Cognitech, Inc.

Frederic Guichard

Leonid I Rudin

Image frame fusion by velocity estimation using region merging

A process for performing image frame fusion on a pixel-by-pixel basis by estimating velocities and occlusions between at least two image frames of a sequence of frames. For each pixel, the possible matchings are those that minimize changes in a selected parameter of the image (generally the grey-level). The process uses a region-growing procedure to reduce the number of possible matchings for each pixel. The output is a decomposition of the images into regions in which pixels move with the same model of velocity or are all occluded. The process includes a multi-scale description of velocities between two images, a multi-scale segmentation of the images into regions having different motion, a correcting term for sampling errors, sub-pixel motion errors and an occlusion estimation step. A preferred embodiment employs pyramidal calculations.

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W. Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Frederic Guichard