Date of Award

12-2020

Degree Name

MS in Computer Science

Department/Program

Computer Science

College

College of Engineering

Advisor

Jonathan Ventura

Advisor Department

Computer Science

Advisor College

College of Engineering

Abstract

Depth detection is a very common computer vision problem. It shows up primarily in robotics, automation, or 3D visualization domains, as it is essential for converting images to point clouds. One of the poster child applications is self driving cars. Currently, the best methods for depth detection are either very expensive, like LIDAR, or require precise calibration, like stereo cameras. These costs have given rise to attempts to detect depth from a monocular camera (a single camera). While this is possible, it is harder than LIDAR or stereo methods since depth can't be measured from monocular images, it has to be inferred. A good example is covering one eye: you still have some idea how far away things are, but it's not exact. Neural networks are a natural fit for this. Here, we build on previous neural network methods by applying a recent state of the art model to panoramic images in addition to pinhole ones and performing a comparative evaluation. First, we create a simulated depth detection dataset that lends itself to panoramic comparisons and contains pre-made cylindrical and spherical panoramas. We then modify monodepth2 to support cylindrical and cubemap panoramas, incorporating current best practices for depth detection on those panorama types, and evaluate its performance for each type of image using our dataset. We also consider the resources used in training and other qualitative factors.

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