A fast block matching algorthim for stereo correspondence

Stereo correspondence is one of the most active research areas in computer vision. An improved block matching approach for fast stereo correspondence is proposed, where the matching criterion is the sum of absolute difference (SAD). The approach tries to progressively confine the matching operation during the searching process, terminates unnecessary computations of matching criteria between the reference block in the left image and the ineligible candidate block in the right image, and eliminates the ineligible block as early as possible while ensuring the optimal disparity of each pixel. The performance of the new algorithm is evaluated by carrying out a theoretical analysis, and by comparing it with the stereo correspondence method based on the standard block matching. Simulation results demonstrate that the disparities obtained by this algorithm are identical to that using standard block matching method, and a reduction of over 55% in computational cost is achieved.