Motion analysis of articulated objects from monocular images

This paper presents a new method of motion analysis of articulated objects from feature point correspondences over monocular perspective images without imposing any constraints on motion. An articulated object is modeled as a kinematic chain consisting of joints and links, and its 3D joint positions are estimated within a scale factor using the connection relationship of two links over two or three images. Then, twists and exponential maps are employed to represent the motion of each link, including the general motion of the base link and the rotation of other links around their joints. Finally, constraints from image point correspondences, which are similar to that of the essential matrix in rigid motion, are developed to estimate the motion. In the algorithm, the characteristic of articulated motion, i.e., motion correlation among links, is applied to decrease the complexity of the problem and improve the robustness. A point pattern matching algorithm for articulated objects is also discussed in this paper. Simulations and experiments on real images show the correctness and efficiency of the algorithms.     

基于关键点的类别级三维可形变目标姿态估计

为了解决类别级三维可形变目标姿态估计问题,基于目标的关键点,提出了一种面向类别的三维可形变目标姿态估计方法。该方法设计了一种基于关键点的端到端深度学习框架,框架以PointNet++为后端网络,通过特征提取、部位分割、关键点提取和基于关键点的姿态估计部分实现可形变目标的姿态估计,具有计算精度高、鲁棒性强等优势。同时,基于ANCSH方法设计了适用于K-AOPE网络的关键点标准化分层表示方法,该方法仅需提取目标少量的关键点即可表示类别物体。为了验证方法的有效性,在公共数据集shape2motion上进行测试。实验结果显示,提出的姿态估计方法(以眼镜类别为例)在旋转角上的误差分别为2.3°、3.1°、3.7°,平移误差分别为0.034、0.030、0.046,连接状态误差为2.4°、2.5°,连接参数误差为1.2°、0.9°,0.008、0.010。与ANCSH方法相比,所提方法具有较高的准确性和鲁棒性。     

Recognition of articulated and occluded objects

A model-based automatic target recognition system is developed to recognize articulated and occluded objects in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, based on invariant features of the objects. Characteristics of SAR target image scattering centers, azimuth variation, and articulation invariants are presented. The basic elements of the new recognition system are described and performance results are given for articulated, occluded and occluded articulated objects, and they are related to the target articulation invariance and percent unoccluded     

Motion estimation of 3-D objects using multisensor data fusion

This article presents an approach to estimate the general 3-D motion of a polyhedral object using multiple sensor data some of which may not provide sufficient information for the estimation of object motion. Motion can be estimated continuously from each sensor through the analysis of the instantaneous state of an object. The instantaneous state of an object is specified by the rotation, which is defined by a rotation axis and rotation angle, and the displacement of the center of rotation. We have introduced a method based on Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse theory to estimate the instantaneous state of an object, and a linear feedback estimation algorithm to approach the motion estimation. The motion estimated from each sensor is fused to provide more accurate and reliable information about the motion of an unknown object. The techniques of multisensor data fusion can be categorized into three methods: averaging, decision, and guiding. We present a fusion algorithm which combines averaging and decision. With the assumption that the motion is smooth, our approach can handle the data sequences from multiple sensors with different sampling times. We can also predict the next immediate object position and its motion. The simulation results show our proposed approach is advantageous in terms of accuracy, speed, and versatility.     

Constraint fusion for recognition and localization of articulated objects

This paper presents a method for localization and interpretation of modeled objects that is general enough to cover articulated and other types of constrained models. The flexibility between the components of the model is expressed as spatial constraints that are fused into the pose estimation during the interpretation process. The constraint fusion assists in obtaining a precise and stable pose of each of the object's components and in finding the correct interpretation. The proposed method can handle any constraint (including inequalities) between any number of different components of the model. The framework is based on Kalman filtering.     

Structure and motion estimation from apparent contours under circular motion

In this paper, we address the problem of recovering structure and motion from the apparent contours of a smooth surface. Fixed image features under circular motion and their relationships with the intrinsic parameters of the camera are exploited to provide a simple parameterization of the fundamental matrix relating any pair of views in the sequence. Such a parameterization allows a trivial initialization of the motion parameters, which all bear physical meaning. It also greatly reduces the dimension of the search space for the optimization problem, which can now be solved using only two epipolar tangents. In contrast to previous methods, the motion estimation algorithm introduced here can cope with incomplete circular motion and more widely spaced images. Existing techniques for model reconstruction from apparent contours are then reviewed and compared. Experiment on real data has been carried out and the 3D model reconstructed from the estimated motion is presented.     

