From local occlusion cues to global monocular depth estimation

In this paper, we propose a system to obtain a depth ordered segmentation of a single image based on low level cues. The algorithm first constructs a hierarchical, region-based image representation of the image using a Binary Partition Tree (BPT). During the building process, T-junction depth cues are detected, along with high convex boundaries. When the BPT is built, a suitable segmentation is found and a global depth ordering is found using a probabilistic framework. Results are compared with state of the art depth ordering and figure/ground labeling systems. The advantage of the proposed approach compared to systems based on a training procedure is the lack of assumptions about the scene content. Moreover, it is shown that the system outperforms previously low-level cue based systems, while offering similar results to a priori trained figure/ground labeling algorithms.