Patent ID: 7720148

Claim:
A method of matching a first image object against a plurality of reference image objects, the method comprising: defining a plurality of regions in the first image object; defining a class for at least one of the regions in the first image object; for the regions in the first image object, defining a corresponding representative coordinate; for the regions in the first image object, defining corresponding search regions in the reference image objects, with different search regions of different sizes; for at least one region in the first image object and for a coordinate in the search region in at least one of the reference image objects, defining a relative coordinate with respect to the representative coordinate of the region in the first image object, and a mismatch measure between the region in the first image object and the corresponding region at the relative coordinate in the reference image object; for at least one region in the first image object, selecting a number of reference frames and selecting a number of relative coordinates in the search region in the selected reference frames; for at least one region in the first image object, computing the mismatch measure at selected relative coordinates in the search regions of selected reference image objects and choosing one or more relative coordinates in the search regions of the reference image objects; wherein for at least one region in the first image object, computing the mismatch measure depends at least in part on the class of the region in the first image object; for at least one of the chosen relative coordinates for at least one region in the first image object, selecting a collection of neighboring integer-pixel and sub-pixel relative coordinates around the chosen relative coordinate, and computing the mismatch measure at the selected neighboring relative coordinates, interpolating pixel values at sub-pixel relative coordinates; and for at least one region in the first image object, constructing a motion-compensated region by considering regions at the chosen selected relative coordinates in the selected reference image objects and applying linear or nonlinear operations to combine them to form a motion-compensated region.