Variational stereo in dynamic illumination
Yohay Swirski, Yoav Y. Schechner, Tal Nir · 2011
Temporal irradiance variations are useful for finding dense stereo correspondences. These variations can be created artificially using structured light. They also occur naturally underwater. We introduce a variational optimization formulation for finding a dense stereo correspondence field. It is based on multi-frame optical flow, adapted to stereo. The formulation uses a sequence of stereo frames, and yields dense and robust results. The inherent aperture problem of optical flow is resolved using a temporal sequence of stereo frame-pairs. The results are achieved even without considering epi-polar geometry. The method has the ability to handle dynamic stereo underwater, in harsh conditions of flickering illumination. The method is demonstrated experimentally both outdoors and indoors.