STEREO CAMERA APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DERIVING DISTANCE

摘要

PURPOSE: To obtain distance information of the whole of a screen by measuring the distance in a similar manner to a case where distance to a person is measured. ;CONSTITUTION: Two cameras each of which varies the direction of an optical axis within the same plane, are used. A point P on a to-be-photographed object K is set at the center of an image taken by one camera, and a partial image at the central part is taken. While the direction of an optical axis of the other camera is moved within the same plane as the direction of optical axis of the one camera, a partial image at the central part of an image photographed by the other camera is taken. The correlation of the partial images is obtained. The optical axis of one camera is set in the direction of a higher degree of correlation so that the directions of optical axes of two cameras are automatically made to point to the same point P on the object K. A distance from each camera to the point P is operated from the position of each camera and an angle of the directions of the optical axes. Similarly, a correlation is obtained for a point Q in the vicinity of the point P on the object K, and a corresponding point within the two images is specified to detect a distance between each camera and the point Q. The procedure is repeated sequentially from the central part to the peripheral part of the image. The distance from each point to the object is obtained.;COPYRIGHT: (C)1995,JPO