Generation of Multi-Level Disparity Map from Stereo Wide Angle Fovea Vision System

This paper proposes a novel concept of a multi-level disparity map (distance image) characterized by input images from the Wide Angle Fovea (WAF) lens. The authors focuses on a unique property of the WAF lens, i.e., the lens magnification is the highest locally in the central field of view (FOV) and decreases rapidly towards the peripheral FOV. Thus, the input image by the WAF lens achieves more accurate and wider-angle observation simultaneously without increasing the number of image pixels. Our proposed algorithm generates the multi-level disparity map based on the parallel stereo vision method. By using the disparity map, generated from the central region having the high-spatial resolution, we can measure the distance of a target object being quite far away ahead from the WAF stereo vision system very accurately. On the same time, by using the disparity map generated from the peripheral region, we can obtain 3D information of a wider space comparatively close to the vision system by adequate accuracy to some degree. We have implemented the proposed algorithm to the WAF stereo vision system and have experimented in order to verify its performance. The authors think our proposed multi-level disparity map is quite applicable for improving safety of the automatic driving assistance system.