Contour Matching Using

Epipolar Geometry

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 Contour matching
 Key idea
 Initial matching refinement from the matched
sets of contours.

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 Contour matching
 Several primitives to match
 Points / Straight lines
 Both points and straight lines
 Line segments
 Contour
•A set of chained image points.

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 Contour matching
 Previous contour matching methods
 Smoothness constraints of the contour
 Smoothness constraints on the second
derivative of velocity
 Or minimization of curvature variations

 Contour matching methods

 Contour matching using Epipolar geometry

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 Contour matching
 Assumption
 The images are taken with a moving camera and
the scene is static.

 The intensity value of a region does not change

much as the camera moves.

 If a space contour is observed by two cameras,

there can be matching between images of the
contour in image space with the same parametric
value.

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 Epipolar geometry
 Fundamental matrix F

xTjk Fij xik  0, k  1,  , n

X : 3D point
x : image point
l : epipolar line
e : epipole
R : image plane
O : optical center

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 Contour parameterization
 Let C(S) be a space curve parameterized by
arc length S.

 ci s , c j s are projected contours of C(S).

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Epipolar geometry for Contour

l j ,ci ( s0 )  Fij ci s0 , l j ,ci ( s1 )  Fij ci s1 

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Algorithm (Initial matching)
 Step1:Find contours in each image
• Using a zero-crossing edge detector and an edge
linker.

 Step2:Find a set of seed matches

• Using classical correlation-based matching
technique.

 Step3:Compute the epipolar geometry

• Using 8-point algorithm (Hartley)

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Algorithm (Contour matching)
 Step4:For each contour point, do steps 5-7

 Step5:Find the initial estimation

 Step6:Match points
• Using the epipolar constraint and correlation.

 Step7:Choose the major corresponding contour.

• Discard contours which match to minor
corresponding contours.

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Step5: Find the initial estimation ( 1)
 Finding contour point correspondence.
•Using epipolar line

ci sk  c j sk ?

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Step5: Find the initial estimation ( 2 )
 Finding contour point correspondence.

c j sk   arg min  c s  F c s  / 

l 1,, n
j l
T
ij i k k 
 corr c j sl , ci sk 

W2 nx 12 n y 1

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Step5: Find the initial estimation ( 3 )
 Fast Finding contour point correspondence.
•q nearest neighbors ( xi1 ,  , xiq ) of ci sk .
~
•Let match points be xi1 ,  , xiq.
~
•Let c~j t k  is 1 / q  j 1 ~

q
xij.
• cˆ j sk  is initial estimate location.

cˆ j t k   ~
x, ~
y l j ,ci sk   a, b, c 
T T

 ~
x
1  b 2

 ab  ac  ~ 
cˆ j sk   2   y
a  b 2  ab a 2  bc   
 1 

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Step6: Match point
 Finding contour point correspondence.
•Using the epipolar constraint and correlation.

c j sk   arg min  c s  F c s  / 

l 1,, n
j l
T
ij i k k 
 corr c j sl , ci sk 

c j sl  Fij ci sk   

T

 : suitable threshold
 k : normalization factor

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Step7:Choose the major corresponding contour
 Major corresponding contour
•All matches not on the major corresponding contour are
removed.

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 Contour matching algorithm
 Algorithm (Re-computing)
 Step8:Re-compute the epipolar geometry
•Using points in matched contours.

 Step9:For each contour point, rematch along the

contour
• Using epipolar constraint

c j sk   arg min c j sl  Fij ci sk  /  k

T
l 1,, n

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Extension to contour matching
in three views

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 Contour matching result
 Mosaic box image set

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 Contour matching result
 Etc. image set

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 Conclusion
 Contour matching algorithm uses Geometric
constraints has been presented.

 Fail case
 Bad initial match
 Lack of corner features
 Simple repetition of a pattern
 Highly blurred patterns

 Computing time : 17sec

 Number of contours : 1084
 Number of points : 18831
 SGI O2 workstation with an R10000 2.6 processor

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