Determining 3D Motion by Shape-from-Shading(<Special issue>New Image/Video Media and It's Application)

We propose a novel method of estimating three-dimensional (3D) motion parameters of an object using two successive images from a single camera. The method recovers 3D shape of the object from shading in each image, then estimates 3D motion parameters from two successive 3D shapes, and finally determines the optical flow, whereas the existing methods begin with optical flow estimation while assuming constant brightness during motion. Our method is useful even when the brightness of the pixel in motion does not remain constant