Offshore stereo measurements of gravity waves: classical epipolar and novel variational techniques

Stereo video techniques are effective for estimating the space-time wave dynamics over an area of the ocean. Indeed, a stereo camera view allows retrieval of both spatial and temporal data whose statistical content is richer than that of time series data retrieved from point wave probes. Classical epipolar techniques and modern variational methods are reviewed to reconstruct the sea surface from the stereo pairs sequentially in time. Current improvements of the variational methods are presented.