TY - CHAP AU - M. Tornow AU - M. Grasshoff AU - N. Nguyen AU - A. Al-Hamadi AU - B. Michaelis ED - Fabio Solari ED - Manuela Chessa ED - Silvio P. Sabatini Y1 - 2012-03-23 PY - 2012 T1 - Fast Computation of Dense and Reliable Depth Maps from Stereo Images N2 - Vision plays a fundamental role for living beings by allowing them to interact with the environment in an effective and efficient way. The ultimate goal of Machine Vision is to endow artificial systems with adequate capabilities to cope with not a priori predetermined situations. To this end, we have to take into account the computing constraints of the hosting architectures and the specifications of the tasks to be accomplished, to continuously adapt and optimize the visual processing techniques. Nevertheless, by exploiting the low?cost computational power of off?the?shell computing devices, Machine Vision is not limited any more to industrial environments, where situations and tasks are simplified and very specific, but it is now pervasive to support system solutions of everyday life problems. BT - Machine Vision SP - Ch. 3 UR - https://doi.org/10.5772/34976 DO - 10.5772/34976 SN - PB - IntechOpen CY - Rijeka Y2 - 2024-03-29 ER -