In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional real-time disparity system that converts the locations of objects into the gray-scale image by using two images incoming through stereo cameras. While measuring the similarity for the images, the proposed system adopts the vertical strip structure for a real-time processing. The proposed system is able to process 15 frames per second (fps) and display the resulting disparity images with 30 fps on the TV sets. The system is designed by using the VHDL. It is also experimentally demonstrated by using the Altera APEX20K1000EBC652-3 device. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.