reference pixel region, wherein the value read from the correction table is indicative at least in part of an amount of deviation of an infinite distance corresponding point with respect to a horizontal position of the reference pixel region, said amount being individually set for each reference pixel region in the first image so as to set the search range in the second image in relation to each reference pixel region in the first image.