Motion displacement estimation using an affine model for image matching

A model is developed for estimating the displacement field in spatio-temporal image sequences that allows for affine shape deformations of corresponding spatial regions and for affine transformations of the image intensity range. This model includes the block matching method as a special case. The model parameters are found by using a least-squares algorithm. We demonstrate experimentally that the affine matching algorithm performs better in estimating displacements than other standard approaches, especially for long-range motion with possible changes in scene illumination. The algorithm is successfully applied to various classes of moving imagery, including the tracking of cloud motion.