Variable bandwidth QMDPE and its application in robust optical flow estimation

Abstract

Robust estimators, such as least median of squared (LMedS) residuals, M-estimators, the least trimmed squares (LTS) etc., have been employed to estimate optical flow from image sequences in recent years. However, these robust estimators have a breakdown point of no more than 50%. We propose a novel robust estimator, called variable bandwidth quick maximum density power estimator (vbQMDPE), which can tolerate more than 50% outliers. We apply the novel proposed estimator to robust optical flow estimation. Our method yields better results than most other recently proposed methods, and it has the potential to better handle multiple motion effects.