Evaluation of uniform and non-uniform optical flow techniques using finite element methods

Abstract

This paper evaluates and compares uniform and non-uniform algorithms that implement the estimation of motion, focusing on the finite element method as a framework for the development of techniques. The finite element approach has the advantages of a rigorous mathematical formulation, speed of reconstruction, conceptual simplicity and ease of implementation via well-established finite element procedures in comparison to finite volume or finite difference techniques. The finite element techniques are implemented through a variety of grid discretisations, with results presented and compared. An important advantage of the non-uniform technique is the capacity to tackle problems in which non-uniform sampling of the image sequence is appropriate. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.