Computing the local continuity order of optical flow using fractional variational method

Abstract

We introduce variational optical flow computation involving priors with fractional order differentiations. Fractional order differentiations are typical tools in signal processing and image analysis. The zero-crossing of a fractional order Laplacian yields better performance for edge detection than the zero-crossing of the usual Laplacian. The order of the differentiation of the prior controls the continuity class of the solution. Therefore, using the square norm of the fractional order differentiation of optical flow field as the prior, we develop a method to estimate the local continuity order of the optical flow field at each point. The method detects the optimal continuity order of optical flow and corresponding optical flow vector at each point. Numerical results show that the Horn-Schunck type prior involving the n + ε order differentiation for 0 < ε < 1 and an integer n is suitable for accurate optical flow computation. © 2009 Springer.