A stereo machine for video-rate dense depth mapping and its new applications

We have developed a video-rate stereo machine that has the capability of generating a dense depth map at the video rate. The performance bench marks of the CMU video-rate stereo machine are: 1) multi-image input of up to 6 cameras; 2) throughput of 30 million point/spl times/disparity measurement per second; 3) frame rate of 30 frame/sec; 4) a dense depth map of up to 256/spl times/240 pixels; 5) disparity search range of up to 60 pixels; 6) high precision of depth output up to 8 bits (with interpolation). The capability of passively producing such a dense depth map (3D representation) of a scene at the video rate can open up a new class of applications of 3D vision: merging real and virtual worlds in real time.