Stereo matching method using multiple angular signatures matched by multidimensional dynamic time warping (MD-DTW)

We consider the problem of matching interest points (IPs) extracted
from the two images of a stereoscopic pair. We describe
each IP via a descriptor consisting in one angular signature for
a grayscale image, three signatures for a color image, and, more
generally, N signatures for N coregistered images of different modalities.
Each angular signature is generated by spinning a “steerable
x-tapered, y-derivative, half-Gaussian filter” 360° around
each IP. The novel contribution of the paper is the use of multidimensional
dynamic time warping (MD-DTW) for (1) producing a
single, common warping for all pairs of corresponding signatures
in the two descriptors of two IPs that are candidate for matching,
and (2) for computing a single related distance between the two
sets of signatures. Preliminary experimental results and a comparison
with the results obtained with SIFT descriptors and matching
via the smallest Euclidean distance in parameter space demonstrates
the value of this novel approach.