High quality DEM generation from PCIAS

This paper presents an efficient Phase Correlation based Image Analysis System (PCIAS) for high quality DEM generation. A multi-resolution phase correlation based disparity estimation and refinement algorithm has been implemented in PCIAS. It can easily cope with the precise disparity estimation from sub-pixel to very large disparity range with varying baseline/distance ratio in vertical or slightly oblique view stereo imaging. The PCIAS is now a fully operational, professional C++ software package equipped with a robust phase correlation engine, which is among the most advanced technology for sub-pixel image feature shift analysis, and is able to achieve <1/50^th pixel accuracy in dense disparity map estimation. Our experiment indicates PCIAS can generate high quality DEM from very narrow baseline satellite image pairs with view angle difference as small as just 1 degree.