Patent ID: 7324663

Claim:
A method for determining parameters of an object in motion, the method comprising the steps of: capturing a plurality of images of the object in motion; finding a respective object image in each of the plurality of images; rotating a first object image of the plurality of object images by a first set of rotations of a plurality of rotation sets; scaling the rotated first object image to a second object image; correlating the first object image to the second object to obtain a score; repeating the steps of rotating, scaling and correlating in a stepwise refinement manner to obtain a best score of the plurality of scores; utilizing a best rotation set of the plurality of rotation sets to determine the parameters of the object in motion; calculating three dimensional coordinates for each of the plurality of object images; determining an elevation angle and an azimuth angle of the object from the three dimensional coordinates for each of the plurality of object images; and further including the step of determining an alignment correction using an accelerometer for indicating misalignment of a camera to earth tangential, to compensate for any difference between the current orientation of the camera and a previously calibrated orientation.