An automatic optical flow based method for the detection and restoration of non-repetitive damaged zones in image sequences

Abstract

In this paper, we describe an automatic method for detecting and repairing non-repetitive damages in image sequences, caused by dust, fibers or local defects of the film emulsion. The method is a three frame window scheme based on the calculation of the optical flow (OF) relating adjacent frames and the first and the last frames of the sequence. The OF validity is checked in order to detect non-repetitive damage, and is later repaired using filtering and smooth blending of the damaged zones. The method works correctly for the set of tested image sequences providing perfect visual repairs of the damaged zones. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.