Real-time camera pose estimation based on volleyball court view

The use of technology in sports has increased in recent years. One of the most influential of these technologies is referee support systems. Team sports such as volleyball require accurate and robust tracking systems that do not affect either the players or the court. This paper introduces the application of intrinsic and extrinsic camera calibration in a 12-camera volleyball referee system. Intrinsic parameters are calculated by using the classic pinhole model and Zhang’s method. To perform extrinsic calibration in real time, the volleyball court is treated as a global calibration artifact. Calibration keypoints are defined as court-line intersections. In addition, a new keypoint detection algorithm is proposed. It enables achievement of an accurate camera pose in regard to the court. With all 12 cameras calibrated in a common coordinate system, a dynamic camera stereo pair creation is possible. Therefore, with known ball 2D image coordinates, the 3D real ball coordinates can be reconstructed and the ball trajectory can be estimated. The performance of the proposed method is tested on a synthetic data set, including 3Ds Max rendering and real data scenarios. The mean camera pose error calculated for data biased with keypoint detection errors is approximately equal to 0.013% of the measurement volume. For the real data experiment with a human hand phantom, it is possible to determine the presence of the human phantom on the basis of the ball reflection attitude.     

Extended gravitational pose estimation

The model-to-image registration problem is a problem of determining the position and orientation (the pose) of a three-dimensional object with respect to a camera coordinate system. When there is no additional information available to constrain the pose of the object and to constrain the correspondence of object features to image features, the problem is also known as simultaneous pose and correspondence problem, or correspondenceless pose estimation problem. In this paper, we present a new algorithm, called extended gravitational pose estimation (EGPE), for determining the pose and correspondence simultaneously. The algorithm is based on gravitational pose estimation (GPE) algorithm. In our algorithm, the original GPE has been revised to deal with the problem with false image points. For problems with both occluded object points and false image points, we firstly applied single-link agglomerative clustering algorithm to pick out occluded object points when a local minimum has been found, then the revised GPE is applied again on the clustering result to update rotation and translation of the object model. EGPE has been verified on both synthetic images and real images. Empirical results show that EGPE is faster, more stable and reliable than most current algorithms, and can be used in real applications.     

基于光流分层方法的平面3D运动估测

无人机自主着舰末端视觉导引中舰机间相对位姿的估测,可以看作机载摄像机对甲板平面3D运动的估测。提出了一种光流分层方法:首先利用已知焦距的机载摄像机拍摄着舰靶标区域的图像序列,并采用Lucas方法计算相邻两帧图像的光流场;而后通过分层模型,将由光流场进行3D运动检测的非线性问题转化为了两个线性问题。该方法无需图像间的特征匹配,可线性解算出着舰靶标区域相对于无人机的三维运动参数,进而得到舰机间的相对位姿信息。计算机合成图和摄像机实拍图像的实验结果验证了该算法的正确性和有效性。     

基于图像的三维刚体运动估计算法比较

基于图像特征点对应估计三维刚体运动是计算机视觉的一个基本问题。对四种常用的运动估计算法,包括基于三维特征点的奇异值分解法、正交分解法、单位四元数法和基于二维特征点的"8点算法",通过大量仿真实验和一个机载目标运动光测系统进行了精度,稳定性和效率的比较。结论表明,基于三维特征的算法比基于二维特征的算法精度高、稳定性好,效率高。其中在基于三维特征的算法中,奇异值分解法效率更高,单位四元数法稳定性更好,在基于二维特征的算法中采用非线性优化是必须的,而增加特征点数和降低噪声水平对四种算法都能提高精度。讨论了这些结论对解决实际问题的作用。     

A new multi-path scheme for adaptive computation-aware motion estimation

Ability to work in a computation-limited and computation-variant environment described as “computational awareness” is a desirable feature of a real-time motion estimation system. In this paper, a new multi-path computation-aware algorithm is proposed. One-pass scheme, presented in the prior work by Chen et al., considers only one candidate point which is the median of neighbouring motion vectors (MVs). However, when computational resources are abundant, it is possible to investigate more search paths around points from the prediction set and get a significant improvement both in terms of quality and utilization of available search points (SPs). There are also other enhancements introduced regarding the way of selection of the starting SP and the search strategy, and allocation of resources, which leads to higher PSNR and a better utilization of computational resources.     

基于SIFT匹配的全局运动估计方法

提出了一种基于SIFT(Scale invariant feature transform)匹配的全局运动估计算法.在SIFT初匹配的基础上,对每一个原始匹配特征点,利用所在尺度的邻域灰度信息,对其加权平均后再进行匹配,进而去除误配点.精炼后的匹配点集合作为求解全局运动参数模型的对应数据,采用最小二乘法计算模型参数.在...     

