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 W A F 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 W A F 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 W A F 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 W A F 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.