Estimation of Dense Image Flow Fields in Fluids



AbstractThe estimation of flow fields from time sequences of satellite imagery
has a number of important applications. For visualization of cloud or
sea ice movements in sequences of crude temporal sampling a satisfactory
non blurred temporal interpolation can be performed only when the flow
field or an estimate there-of is known. Estimated flow fields in weather
satellite imagery might also be used on an operational
basis as inputs to short-term weather prediction. In this article we
describe a method for the estimation of dense
flow fields. Local measurements of motion are obtained by analysis of
the local energy distribution, which is sampled using a set of 3-D
spatio-temporal filters. The estimated local energy distribution also
allows us to compute a certainty measure of the estimated local flow.
The algorithm furhtermore utilizes Markovian random fields in order to
incorporate smoothness across the field. To obtain smothness we will
constrain first as well as second order derivatives of the flow
field.
The performance of the algorithm is illustrated by the estimation of
the flow fields corresponding to a sequence of Meteosat thermal images.
The estimated flow fields are used in a temporal interpolation
scheme.
Keywordsoptical flow, markov random fields, local orientation
TypeTechnical report
Year1995    pp. 19
PublisherDept. of Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark, DTU
AddressRichard Petersens Plads, Building 321, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby
IMM no.IMM-REP-95-04
Electronic version(s)[pdf]
BibTeX data [bibtex]
IMM Group(s)Image Analysis & Computer Graphics