User manual

Small Vision System User Manual 6
1.1 The SRI Stereo Engine and the Small Vision System
The Stereo Engine exists in several implementations, including embedded, low-power systems and
general purpose microcomputers. The embedded systems, or Small Vision Modules (SVMs), contain
DSPs or other standalone processors, and produce digital range information. They are meant for end
applications where size, cost, and power limitations are critical. SRI will develop embedded SVM systems
in partnership with companies who are interested in a particular application.
The Small Vision System (SVS) is an implementation of the Stereo Engine on general-purpose
microcomputers, especially PCs running Linux or Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT. It consists of a set of
library functions implementing the stereo algorithms. Users may call these functions to compute stereo
results on any images that are available in the PC’s memory. Typically, standard cameras and video
capture devices are used to input stereo images. The Small Vision System is a development environment
for users who wish to explore the possibility of using stereo in an application.
This manual is useful as a source of general information about the Stereo Engine for any
implementation, but is also specifically aimed at the development environment of the SVS. It explains the
core characteristics of the Stereo Engine, serves as a reference for the stereo function API, and discusses
sample applications that use the API. There are also several tutorials that illustrate writing programs to the
SVS API, in the documentation folder. More technical information about stereo processing can be found at
www.ai.sri.com/~konolige/svs
, including several papers about the stereo algorithms and applications.
With Version 2.2x of SVS, we introduce a re-written C++ interface to the SVS libraries. The new
C++ classes are much simpler to use than the previous C functions, and in particular relieve the user of
having to perform buffer management for images and disparity results. The C function interface is still
maintained for users who have an investment in application programs, under the 2.1x versions of SVS, but
we will only upgrade this version with bug fixes. Users are encouraged to migrate to the 2.2x API.