Variational stereo in dynamic illumination

Temporal irradiance variations are useful for finding dense stereo correspondences. These variations can be created artificially using structured light. They also occur naturally underwater. We introduce a variational optimization formulation for finding a dense stereo correspondence field. It is based on multi-frame optical flow, adapted to stereo. The formulation uses a sequence of stereo frames, and yields dense and robust results. The inherent aperture problem of optical flow is resolved using a temporal sequence of stereo frame-pairs. The results are achieved even without considering epi-polar geometry. The method has the ability to handle dynamic stereo underwater, in harsh conditions of flickering illumination. The method is demonstrated experimentally both outdoors and indoors.