Fast local motion estimation algorithm using elementary motion detectors

This paper presnts a fast local motion estimation algorithm based on so called elementary motion detectors or EMDs. EMDs, modeling insect's visual signal processing systems, have low computational complexity aspects and can thus be key components to realize such a fast local motion estimation algorithm. The contribution of the presented work is to introduce dual parameter estimators or DPEs by configuring EMDs so that they can estimate local motions in terms of both direction and speed mode parameters simultaneously. The estimated local motion vectors are displayed as arrows superimposed over video image frames. The developed algorithm is implmented in a DirectShow application by using Mircosoft's DirectX runtime library and is evaluated using various types of video image sequences. It is found to be able to estimate local motion vectors in real time even in moderate PC computing platforms and hece no high profile hardware devices are needed for its real time operation.