Motion Field Estimation from Alternate Exposure Images

IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell. 2011 Aug;33(8):1577-89. doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2010.218. Epub 2010 Dec 10.

Abstract

Traditional optical flow algorithms rely on consecutive short-exposed images. In this work, we make use of an additional long-exposed image for motion field estimation. Long-exposed images integrate motion information directly in the form of motion-blur. With this additional information, more robust and accurate motion fields can be estimated. In addition, the moment of occlusion can be determined. Considering the basic signal-theoretical problem in motion field estimation, we exploit the fact that long-exposed images integrate motion information to prevent temporal aliasing. A suitable image formation model relates the long-exposed image to preceding and succeeding short-exposed images in terms of dense 2D motion and per-pixel occlusion/disocclusion timings. Based on our image formation model, we describe a practical variational algorithm to estimate the motion field not only for visible image regions but also for regions getting occluded. Results for synthetic as well as real-world scenes demonstrate the validity of the approach.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't