@article {12590, title = {Hyperstereo algorithms for the perception of terrain drop-offs}, journal = {Proceedings of SPIE}, volume = {6557}, year = {2007}, month = {2007/04/27/}, pages = {65570L-65570L-10 - 65570L-65570L-10}, abstract = {The timely detection of terrain drop-offs is critical for safe and efficient off-road mobility, whether with human drivers or with terrain navigation systems that use autonomous machine-vision. In this paper, we propose a joint tracking and detection machine-vision approach for accurate and efficient terrain drop-off detection and localization. We formulate the problem using a hyperstereo camera system and build an elevation map using the range map obtained from a stereo algorithm. A terrain drop-off is then detected with the use of optimal drop-off detection filters applied to the range map. For more robust results, a method based on multi-frame fusion of terrain drop-off evidence is proposed. Also presented is a fast, direct method that does not employ stereo disparity mapping. We compared our algorithm{\textquoteright}s detection of terrain drop-offs with time-code data from human observers viewing the same video clips in stereoscopic 3D. The algorithm detected terrain drop-offs an average of 9 seconds sooner, or 12m farther, than the human observers. This suggests that passive image-based hyperstereo machine-vision may be useful as an early warning system for off-road mobility.}, isbn = {0277786X}, doi = {doi:10.1117/12.721066}, url = {http://spiedigitallibrary.org/proceedings/resource/2/psisdg/6557/1/65570L_1?isAuthorized=no}, author = {Mohananchettiar,Arunkumar and Cevher,Volkan and CuQlock-Knopp,Grayson and Chellapa, Rama and Merritt,John} }