VISION: STEPS TOWARDS A REAL-TIME PASSIVE RANGING CAPABILITY

A PROGRAM OF RESEARCH IS PROPOSED WHOSE AIM IS TO SPEED UP THE VARIOUS STAGES IN PROCESSING CONTINUOUS-TIME STEREO IMAGES FOR THE DETERMINATION OF RANGE PICTURES AS A FIELD MOVES PAST A STATIONARY ROBOTIC SYSTEM. TYPICAL STEREO SYSTEMS TREAT EACH FRAME PAIR AS A NEW STEREO PROBLEM OBTAINING RANGE INFORMATION FROM THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE TWO IMAGES. THE PROPOSED METHOD RECOGNIZES THAT A FRAME PAIR CONSISTS OF REGIONS WHERE INFORMATION FROM THE PREVIOUS FRAME HAS BEEN CONVECTED IN AN IMAGE FLOW SENSE BY THE KNOWN MEAN MOTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND REGIONS WHERE NEW INFORMATION ENTERS AND EXITS THE FIELD OF VIEW. THE CONVECTED REGION OF THE PAIR NEED NOT BE RECALCULATED, RATHER THE ANALYTIC NATURE OF THE DISPARITY FIELD WILL BE EXPLOITED TO PREDICT ITS TIME BEHAVIOR FROM THE KNOWN MOTION OF THE OBJECTS (PROPELLED PERHAPS BY A CONVEYOR BELT). THE COARSE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW REGIONS OF THE FIELD OF VIEW WILL BE OBTAINED BY ANALYTIC CONTINUATION FROM THE CONVECTED REGION. THE FINE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW REGIONS WILL THEN BE OBTAINED BY LOCALLY LINEAR TRANSFORMATIONS SUPERPOSED ON THE COARSE STRUCTURE.