Optimized Seam-Driven Image Stitching Method Based on Scene Depth Information

It is quite challenging to stitch images with continuous depth changes and complex textures. To solve this problem, we propose an optimized seam-driven image stitching method considering depth, color, and texture information of the scene. Specifically, we design a new energy function to reduce the structural distortion near the seam and improve the invisibility of the seam. By additionally introducing depth information into the smoothing term of energy function, the seam is guided to pass through the continuous regions of the image with high similarity. The experimental results show that benefiting from the new defined energy function, the proposed method can find the seam that adapts to the depth of the scene, and effectively avoid the seam from passing through the salient objects, so that high-quality stitching results can be achieved. The comparison with the representative image stitching methods proves the effectiveness and generalization of the proposed method.