Abstract
In this paper, we propose a fast hierarchical algorithm for disparity estimation, which is based on the multiresolution block matching technique with prospective disparity vectors. Moreover, a smoothness criteria using the distance measures of the vector of the template block with its spatially adjacent predictors is adopted to modify the cost function so as to smooth the disparity vector field. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce computation cost drastically while maintaining comparable PSNR quality.