Rigid body segmentation and shape description from dense optical flow under weak perspective

We present an algorithm for identifying and tracking independently moving rigid objects from optical flow. Some previous attempts at segmentation via optical flow have focused on finding discontinuities in the flow field. While discontinuities do indicate a change in scene depth, they do not in general signal a boundary between two separate objects. The proposed method uses the fact that each independently moving object has a unique epipolar constraint associated with its motion. Thus motion discontinuities based on self-occlusion can be distinguished from those due to separate objects. The use of epipolar geometry allows for the determination of individual motion parameters for each object as well as the recovery of relative depth for each point on the object. The algorithm assumes an affine camera where perspective effects are limited to changes in overall scale. No camera calibration parameters are required. A Kalman filter based approach is used for tracking motion parameters with time.