DEPTH-BASED SEGMENTATION

The tool presented in this paper performs an automatic segmentation of stereoscopic image sequences, based on the modeling of distance maps obtained by image processing. Two three-dimensional (3-D) image analys is algorithms are combined: i) estimation of dense depth maps from ste reoscopic image sequences and ii) depth-based object segmentation. A M arkovian statistical approach for such a segmentation of a dense depth map into arbitrarily shaped and oriented planar surfaces is described in detail. The simulation results on sequences ''Fun fair'' and ''Tun nel,'' provided on video tape to the MPEG-4 tests of November 1995, ar e discussed.