Motion segmentation of multiple translating objects from line correspondences

This paper presents an analytic approach to motion segmentation of multiple translating objects from line correspondences in three perspective views. The basic idea of our algorithm is to view the estimation of multiple translational motions as the estimation of a single, though more complex, multibody motion model that is then factored into the original models by polynomial differentiation. Experimental results on synthetic and real scenes are presented.     

Recovering articulated pose: a comparison of two pre and postimposed constraint methods

We contrast the performance of two methods of imposing constraints during the tracking of articulated objects, the first method preimposing the kinematic constraints during tracking and, thus, using the minimum degrees of freedom, and the second imposing constraints after tracking and, hence, using the maximum. Despite their very different formulations, the methods recover the same pose change. Further comparisons are drawn in terms of computational speed and algorithmic simplicity and robustness, and it is the last area which is the most telling. The results suggest that using built-in constraints is well-suited to tracking individual articulated objects, whereas applying constraints afterward is most suited to problems involving contact and breakage between articulated (or rigid) objects, where the ability to test tracking performance quickly with constraints turned on or off is desirable.     

Geodesic active contours and level sets for the detection andtracking of moving objects

This paper presents a new variational framework for detecting and tracking multiple moving objects in image sequences. Motion detection is performed using a statistical framework for which the observed interframe difference density function is approximated using a mixture model. This model is composed of two components, namely, the static (background) and the mobile (moving objects) one. Both components are zero-mean and obey Laplacian or Gaussian law. This statistical framework is used to provide the motion detection boundaries. Additionally, the original frame is used to provide the moving object boundaries. Then, the detection and the tracking problem are addressed in a common framework that employs a geodesic active contour objective function. This function is minimized using a gradient descent method. A new approach named Hermes is proposed, which exploits aspects from the well-known front propagation algorithms and compares favorably to them. Very promising experimental results are provided using real video sequences     

Tracking multiple objects through occlusion with online sampling and position estimation

To track multiple objects through occlusion, either depth information of the scene or prior models of the objects such as spatial models and smooth/predictable motion models are usually assumed before tracking. When these assumptions are unreasonable, the tracker may fail. To overcome this limitation, we propose a novel online sample based framework, inspired by the fact that the corresponding local parts of objects in sequential frames are always similar in the local color and texture features and spatial features relative to the centers of objects. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed approach works robustly under difficult and complex conditions.     

Recovering the position and orientation of free-form objects fromimage contours using 3D distance maps

The accurate matching of 3D anatomical surfaces with sensory data such as 2D X-ray projections is a basic problem in computer and robot assisted surgery, In model-based vision, this problem can be formulated as the estimation of the spatial pose (position and orientation) of a 3D smooth object from 2D video images. The authors present a new method for determining the rigid body transformation that describes this match. The authors' method performs a least squares minimization of the energy necessary to bring the set of the camera-contour projection lines tangent to the surface. To correctly deal with projection lines that penetrate the surface, the authors consider the minimum signed distance to the surface along each line (i.e., distances inside the object are negative). To quickly and accurately compute distances to the surface, the authors introduce a precomputed distance map represented using an octree spline whose resolution increases near the surface. This octree structure allows the authors to quickly find the minimum distance along each line using best-first search. Experimental results for 3D surface to 2D projection matching are presented for both simulated and real data. The combination of the authors' problem formulation in 3D, their computation of line to surface distances with the octree-spline distance map, and their simple minimization technique based on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm results in a method that solves the 3D/2D matching problem for arbitrary smooth shapes accurately and quickly     

On boundary observability of elastic vibrations of connected objects with distributed and lumped parameters

In this paper, a boundary observation problem (recovery of the initial state) of vibrations of an object with distributed and lumped parameters is solved.     

