System and method for estimating the direction of a movement in video images

A system for determining at least one classifier of a general movement along a first direction in a scene, the system comprising:

• a video image acquisition image sensor;
• and
• a processing module configured to:
• a) determine a differential image based on first and second video images of the scene received from the video image acquisition image sensor;
• b) select pixels of the differential image corresponding to edges of objects of the scene;
• c) determine, for each pixel selected at step b), at least one classifier of a local movement along the first direction at least at a first value and at a second value;
• d) determine a first indicator of the local movement along the first direction which depends on a sum of the at least one local movement classifier along the first direction at the first value and a second indicator of the local movement along the first direction which depends on a sum of the at least one local movement classifier along the first direction at the second value;
• and
• e) determine the at least one classifier of the general movement along the first direction based on a comparison of the first and second indicators of the local movement along the first direction.