SPCNet: A Panoramic image depth estimation method based on spherical convolution

PubDate: January 2022

Teams: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

Writers: Si He; Yu Liu; Yumei Wang

PDF: SPCNet: A Panoramic image depth estimation method based on spherical convolution

Abstract

As an emerging media format, virtual reality (VR) has attracted the attention of researchers. 6-DoF VR can reconstruct the surrounding environment with the help of the depth information of the scene, so as to provide users with immersive experience. However, due to the lack of depth information in panoramic image, it is still a challenge to convert panorama to 6-DOF VR. In this paper, we propose a new depth estimation method SPCNet based on spherical convolution to solve the problem of depth information restoration of panoramic image. Particularly, spherical convolution is introduced to improve depth estimation accuracy by reducing distortion, which is attributed to Equi-Rectangular Projection (ERP). The experimental results show that many indicators of SPCNet are better than other advanced networks. For example, RMSE is 0.419 lower than UResNet. Moreover, the threshold accuracy of depth estimation has also been improved.