The stereo matching algorithm based on an improved adaptive support window

Abstract

Abstract In binocular stereo matching, there has been a problem of low matching accuracy and noise immunity in discontinuous regions and weak‐textured regions. This paper proposes a stereo matching algorithm based on an improved adaptive support window. In the cost computation stage, first, according to the preset arm length and colour threshold, a cross‐based arm is obtained, which centres on the pixel to be matched; then the adaptive regions of the vertical arm and the horizontal arm are constructed respectively, which have different shape and size. Finally, the union of the two adaptive regions is used as the final support window of Census transform. Performance evaluations on Middlebury stereo data sets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other seven most challenging stereo matching algorithms. The mismatching rate of this algorithm is greatly reduced, and the anti‐noise performance is also improved considerably. Because the construction of the adaptive region is based on strict criteria and comprehensive consideration, the algorithm proposed in the paper can improve the matching accuracy in the weak‐textured regions and discontinuous disparity regions.