Biologically and psychophysically inspired adaptive support weights algorithm for stereo correspondence

In this paper a novel stereo correspondence algorithm is presented. It incorporates many biologically and psychologically inspired features to an adaptive weighted sum of absolute differences (SAD) framework in order to determine the correct depth of a scene. In addition to ideas already exploited, such as the color information utilization, gestalt laws of proximity and similarity, new ones have been adopted. The presented algorithm introduces the use of circular support regions, the gestalt law of continuity as well as the psychophysically-based logarithmic response law. All the aforementioned perceptual tools act complementarily inside a straightforward computational algorithm applicable to robotic applications. The results of the algorithm have been evaluated and compared to those of similar algorithms. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.