Stereo image processing device and method

Abstract

In stereo matching based on standard area matching, in order to suppress a decrease in matching accuracy, it is effective to adaptively change a matching area in accordance with the local properties of an image. However, this requires high calculation costs. Thus, the present invention provides a stereo image processing apparatus including an image pickup unitconfigured to take a plurality of image data using a plurality of cameras, an image memoryconfigured to store the plurality of image data taken by the image pickup unit, a calculated disparity storage unitconfigured to store disparity data determined based on the plurality of image data, a matching area control unitconfigured to set a matching area for each pixel based on the plurality of data read from the image memoryand the disparity data read from the calculated disparity storage unit, and a disparity calculating unitconfigured to perform matching on the image data based on the plurality of image data read from the image memoryand the matching area for each pixel set by the matching area control unitto calculate disparity data.