Wide-baseline Stereo from Multiple Views: a Probabilistic Account
C. Strecha, R. Fransens, L. Van Gool
"Wide-baseline Stereo from Multiple Views: a Probabilistic Account"
CVPR 2004 accepted [ps]
abstract
This paper describes a method for dense depth reconstruction from a small set of wide-baseline images. In a wide-baseline setting an inherent difficulty which complicates the stereo-correspondence problem is self-occlusion. Also, we have to consider the possibility that image pixels in different images, which are projections of the same point in the scene, will have different color values due to non-Lambertian effects or discretization errors. We propose a Bayesian approach to tackle these problems. In this framework, the images are regarded as noisy measurements of an underlying 'true' image-function. Also, the image data is considered incomplete, in the sense that we do not know which pixels from a particular image are occluded in the other images. We describe an EM-algorithm, which iterates between estimating values for all hidden quantities, and optimizing the current depth estimates. The algorithm has few free parameters, displays a stable convergence behavior and generates accurate depth estimates. The approach is illustrated with several challenging real-world examples. We also show how the algorithm can generate realistic view interpolations and how it merges the information of all images into a new, synthetic view.
input: N images fully calibrated
Results: Cathedral in Köln;
input:
This [mpeg] is a video that shows the depth parameterisation used in the paper.
calibration (large cameras) together with virtual cameras (small cameras):
Video computed for the virtual camera path above using IBR:
[mpeg]
Video rendered from the computed 3D reconstruction of the 3rd input image:
[mpeg]
Results: Cityhall in Leuven:
input:

visibility maps for the 1st image:

Video rendered from the computed 3D reconstruction of the 1st input image:
[mpeg]
Results dynamic scenes: Church in Leuven:
input:

synthesized view at the position of the first camera (containing the bus)

Video computed for the virtual camera path using IBR: (first results!!!)
[mpeg]
C. Strecha, R. Fransens, L. Van Gool
"Wide-baseline Stereo from Multiple Views: a Probabilistic Account"
CVPR 2004 accepted [ps]