Motion estimation with more than two frames

The development of a general motion estimation system based on using three or more frames is reported. The relevant portion of the sequence is treated as a whole, thus simplifying the process of estimating the motion parameters, and making possible the computation of the motion parameters in terms of the natural center of motion. A general description of this motion estimation method is presented, with the derivation of motion equations for three cases (three points in three frames, two points in four frames, and one point in five frames). Results are given for real and synthetic images for the case of one point in five (and six) frames. On the average, the program converged quickly to the right answer for noiseless data. For noisy data, the answers were reasonable and their accuracy was directly a function of the amount of noise in the disparity vector.<>