Image Flow Segmentation and Estimation by Constraint Line Clustering

Image flow is the velocity field in the image plane caused by the motion of the observer, objects in the scene, or apparent motion. The image flow velocity field is an important intrinsic image and many algorithms that use the image flow velocity field have already been described. The image flow velocity field can contain discontinuities due to object occlusion in the scene. An algorithm that can estimate the image flow velocity field when there are discontinuities due to occlusion is described. Experimental results on a demanding synthetic test case and a real image are presented. Some error analysis that explains the performance of the algorithm is provided. The velocity field estimate can be improved using surface reconstruction between velocity field boundaries. A new surface approximation algorithm that does not blur sharp boundaries is presented.