A New Super Resolution Technique for Range Data

Current Time-of-Flight matrix sensors allow for the acquisition of range maps, i.e. surface data, at video rate. This possibility is rather intriguing in light of its applications to 3D video and general motion capture. Unfortunately the resolution of the range maps acquired by such devices is quite limited specially if compared with standard color cameras. This makes highly desirable methods for improving the resolution of range maps. The characteristics of range data are completely different from those of images since geometry and light intensity are physically different quantities, therefore methods suited to image interpolation do not perform well with range data. This work presents an original interpolation technique that exploits side information from a standard color camera to increase the resolution of range maps and demonstrates its performance.