Computational experiments with area-based stereo for image-based rendering

In this paper two disparity estimators with different complexity degrees are described and used to examine how much disparity inaccuracies influence image rendering quality. The objective of this study is to design software-based image synthesis in real-time on conventional PC platforms. Basically, this work looks at the opposite end of the cost-complexity curve by making very restrained demands to the disparity estimator. It is empirically shown that in many cases the effect of disparity accuracy in the quality of virtual views is almost imperceptible and that for many applications requiring real-time processing reasonably good results can be achieved with less computational cost.