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A real-time fuzzy hardware structure for disparity map computation

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Abstract

Stereo images acquired by a stereo camera setup provide depth estimation of a scene. Numerous machine vision applications deal with retrieval of 3D information. Disparity map recovery from a stereo image pair involves computationally complex algorithms. Previous methods of disparity map computation are mainly restricted to software-based techniques on general-purpose architectures, presenting relatively high execution time. In this paper, a new hardware-implemented real-time disparity map computation module is realized. This enables a hardware-based fuzzy inference system parallel-pipelined design, for the overall module, implemented on a single FPGA device with a typical operating frequency of 138 MHz. This provides accurate disparity map computation at a rate of nearly 440 frames per second, given a stereo image pair with a disparity range of 80 pixels and 640 × 480 pixels spatial resolution. The proposed method allows a fast disparity map computational module to be built, enabling a suitable module for real-time stereo vision applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67 100, Xanthi, Greece

    Christos Georgoulas & Ioannis Andreadis

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  1. Christos Georgoulas
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  2. Ioannis Andreadis
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Correspondence to Christos Georgoulas.

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Georgoulas, C., Andreadis, I. A real-time fuzzy hardware structure for disparity map computation. J Real-Time Image Proc 6, 257–273 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-010-0157-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-010-0157-6

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