A robust algorithm for 3D-motion estimation of a small surface patch of a 3D-object

A robust algorithm for estimating 3D--motion of small surface patches of a 3D--object is described. The robustness is measured by the probability of convergency to correct parameters. The 3D motion is estimated by a gradient method, which uses a local luminance error model, a motion compensated Kalman Filter and a selected neighboring surface around the patch. This technique can be used for automatic modelling of flexibly connected rigid 3D object components considering mutual occlusion. 1. Introduction To model 3D scenes from 2D image sequences, a model--based image analysis describes each moving object m by a model object with 3 sets of parameters defining its motion A (m) , shape M (m) , and color S (m) . The parameter sets depend on the type of motion model being applied. In this contribution, the motion model of rigid 3D objects is used [3]. According to this motion model, the motion parameters A (m) # (T (m) x , T (m) y , T (m) z , R (m) x , R (m) y , R (m) z ) ..