Discontinuity preserving disparity estimation with occlusion handling

•We solve inherent problems from conventional stereo matching methods.•Distance transform-based stereo matching increases the disparity quality at edges.•Occlusion detection with three constraints helps reducing disparity errors.•The proposed hole filling of occluded regions results in a better performance.

In this paper, we propose a stereo matching algorithm based on distance transform to generate high-quality disparity maps with occlusion handling. In general, pixel intensities around object edges are smeared due to mixed values located between the object and its background. This leads to problems when identifying discontinuous disparities. In order to handle these problems, we present an edge control function according to distance transform values. Meanwhile, occluded regions occur, i.e., some portions are visible only in one image. An energy function is designed to detect such regions considering warping, cross check, and luminance difference constraints. Consequently, we replace the disparity in the occluded region with the one chosen from its neighboring disparities in the non-occluded region based on color and spatial correlations. In particular, the occlusion hole is filled according to region types. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional stereo matching algorithms with occlusion handling.