Correspondence Problem - Overview

Overview

Given two or more images of the same 3D scene, taken from different points of view, the correspondence problem is to find a set of points in one image which can be identified as the same points in another image. To do this, try to match points or features from one image with the same points or features in another image. The images can be taken from a different point of view, at different times, and with objects in the scene in general motion relative to the camera(s).

The correspondence problem typically occurs when two images of the same scene are used, the stereo correspondence problem. This concept can be generalized to the three-view correspondence problem or, in general, the N-view correspondence problem. In the general case, the images can either come from N different cameras which depict (more or less) the same scene or from one and the same camera which is moving relative to the scene. The problem is made even more difficult when the objects in the scene can be in general motion relative to the camera(s).

A typical application of the correspondence problem occurs in panorama creation or image stitching — when two or more images which only have a small overlap are to be stitched into a larger composite image. In this case it is necessary to be able to identify a set of corresponding points in a pair of images in order to calculate the transformation of one image to stitch it onto the other image.