Method and apparatus for estimating scene structure and ego-motion from multiple images of a scene using correlation
US6307959A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 13, 2000 |
| Grant date | Oct 23, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 13, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T7/55
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system that estimates both the ego-motion of a camera through a scene and the structure of the scene by analyzing a batch of images of the scene obtained by the camera employs a correlation-based, iterative, multi-resolution algorithm. The system defines a global ego-motion constraint to refine estimates of inter-frame camera rotation and translation. It also uses local window-based correlation to refine the current estimate of scene structure. The batch of images is divided into a reference image and a group of inspection images. Each inspection image in the batch of images is aligned to the reference image by a warping transformation. The correlation is determined by analyzing respective Gaussian/Laplacian decompositions of the reference image and warped inspection images. The ego-motion constraint includes both rotation and translation parameters. These parameters are determined by globally correlating surfaces in the respective inspection images to the reference image. Scene structure is determined on a pixel-by-pixel basis by correlating multiple pixels in a support region among all of the images. The correlation surfaces are modeled as quadratic or other parametric surfaces…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.