Patent ID: 11921823
Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An image processing device for determining a motion of an object in a three-dimensional space from a plurality of time-series images captured by a camera, comprising:
a storage device configured to store the plurality of time-series images; and
a processor configured to:
(a) extract a feature point corresponding to the object in a first image of the time-series images;
(b) set a search range for a point corresponding to the feature point within a second image of the time-series images that was captured immediately after the first image;
(c) search for one or more candidates of the point corresponding to the feature point within the search range of the second image;
(d) if there is one candidate of the point identified in the search, associate said one candidate with the feature point; and
(e) if there are a plurality of candidates of the point identified in the search,
acquire a score of each of the candidates and distances between all pairs of the candidates in the second image,
if none of the distances exceeds a threshold, associate one of the candidates having a greatest score with the feature point, and
if any one of the distances exceeds the threshold, associate none of the candidates with the feature point; wherein

the processor is configured to, after performing (a)-(e) on all the time-series images:
determine three-dimensional coordinates of the object corresponding to each of the time-series images in which the candidate has been associated with the feature point, using coordinates of the candidate in said each of the time-series images, and
determine the motion of the object using the determined three-dimensional coordinates of the object.