Apparatus for calculating optical flow and camera motion using correlation matching and system model in moving image

Abstract

An apparatus for calculating optical flow and camera motion using correlation matching and a system model in a moving image, in which the calculation of the optical flow is executed accurately in real time, even when an image rotation or zoom change has occurred. The apparatus comprises a feature point extracting section for extracting a feature point of a sequence of input images (previous image and current image); an optical flow calculating section for calculating an optical flow by use of the feature point extracted by the feature point extracting section; a first camera motion calculating section for calculating a camera motion by use of the optical flow calculated by the optical flow calculating section; a second camera motion calculating section for eliminating an incorrect optical flow from the optical flow calculated by the optical flow calculating section and again calculating camera motion; an optical flow location estimating section for estimating a location of the optical flow by estimating a distance difference between an estimated feature point location and a current feature point location in the previous image according to the camera motion calculated by the second camera motion calculating section; and a weighted value calculating section for calculating a weighted value according to the camera motion calculated by the second camera motion calculating section and providing the weighted value to the optical flow calculating section.