Method and apparatus for determining the distance between an image and an object.

摘要

A video camera is displaced to successive positions a displacement distance that differs from each preceding position by a factor of two wherein the camera image plane is at a constant distance from an object whose distance from the camera is to be estimated. The further that the camera is moved the more accurate the estimated distance. The camera is displaced a relatively small increment initially to provide an accurate estimate of the corresponding pixel of interest in the next camera position. The successive displacements increase rapidly to relatively large values, to which the estimated pixel disparity corresponds to give a relatively accurate camera to object distance estimate. The window size and position of each successive camera position for each pixel of the image can be accurately estimated to reduce potential error in pixel disparity estimation.