US Patent 8009897 Method and apparatus for image matching

The invention provides a method and apparatus for performing correspondence estimation between pixels of a stereo image pair to obtain matching information for corresponding pixels in each image. To perform a match for a particular pixel in a first image firstly an adaptive curve is constructed about the pixel, being a sequence of connected pixels with similar intensity values to the pixel being matched. The adaptive curve thus constructed is then used as a matching element within the second image to find a matching pixel representative of the same 3D scene point in the second image to the particular pixel. By performing matching in this manner for every pixel in an image, accurate disparity maps can be obtained which are then used in a known image synthesis algorithm to produce novel images of a scene of improved quality.