Patent ID: 6628819
Filing Date: 2003-09-30
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A method of obtaining a 3-dimensional shape of an object from a sequence of image frames, comprising the steps of:a) generating a tracking matrix which has matrix elements representing coordinates of feature points of the object tracked through the sequence, and has each row representing a corresponding image frame and each column representing a corresponding feature point, wherein some of the matrix elements are missing; b) generating an estimation matrix as a sub-matrix of the tracking matrix by selecting rows and by selecting a column of a given feature point and columns of a predetermined number of feature points closest to the given feature point, such that the estimation matrix has matrix elements thereof missing only for the given feature point in a single image frame; c) calculating estimates of the missing matrix elements of the estimation matrix; d) repeating said steps b) and c) to obtain estimates of remaining missing matrix elements of the tracking matrix; and e) obtaining a 3-dimensional shape of the object from the tracking matrix having the missing matrix elements thereof estimated.