Research on Disparity Map Generation Method of Underwater Target Based on the Improved SIFT Algorithm

Abstract

In order to obtain the depth information of the underwater target, it’s necessary to generate the disparity map based on binocular vision stereo matching. In the circulation water channel, the stereo matching experiments with underwater target were carried out by using the BM algorithm, SGBM algorithms and SIFT algorithm respectively. Then the characteristics of the disparity maps were analyzed for the three kinds of stereo matching algorithms. Compared with the BM algorithm and SGBM algorithms, the SIFT algorithm has been proved to be more suitable for underwater stereo matching. In order to obtain more feature points of underwater image, it is necessary to improved SIFT algorithm parameter. Underwater image matching experiments were made to determine the principal curvature coefficientγ. The results illustrated that the improvedγis better than the original value for underwater disparity map generation.