用于像移探测的位平面匹配改进算法

像移探测作为电子稳像的重要的步骤,直接影响稳像的精度和速度。针对传统位平面匹配算法的局限,对各阶位平面的探测效果进行了综合测试,并提出了一种改进方案,即对位平面4,5经过下采样后组成一个合成位平面来进行匹配。研究了匹配块大小变化对位平面算法的影响,比较了相邻帧和固定帧两种参考帧选取方法的优劣。实验表明,改进的位平面匹配算法提高了位平面算法的稳健性,在没有增加计算量的前提下,算法精度达到了与全搜索块匹配法相当的程度。     

A monocular pose measurement method of a translation-only one-dimensional object without scene information

A monocular method to measure the pose of a translation-only one-dimensional (1D) object containing at least two known characteristic points is presented. The position of any other point on the 1D object can be located after the pose measurement. Scene information is not needed to apply the method. If the distance between the characteristic points is unknown, there is a scale factor between the object's real positions and the measurement results. The method can also be used to measure the pose and shape parameters of a parallelogram, prism or cylinder object.     

动态图像序列运动矢量估计算法的研究

运动估计在电子稳像系统中起重要的作用。介绍和比较了几种运动矢量估计算法。为了提高电子稳像系统的性能,提出了在设计电子稳像系统时选取运动矢量估计算法的原则。通过比较应用在航摄图像序列中的投影算法和匹配算法的性能,说明了如何应用运动矢量估计算法的原则。仿真结果表明,根据此原则选取的运动矢量估计算法应用于电子稳像系统是可行的。     

A novel 1D target-based calibration method with unknown orientation for structured light vision sensor

The problem associated with calibrating a structured light vision sensor is that it is difficult to obtain the coordinates of the world calibration points falling on the light stripe plane. In this paper, we present a novel method to address this problem by randomly moving a 1D (one-dimension) target within the sensor's view field. At each position where the target is set, the world coordinates with one calibration point on the light stripe plane that can be obtained based on at least three preset known points on the 1D target by a proposed two-stage technique. Thus, as long as the 1D target is at least set at three different positions, not less than three such calibration points can be obtained to perform the structured light vision sensor calibration. The simulation and real experiments conducted reveal that the proposed approach has an accuracy of up to 0.065 mm. The advantages of the proposed method are: (1) 1D target is easily machined with high accuracy, which reduces the cost of the calibration equipment; (2) the method simplifies the calibration operation and can be convenient in on-site calibration; (3) the method is suitable for use in confined spaces.     

A novel modified cepstral based technique for blind estimation of motion blur

In the problem of blind image deconvolution, estimation of blurring kernel is the first and foremost important step. Quality of restored image highly depends upon the accuracy of this estimation. In this paper we propose a modified cepstrum domain approach combined with bit-plane slicing method to estimate uniform motion blur parameters, which improves the accuracy without any manual intervention. A single motion blurred image under spatial invariance condition is considered. It is noted that the fourth bit plane of the modified cepstrum carries an important cue for estimating the blur direction. With the exploration of this bit plane no other post processing is required to estimate blur direction. The experimental evaluation is carried out on both real-blurred photographs and synthetically blurred standard test images such as Berkeley segmentation dataset and USC-SIPI texture image database. The experimental results show that the proposed method is capable of estimating blur parameters more accurately than the existing methods.     

混沌背景中信号参数估计的新方法

怎样提取混沌背景中信号的参数具有重要意义.在重构的相空间中,叠加有其他信号的混沌信号时间序列重构的点集会偏离混沌吸引子所在光滑流形,依据这一性质并综合利用混沌背景中信号本身的特性,提出一种参数估计的新方法：最小相对奇异值(MRSV)法.该方法先建立逆滤波器,由其输出重构相空间,然后改变其参数,使输出信号在嵌入空间中作局部奇异值分解的相对奇异值最小,来实现参数估计.AR模型参数和正弦信号频率估计的仿真结果验证了该方法的有效性. 关键词： 混沌 参数估计 最小相对奇异值(MRSV) 逆滤波器     

Pose estimation for UAV aerial refueling with serious turbulences based on extended Kalman filter

In recent years, many pose estimation algorithms were developed, and have been successfully applied to solve unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aerial refueling pose estimation problems. This paper mainly focuses on solving this problem under serious turbulences circumstance. The extended Kalman filter is a set of mathematical equations to estimate the state of a process, which is able to support estimations of past, present, and even future states. In reference to previous papers and some simulations, we build up the noise models of refueling boom and atmospheric turbulence. Then, an extend Kalman filter is adopted to solve the pose estimation problem in UAV aerial refueling with serious turbulences. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed approach.     

Improving motion estimation by accounting for local image distortion

Cardiac elastography is a useful diagnostic technique for detection of heart function abnormalities, based on analysis of echocardiograms. The analysis of the regional heart motion allows assessing the extent of myocardial ischemia and infarction. In this paper, a new two-stage algorithm for cardiac motion estimation is proposed, where the data is taken from a sequence of 2D echocardiograms. The method combines the advantages of block-matching and optical flow techniques. The first stage employs a standard block-matching algorithm (sum of absolute differences) to provide a displacement estimate with accuracy of up to one pixel. At the second stage, this estimate is corrected by estimating the parameters of a local image transform within a test window. The parameters of the image transform are estimated in the least-square sense. In order to account for typical heart motions, like contraction/expansion, translation and rotation, a local affine model is assumed within the test window. The accuracy of the new algorithm is evaluated using a sequence of 500 grayscale B-mode images, which are generated as distorted, but known copies of an original ROI, taken from a real echocardiogram. The accuracy of the motion estimation is expressed in terms of errors: maximum absolute error, root-mean-square error, average error and standard deviation. The errors of the proposed algorithm are compared with these of the known block-matching technique with cross-correlation and interpolation in the sub-pixel space. Statistical analysis of the errors shows that the proposed algorithm provides more accurate estimates of the heart motion than the cross-correlation technique with interpolation in the sub-pixel space.     

