Gaze stabilization in active vision - I. Vergence error extraction

This paper discusses the problems associated with purposeful gazing and fixation of attention for systems with active vision. To help bridge the gap between our current standpoint in active gazing and where advantages that holding gaze brings, we propose solution to the important problems involved in gaze stabilization, i.e. vergence error extraction, and vergence servo control. In the first part, we focus on vergence error extraction. In the next paper, "Gaze Stabilization in Active Vision II: Multi-rate Vergence Control", we shall focus on vergence control. Binocular gazing is realized by decreasing the disparity which represents the vergence error. In order to obtain the disparity for extraction of vergence error, a phase-based approach that efficiently estimates vergence disparity is developed. Experiments are conducted to investigate the effects of window size, segmentation techniques, and illumination.