  Multi-focus image fusion is a technique for obtaining an all-in-focus image
in which all objects are in focus to extend the limited depth of field (DoF) of
an imaging system. Different from traditional RGB-based methods, this paper
presents a new multi-focus image fusion method assisted by depth sensing. In
this work, a depth sensor is used together with a color camera to capture
images of a scene. A graph-based segmentation algorithm is used to segment the
depth map from the depth sensor, and the segmented regions are used to guide a
focus algorithm to locate in-focus image blocks from among multi-focus source
images to construct the reference all-in-focus image. Five test scenes and six
evaluation metrics were used to compare the proposed method and representative
state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results quantitatively demonstrate
that this method outperforms existing methods in both speed and quality (in
terms of comprehensive fusion metrics). The generated images can potentially be
used as reference all-in-focus images.