机器视觉疲劳裂纹扩展试验摄像头自动聚焦方法

在机器视觉疲劳裂纹扩展试验中,为了能够满足对裂纹宏观观察裂纹和准确定位裂纹尖端的要求,需要采用变焦镜头放大和缩小采集图像范围,针对于摄像头变焦后的聚焦问题,提出了摄像头的自动聚焦方法。首先建立图像采集系统,采集裂纹图像至计算机,通过中值滤波对图像预处理,去除噪声干扰,选取裂纹区域作为聚焦窗口,采用Laplace算子法作为清晰度评价函数,并提出一种变步长穷举法进行聚焦搜索。最后设计了以ARM7为核心的摄像头运动控制器。实验表明,所提出的方法能够实现疲劳裂纹扩展试验中摄像头在各种情况下的准确自动聚焦,为下一步精确测量疲劳裂纹扩展参数奠定基础。     

基于预滤波迭代梯度法的运动估计

提出一种对小平移和大平移图像序列进行运动估计的新算法 预滤波迭代梯度法,预滤波迭代梯度法就是先对图像进行低通滤波,然后用迭代梯度法进行运动估计。结果表明,该方法比梯度法、预滤波梯度法和迭代梯度法具有更高的估计精度,而且可以很好地抑制噪声的影响。     

A subpixel motion estimation algorithm based on digital correlation for illumination variant and noise image sequences

One of the challenges in practical subpixel motion estimation is how to obtain high accuracy with sufficient robustness to both illumination variations and additive noise. Motivated by the fact that the normalized spatial cross-correlation is invariant to illumination, we introduce a gradient-based subpixel registration method by maximizing the digital correlation (DC) function between the reference and target frames. Such DC function is remodeled with the presence of image noise, yielding that the correlation coefficient is only sensitive to noise standard variance. To fairly suppress the noise corruption, not only the target frame but also the reference one is reformulated into Taylor gradient expression with half but opposite motion vector. The final solution to motion estimates can be approximated into a closed form by reserving first-order coefficient terms of unregistered motion variables. The error trend of approximated solution is discussed. Computer simulations and actual experiments’ results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method to the LMSE-based method and ordinary DC method when illumination variations and noise exist. Among the experiments, the influences of real subpixel translation value and noise variance degree on accuracy are studied; correspondingly, an optimized iterative idea for big translations and the recommended noise level adaptive to our method are introduced.     

一种新的角点角度快速估计方法

在计算机视觉领域中角点特征的提取具有相当重要的地位。角点的角度是衡量角点特征的一个极为重要的指标 ,常作为阈值决定角点的取舍。文中提出一种新的角点角度估计算法 ,算法中通过对角点边缘链码采用不同的方差的高斯函数进行卷积 ,得到角点位置的偏移 ,并给出由此偏移量计算角点角度值的公式。此算法具有较小的计算量。实验证明此算法在一定场合下能有效地完成对角点角度的估计。最后给出了估计的误差分析。     

红外目标运动参数估计方法

图像光流的计算不需要在图像序列中建立特征之间的对应关系,但是直接利用光流法进行目标的运动参数估计和跟踪运算量很大,而且受噪声等影响而比较困难。首先采用聚类分割方法提取出目标区域,然后对目标区计算光流场,得到目标运动速度估计值,实现目标跟踪。此方法对比较复杂的红外图像也可以进行较好的分割,跟踪时无需建立图像间的特征对应关系,计算量大大缩小,目标运动速度的估计误差也很小。     

The application of improved block-matching method and block search method for the image motion estimation

Image block matching is one of the motion estimation methods for video inter-frame coding and digital image stabilization. The methods used for matching and searching will greatly affect the accuracy and speed of block matching. The block matching method based on the oblique vectors is suggested in this paper where matching parameters contain both horizontal and vertical vectors in the image blocks at the same time. Improved matching information can be obtained after making correlative calculations in the oblique direction. A novel search method of matching block based on the idea of simulated annealing is presented in this paper to improve the searching speed, accuracy and robustness in the fast operation of the block-matching motion estimation. The simulated annealing algorithm can easily escape from the trap of local minima effectively. With the two methods the block matching can be used for motion estimation at the real-time image processing system and high estimation accuracy can be achieved. An image stabilization system based on DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system is developed to verify this algorithm. Results show that both the matching accuracy and the search speed are improved with the methods presented.