Fast view interpolation of stereo images using image gradient and disparity triangulation

This paper proposes a fast view interpolation method based on image gradient and disparity triangulation. The image gradient is used to select the node points for triangulation of the stereo image disparity. Subsequently, each node point is evaluated by its matching errors and cross correspondence of the disparity values. To model the abrupt changes of disparity on the object boundaries, new node points are added along the image gradient direction. In addition, some node points are removed by consideration of unreliable matching conditions such as occlusion, homogeneous regions, erroneous regions, etc. To construct the intermediate-view images, Delaunay triangulation of the stereo image disparity and image warping with the corresponding disparity are performed. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is fast and overcomes the drawbacks of previous methods that use triangular or rectangular patches. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.