Multiple constraints to compute optical flow

The computation of the optical flow field from an image sequence requires the definition of constraints on the temporal change of image features. In this paper, we consider the implications of using multiple constraints in the computational schema. In the first step, it is shown that differential constraints correspond to an implicit feature tracking. Therefore, the best results (either in terms of measurement accuracy, and speed in the computation) are obtained by selecting and applying the constraints which are best “tuned” to the particular image feature under consideration. Considering also multiple image points not only allows us to obtain a (locally) better estimate of the velocity field, but also to detect erroneous measurements due to discontinuities in the velocity field. Moreover, by hypothesizing a constant acceleration motion model, also the derivatives of the optical flow are computed. Several experiments are presented from real image sequences.