Embedded Stereo Vision

Abstract

In the last few years, stereo vision has become a very interesting sensing technology for robotic platforms. Especially for indoor applications, stereo vision brings many advantages. It is passive, so it does not affect its environment, it is small in size, and it is very flexible. In this chapter, the possibilities of integrating stereo vision into smart cameras are explained. Stereo vision may involve a high algorithmic and computational effort, therefore not all stereo vision algorithms are suitable for real-time applications. This chapter gives a detailed description of two real-time stereo vision algorithms and presents possibilities to implement these concepts in a smart camera. Furthermore, it presents stereo vision using biologically inspired vision sensors for the depth estimation of scene dynamics.