Abstract: For the problem that stereo matching methods based on graph cuts are time consuming,this paper puts forward an improved stereo matching algorithm based on reduced graphs.First,the initial disparity for each pixel can be calculated by using local matching method.Then,we keep only some potential disparity values in the complete graph,and the reduced graph will contain a reduced number of vertices and edges.Therefore the graph capacity and execution time are decreased,and a wider disparity range is obtained.At last,it is proved by experiments that this algorithm can achieve a relatively ideal disparity map and save much time in stereo matching.