Estimating the fundamental matrix based on least absolute deviation

The epipolar geometry is the intrinsic projective geometry between two views, and the algebraic representation of it is the fundamental matrix. Estimating the fundamental matrix requires solving an over-determined equation. Many classical approaches assume that the error values of the over-determined equation obey a Gaussian distribution. However, the performances of these approaches may decrease significantly when the noise is large and heterogeneous. This paper proposes a novel technique for estimating the fundamental matrix based on least absolute deviation (LAD), which is also known as the L-1 method. Then a linear iterative algorithm is presented. The experimental results on some indoor and outdoor scenes show that the proposed algorithm yields the accurate and robust estimates of the fundamental matrix when the noise is non-Gaussian. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.