Disparity map code in openCV C++

Question

I have calibrated and stereo rectified images in MATLAB using Caltech's toolbox (http://www.vision.caltech.edu/bouguetj/calib_doc/). I tried the disaprity in MATLAB and it is not returning good results now I would like to try it in OPENCV. I could not find any OPENCV sample code for disparity from their website. so this is the code I found so far:(code coming from http://www.jayrambhia.com/blog/disparity-maps/)

#include "opencv2/core/core.hpp"
#include "opencv2/calib3d/calib3d.hpp"
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp>
#include "opencv2/contrib/contrib.hpp"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
using namespace cv;
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Mat img1, img2, g1, g2;
Mat disp, disp8;

//char* method = argv[3];
char* method = "SGBM";

//img1 = imread(argv[1]);
//img2 = imread(argv[2]);
img1 = imread("leftImage.jpg");
img2 = imread("rightImage.jpg");

cvtColor(img1, g1, CV_BGR2GRAY);
cvtColor(img2, g2, CV_BGR2GRAY);

if (!(strcmp(method, "BM")))
{
    StereoBM sbm;
    sbm.state->SADWindowSize = 9;
    sbm.state->numberOfDisparities = 112;
    sbm.state->preFilterSize = 5;
    sbm.state->preFilterCap = 61;
    sbm.state->minDisparity = -39;
    sbm.state->textureThreshold = 507;
    sbm.state->uniquenessRatio = 0;
    sbm.state->speckleWindowSize = 0;
    sbm.state->speckleRange = 8;
    sbm.state->disp12MaxDiff = 1;
    sbm(g1, g2, disp);
}
else if (!(strcmp(method, "SGBM")))
{
    StereoSGBM sbm;
    sbm.SADWindowSize = 3;
    sbm.numberOfDisparities = 144;
    sbm.preFilterCap = 63;
    sbm.minDisparity = -39;
    sbm.uniquenessRatio = 10;
    sbm.speckleWindowSize = 100;
    sbm.speckleRange = 32;
    sbm.disp12MaxDiff = 1;
    sbm.fullDP = false;
    sbm.P1 = 216;
    sbm.P2 = 864;
    sbm(g1, g2, disp);
}


normalize(disp, disp8, 0, 255, CV_MINMAX, CV_8U);

imshow("left", img1);
imshow("right", img2);
imshow("disp", disp8);

waitKey(0);

return(0);

}

and this is the error I get:

Unhandled exception at at 0x000007FEFD4D940D in OPEN_CV_TEST.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: cv::Exception at memory location 0x0000000000149260.

I am new to C++ and there is no description on the procedure to run the code. so I just put those left and right images in the \x64\Debug folder of my project and running the code in MS visual studio 2012 windows 7 64 bit. I created the project before and ran a sample test and it worked. so now I am just copying the above code in the main C++ source file. I assume there should not be any library file or header files missing. also please note that I do not need need to rectify images and no need for stereo matching either right now. any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I figured it out! it was the "imread" function in OPENCV which was causing problems! I used "cvLoadImage" instead. I also put the images in the folder of the project right next to CPP files and also in DEBUG folders. It is working fine now. Apparently the "IMREAD" function is a known problem in OPENCV!