A simplified linear optic flow-motion algorithm

The purpose of the article is to establish the relationship between rigid body motion and the optic flow image and solve motion parameters from optic flow image points. A basic equation relating optic flow image points to rigid body motion which involves only the instantaneous rotation and translation velocities without depths is established. A linear algorithm is developed to determine the mode of motion (whether the instantaneous translation is zero or not), the instantaneous rotation velocity, the direction of the instantaneous translation velocity, and the relative depth map (or surface structure) under the rank assumption. The algorithm represents a simplification to the linear optic flow-motion algorithm proposed in (Zhuang and Haralick, in Proceedings, IEEE First Conf. on Artificial Intelligence Applications, Denver, CO, 1984, pp. 366-375). 9 1988 Academic Press, Inc.