Depth order estimation for video frames using motion occlusions

Abstract

This study proposes a system to estimate the depth order of regions belonging to a monocular image sequence. For each frame, the regions are ordered according to their relative depth using information from the previous and following frames. The algorithm estimates occlusions relying on a hierarchical region-based representation of the image by means of a binary tree. This representation is used to define the final depth order partition which is obtained through an energy minimisation process. Finally, to achieve a global and consistent depth ordering, a depth order graph is constructed and used to eliminate contradictory local cues. The system is evaluated and compared with the state-of-the-art figure/ground labelling systems showing very good results. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014.