http://vision.ucsd.edu/~sagarwal/exam/black_anandan_1996.pdf

The Robust Estimation of Multiple Motions

Markov random field (MRF) theory provides a basis for modeling contextual constraints in visual processing and interpretation. It enables systematic development of optimal vision algorithms when used with optimization principles. This detailed and thoroughly enhanced third edition presents a comprehensive study / reference to theories, methodologies and recent developments in solving computer vision problems based on MRFs, statistics and optimisation. It treats various problems in low- and high-level computational vision in a systematic and unified way within the MAP-MRF framework. Among the main issues covered are: how to use MRFs to encode contextual constraints that are indispensable to image understanding; how to derive the objective function for the optimal solution to a problem; and how to design computational algorithms for finding an optimal solution. Easy-to-follow and coherent, the revised edition is accessible, includes the most recent advances, and has new and expanded sections on such topics as: Discriminative Random Fields (DRF) Strong Random Fields (SRF) Spatial-Temporal Models Total Variation Models Learning MRF for Classification (motivation + DRF) Relation to Graphic Models Graph Cuts Belief Propagation Features: Focuses on the application of Markov random fields to computer vision problems, such as image restoration and edge detection in the low-level domain, and object matching and recognition in the high-level domain Presents various vision models in a unified framework, including image restoration and reconstruction, edge and region segmentation, texture, stereo and motion, object matching and recognition, and pose estimation Uses a variety of examples to illustrate how to convert a specific vision problem involving uncertainties and constraints into essentially an optimization problem under the MRF setting Introduces readers to the basic concepts, important models and various special classes of MRFs on the regular image lattice and MRFs on relational graphs derived from images Examines the problems of parameter estimation and function optimization Includes an extensive list of references This broad-ranging and comprehensive volume is an excellent reference for researchers working in computer vision, image processing, statistical pattern recognition and applications of MRFs. It has been class-tested and is suitable as a textbook for advanced courses relating to these areas.

Markov Random Field Modeling in Image Analysis

We present a generalization of the Cauchy/Lorentzian, Geman-McClure, Welsch/Leclerc, generalized Charbonnier, Charbonnier/pseudo-Huber/L1-L2, and L2 loss functions. By introducing robustness as a continuous parameter, our loss function allows algorithms built around robust loss minimization to be generalized, which improves performance on basic vision tasks such as registration and clustering. Interpreting our loss as the negative log of a univariate density yields a general probability distribution that includes normal and Cauchy distributions as special cases. This probabilistic interpretation enables the training of neural networks in which the robustness of the loss automatically adapts itself during training, which improves performance on learning-based tasks such as generative image synthesis and unsupervised monocular depth estimation, without requiring any manual parameter tuning.

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A General and Adaptive Robust Loss Function

This paper presents a new model for estimating optical flow based on the motion of planar regions plus local deformations. The approach exploits brightness information to organize and constrain the interpretation of the motion by using segmented regions of piecewise smooth brightness to hypothesize planar regions in the scene. Parametric flow models are estimated in these regions in a two step process which first computes a coarse fit and then estimates the appropriate parametrization of the motion of the region. The initial fit is refined using a generalization of the standard area-based regression approaches. Since the assumption of planarity is likely to be violated, we allow local deformations from the planar assumption in the same spirit as physically-based approaches which model shape using coarse parametric models plus local deformations. This parametric plus deformation model exploits the strong constraints of parametric approaches while retaining the adaptive nature of regularization approaches. Experimental results on a variety of images model produces accurate flow estimates while the incorporation of brightness segmentation boundaries.

Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations

This paper presents a motion estimation algorithm based on a new multiresolution representation, the quadtree spline. This representation describes the motion field as a collection of smoothly connected patches of varying size, where the patch size is automatically adapted to the complexity of the underlying motion. The topology of the patches is determined by a quadtree data structure, and both split and merge techniques are developed for estimating this spatial subdivision. The quadtree spline is implemented using another novel representation, the adaptive hierarchical basis spline, and combines the advantages of adaptively-sized correlation windows with the speedups obtained with hierarchical basis preconditioners. Results are presented on some standard motion sequences.

Motion estimation with quadtree splines

This paper unifies "line-process" approaches for regularization with discontinuities and robust estimation techniques. We generalize the notion of a "line process" to that of an analog "outlier process" and show that a problem formulated in terms of outlier processes can be viewed in terms of robust statistics. We also characterize a class of robust statistical problems for which an equivalent outlier-process formulation exists and give a straightforward method for converting a robust estimation problem into an outlier-process formulation. This outlier-processes approach provides a general framework which subsumes the traditional line-process approaches as well as a wide class of robust estimation problems. Examples in image reconstruction and optical flow are used to illustrate the approach. >

Rangarajan

Papers

The outlier process: unifying line processes and robust statistics