Motion of points and lines in the uncalibrated case

In the present paper we address the problem of computing structure and motion, given a set point and/or line correspondences, in a monocular image sequence, when the camera is not calibrated.Considering point correspondences first, we analyse how to parameterize the retinal correspondences, in function of the chosen geometry: Euclidean, affine or projective geometry. The simplest of these parameterizations is called the FQs-representation and is a composite projective representation. The main result is that considering N+1 views in such a monocular image sequence, the retinal correspondences are parameterized by 11 N–4 parameters in the general projective case. Moreover, 3 other parameters are required to work in the affine case and 5 additional parameters in the Euclidean case. These 8 parameters are calibration parameters and must be calculated considering at least 8 external informations or constraints. The method being constructive, all these representations are made explicit.Then, considering line correspondences, we show how the the same parameterizations can be used when we analyse the motion of lines, in the uncalibrated case. The case of three views is extensively studied and a geometrical interpretation is proposed, introducing the notion of trifocal geometry which generalizes the well known epipolar geometry. It is also discussed how to introduce line correspondences, in a framework based on point correspondences, using the same equations.Finally, considering the F Qs-representation, one implementation is proposed as a motion module, taking retinal correspondences as input, and providing and estimation of the 11 N–4 retinal motion parameters. As discussed in this paper, this module can also estimate the 3D depth of the points up to an affine and projective transformation, defined by the 8 parameters identified in the first section. Experimental results are provided.     

Probabilistic state estimation of dynamic objects with a moving mobile robot

Mobile service robots are designed to operate in dynamic and populated environments. To plan their missions and to perform them successfully, mobile robots need to keep track of relevant changes in the environment. For example, office delivery or cleaning robots must be able to estimate the state of doors or the position of waste-baskets in order to deal with the dynamics of the environment. In this paper we present a probabilistic technique for estimating the state of dynamic objects in the environment of a mobile robot. Our method matches real sensor measurements against expected measurements obtained by a sensor simulation to efficiently and accurately identify the most likely state of each object even if the robot is in motion. The probabilistic approach allows us to incorporate the robot’s uncertainty in its position into the state estimation process. The method has been implemented and tested on a real robot. We present different examples illustrating the efficiency and robustness of our approach.     

Uniqueness and estimation of three-dimensional motion parameters of rigid objects with curved surfaces

Two main results are established in this paper. First, we show that seven point correspondences are sufficient to uniquely determine from two perspective views the three-dimensional motion parameters (within a scale factor for the translations) of a rigid object with curved surfaces. The seven points should not be traversed by two planes with one plane containing the origin, nor by a cone containing the origin. Second, a set of ``essential parameters' are introduced which uniquely determine the motion parameters up to a scale factor for the translations, and can be estimated by solving a set of linear equations which are derived from the correspondences of eight image points. The actual motion parameters can subsequently be determined by computing the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a 3×3 matrix containing the essential parameters.     

3D face and motion estimation from sparse points using adaptive bracketed minimization

This paper presents a novel method for estimating camera motion and reconstructing human face from a video sequence. The coarse-to-fine method is applied via combining the concepts of Powell’s minimization with gradient descent. Sparse points defining the human face in every frame are tracked using the active appearance model. The case of occluded points, even for self-occlusion, does not pose a problem in the proposed method. Robustness in the presence of noise and 3D accuracy using this method is also demonstrated. Examples of face reconstruction using other methods including trifocal tensor, Powell’s minimization, and gradient descent are also compared to the proposed method. Experiments on both synthetic and real faces are presented and analyzed. Also, different camera movement paths are illustrated. All real-world experiments used an off-the-shelf digital camera carried by a human walking without using any dolly to demonstrate the robustness and practicality of the proposed method.     

Pose estimation for objects with planar surfaces using eigenimage and range data analysis

In this paper we present a novel method for estimating the object pose for 3D objects with well-defined planar surfaces. Specifically, we investigate the feasibility of estimating the object pose using an approach that combines the standard eigenspace analysis technique with range data analysis. In this sense, eigenspace analysis was employed to constrain one object rotation and reject surfaces that are not compatible with a model object. The remaining two object rotations are estimated by computing the normal to the surface from the range data. The proposed pose estimation scheme has been successfully applied to scenes defined by polyhedral objects and experimental results are reported.     

Cubic spline interpolation to develop contours of large reservoirs and evaluate area and volume

The paper describes the development of an algorithm that uses spline interpolation methods in order to calculate the ground relief contours, the area and the volume reservoir associated with a large dam. This algorithm is a great help to the engineer who designs dams in calculating the area and the volume of the reservoir for dams with specific positions and geometric characteristics, for different water levels and over a ground relief with elevation contours which one evaluates, smoothes and draws using cubic splines. The advantages of the algorithm are significant not only for specific computer programs that refer to reservoirs, but also for computer programs relevant to hydraulic calculations of reservoirs and associated structures.