3-D model based vehicle recognition

We present a method for recognizing a vehicle's make and model in a video clip taken from an arbitrary viewpoint. This is an improvement over existing methods which require a front view. In addition, we present a Bayesian approach for establishing accurate correspondences in multiple view geometry. We take a model-based, top-down approach to classify vehicles. First, the vehicle pose is estimated in every frame by calculating its 3-D motion on a plane using a structure from motion algorithm. Then, exemplars from a database of 3-D models are rotated to the same pose as the vehicle in the video, and projected to the image. Features in the model images and the vehicle image are matched, and a model matching score is computed. The model with the best score is identified as the model of the vehicle in the video. Results on real video sequences are presented.