Image sequence stabilisation: motion vector integration (MVI) versus frame position smoothing (FPS)

Image sequence stabilisation is the task of removing unwanted camera movements (jitter) from a video sequence. While these jitter can be translational, rotational or zoom based, translational cases have a larger influence on visual perception and are most likely to result in visual appearance degradation that will upset the viewer. While most of the research in the area of image stabilisation has been concentrated in the motion estimation part, with the goal of accurate global motion estimation, the correction part has been given less attention. Two techniques have been reported for the correction of translational jitter: motion vector integration (MVI) and frame position smoothing (FPS). While most reported stabilisation systems have employed MVI, this paper shows that FPS outperforms this technique in that jitter stabilisation is accomplished while successfully preserving intentional camera motions, without the need to compromise as is the case in MVI.