Offset-Block Matching of Multi-view Images for Ray-Space Interpolation

Abstract

In this research, we address the problem of finding the best correspondence in matching algorithms in the edge area and we propose offset-block matching for ray-space interpolation. Conventional block matching methods are pixel-based, block-based and hierarchical methods. The pixel-based matching method performs well and satisfactorily detects correspondence in the edge area, when the search area is small. Block-based matching methods detect better than pixel-based methods where is a large disparity, however the detecting of correspondence in the edge area is not as accurate. The hierarchical block matching method performs relatively well in all areas. The proposed offset-block matching however combines pixel-based and block-based matching methods by limiting the search area and obtains better results than conventional matching methods. The proposed method has simultaneous advantage of both the pixel-based and the block-based matching methods. Furthermore, this method is suitable for distributed architecture of a video rendering system like FTV, when we need real-time interpolation.