Processing method for a pair of stereo images

1. A processing method for a pair of stereo images, the stereo images comprising a source image and a destination image, the source image comprising a plurality of source pixels and the destination image comprising a plurality of destination pixels, the processing method comprising:

determining a plurality of source key pixels having a key characteristic in the source image;

determining a plurality of destination key pixels having the key characteristic in the destination image;

providing a plurality of overlap records and a plurality of disparity records associated with the source key pixels;

sequentially identifying a plurality of overlap levels between the source image and the destination image for a plurality of image lateral shifts, each image lateral shift having a corresponding overlap level;

updating the disparity record and the overlap record of a selected key pixel to a most-likely disparity and a maximum overlap level;

extracting an edge image comprising a plurality of edge pixels from the source image as the source key pixels; and

increasing source pixels within a predetermined range neighboring the edge pixels to serve as the source key pixels,

wherein, the selected key pixel is selected from the source key pixels, the maximum overlap level is a maximum among a plurality of associated overlap levels associated with the selected key pixel, and the most-likely disparity corresponds to the maximum overlap level.

2. The processing method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the source pixels comprises a plurality of sets of color information, and the step of determining the source key pixels comprises determining the source key pixels according to one of the sets of the color information.

3. The processing method according to claim 1 , wherein a first image lateral shift corresponds to a first overlap level, and a step of identifying the first overlap level comprises:

determining a plurality of overlapping pixels pairs, each overlapping pixel pair comprising a first source key pixel and a first destination key pixel spaced from each other by the first image lateral shift, a color characteristic of the first source key pixel being similar to a color characteristic of the first destination pixel; and

generating the first overlap level according to a number of the overlapping pixel pairs.

4. The processing method according to claim 3 , wherein the step of determining the overlapping pixel pairs comprises:

determining the color characteristic of the first source key pixel according to colors of source pixels within a predetermined range neighboring the first source key pixel; and

determining the color characteristic of the first destination key pixel according to colors of destination pixels within the predetermined range neighboring the first destination key pixel.

5. The processing method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the overlap levels is not greater than a sum of the source key pixels.

6. The processing method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the overlap levels is substantially determined according to the source key pixels and the destination key pixels.

7. A processing method for a pair of stereo images, comprising:

extracting a pair of edge images from the pair of stereo images, each edge image comprising a plurality of edge pixels, each edge pixel of one of the edge images being associated with an overlap record and a disparity record;

obtaining a plurality of overlap levels between the pair of edge images;

updating the disparity record and the overlap record of a selected edge pixel to a most-likely disparity and a maximum overlap level, the selected edge pixels being selected from the edge pixels, the maximum overlap level being a maximum among a plurality of associated overlap levels associated with the selected edge pixel, the most-likely disparity corresponding to the maximum overlap level; and

expanding the edge images to update the edge images by increasing the number of edge pixels neighboring the plurality of edge pixels.

8. The processing method according to claim 7 , wherein a first image lateral shift corresponds to a first overlap level, and a method of identifying the first overlap level comprises:

determining from the pair of edge images a plurality of overlapping pixels pairs, each overlapping pixel pair corresponding to a first image pixel in one of the pair of edge images and a second image pixel in an other of the pair of edge images, the first image pixel and the second image pixel being spaced from each other by the first image lateral shift, a color characteristic of the first image pixel being similar to a color characteristic of the second image pixel; and

determining the first overlap level according to a number of the overlapping pixel pairs.

9. The processing method according to claim 7 , wherein a selected edge pixel corresponds to a selected image pixel in one of the pair of stereo images, and a method for generating a selected color characteristic corresponding to a selected edge pixel comprises:

determining the selected color characteristic according to colors of the selected image pixel and image pixels within a predetermined range neighboring the selected image pixel.