Stereo Vision and Scene Segmentation

This chapter focuses on how segmentation robustness can be improved by 3D scene geometry provided by stereo vision systems, as they are simpler and relatively cheaper than most of current range cameras. In fact, two inexpensive cameras arranged in a rig are often enough to obtain good results. Another noteworthy characteristic motivating the choice of stereo systems is that they both provide 3D geometry and color information of the framed scene without requiring further hardware. Indeed, as it will be seen in following sections, 3D geometry extraction from a framed scene by a stereo system, also known as stereo reconstruction, may be eased and improved by scene segmentation since the correspondence research can be restricted within the same segment in the left and right images.