Quasi-Parametric Optical Flow Estimation

A method of optical flow (OF) estimation, comprising:

• using a processor implementing a stored quasi-parametric optical flow measurement (QP-OFM) algorithm which combines a pyramidal block matching (PBM) method with a modified Lucas-Kanade (LK) method, the QP-OFM algorithm performing:
• optical flow (OF) estimating between a first frame of video and a second frame of video using the PBM method to generate an initial OF estimate at a base pyramid level having integer pixel resolution, and
• refining the initial OF estimate using at least one pass of the modified LK method to provide a revised OF estimate having fractional pixel resolution.

An image processing system, comprising:

• circuitry for performing optical flow (OF) estimation between a first frame of video and a second frame of video using a pyramidal block matching (PBM) method to generate an initial optical flow (OF) estimate at a base pyramid level having integer pixel resolution, and
• circuitry for refining the initial OF estimate using at least one pass of a modified Lucas-Kanade (LK) method to provide a revised OF estimate having fractional pixel resolution.

An image processing system, comprising:

• means for performing optical flow (OF) estimation between a first frame of video and a second frame of video using a pyramidal block matching (PBM) method to generate an initial optical flow (OF) estimate at a base pyramid level having integer pixel resolution, and
• means for refining the initial OF estimate using at least one pass of a modified Lucas-Kanade (LK) method to provide a revised OF estimate having fractional pixel resolution.