View interpolation using a simple block matching and guided image filtering

In this paper, we introduce a simple and practical solution for intermediate view interpolation using a simple block matching and a guided image filtering. Proposed method consists of two major blocks. The first block is a disparity estimation block. We focused on disparity refinement step rather than the other steps of the framework for stereo matching method. The initial disparity map is estimated using hierarchical block matching. It provides more accurate and robust result compared to pixel-wise block matching method. Then the estimated initial disparity map is refined by a guided image filtering. We use an efficient approach to find the median value when edge-ware weighted disparity layers are accumulated. Refined disparity map are used for intermediate view interpolation. With these data, block-based view interpolation is performed in order to generate virtual multi-view videos.