Patent ID: 7477762

Claim:
A computer-implemented incremental motion estimation process for estimating the camera pose parameters associated with each of a sequence of images of a scene, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions: establishing a set of triple matching points that depict the same point in the scene across the three successive images of each triplet of images that can be formed from the sequence; establishing a first set of dual matching points that depict the same point in the scene across the latter two images of each triplet of images that can be formed from the sequence; and establishing a second set of dual matching points that depict the same point in the scene in the first and third images of each triplet of images that can be formed from the sequence; defining the camera coordinate system associated with the first image in the sequence as coinciding with a 3D world coordinate system for the scene depicted in the sequence of images; estimating the camera pose parameters associated with the second image in the sequence; and for each successive triplet of images formable from the sequence starting with the first three images, estimating the camera pose parameters associated with the third image of each triplet from previously-ascertained camera pose parameters associated with the first two images in the triplet, as well as the dual and triple matching points of the triplet.