Patent ID: 7440615

Claim:
For a video image including both a foreground layer and a background layer a method of segmenting the foreground layer from the background layer, said method comprising the computer implemented steps of: extracting sparse features from a series of image frames thereby producing a sparse feature set for each of the individual images in the series; performing a sequential linear regression on the sparse feature sets thereby producing a sequential feature clustering set; extracting the foreground layer from the background layer using the sequential feature clustering set; refining the extracted layer; determining optical flows of the sparse features between consecutive frames; determining a set of features including both edge features and corner features; computing a covariance matrix for each individual feature to determine if the feature is an edge or a corner feature, wherein a covariance matrix is computed for each individual feature to determine if the feature is an edge or a corner feature; computing, for each edge feature, its normal direction (dx, dy) from the covariance matrix; and projecting its optical flow to this nominal direction.