a distance measurement method determines the distance of a sensor system to a physical object . the method includes obtaining at least a pair of stereoscopic images including the physical object , and applying to each element of at least a portion of a first image of the pair of stereoscopic images and to each element of at least a portion of a second image of the pair of stereoscopic images at least two differently shaped or sized filters , respectively . correlation values for each filter applied to the first and second image are determined , and , combined correlation values are determined for the applied filters by combining the determined correlation values for each applied filter . the combined correlation values are evaluated for different disparities for an extremum value of the combined correlation values . a distance value to the physical object is calculated and output based on a disparity value at which the extremum occurs .