Abstract: The depth estimation of monocular image can be obtained from the similar image and its depth information. However, the performance of such an algorithm is limited by image matching ambiguity and uneven depth mapping. This paper proposes a monocular depth estimation algorithm based on convolution neural network (CNN) features extraction and weighted transfer learning. Firstly, CNN features are extracted to collect the neighboring image gallery of the input image. Secondly, pixel-wise dense spatial wrapping functions calculated between the input image and all candidate images are transferred to the candidate depth maps. In addition, the authors have introduced the transferred weight SSW based on SIFT. The final depth image could be obtained by optimizing the integrated weighted transferred candidate depth maps. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly reduce the average error and improve the quality of the depth estimation.

Key words: monocular depth estimation, convolution neural network features, weighted depth transfer, depth optimization