Rudolf Mester, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany
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Statistical approaches to local motion estimation
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The natural characteristics of image signals and the statistics
of measurement noise are decisive for designing optimal filter
sets and optimal estimation methods in signal processing. The
talk will discuss two areas where these principle is applied to
the field of local motion estimation: First, the estimation of
local motion is considered to be equivalent to an optimum signal
subdivision into an ideally oriented signal, parameterized by the
motion direction, and an additive noise component.  For
optimizing this subdivision and finding the motion direction,
models for the signal (i.e. its autocovariance) and for the noise
are required. For practical implementations this motivates quite
naturally to employ the theory of steerable filters and leads to
an extension of the classical tensor-based motion estimation
scheme.  Secondly, the talk will discuss how a Wiener-type MMSE
filtering of the image signal, based on a simple covariance model
for moving images, helps in designing appropriate filter sets for
differential or tensor-based methods in optical flow
estimation. This approach provides means for integrating prior
knowledge on the distribution of expected motion vectors and
possibly non i.i.d. noise statistics (colored noise or oriented
disturbances).
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About the author:
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Rudolf Mester (*1958) studied electrical engineering with an
emphasis on communication technology at the Technical University
of Aachen, Germany. After having obtained his diploma degree in
1983, he performed research work in industrial and academic
projects on image processing and image coding and earned his
doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.)  from RWTH Aachen in 1988 with a
thesis on statistical model based image segmentation. After a
short period with Philips Data Systems, Siegen, Dr. Mester joined
the Communications Research Institute of Robert Bosch GmbH,
Hildesheim, where he established a computer vision and image
interpretation group. He initiated and conducted numerous
internal as well as several national and European joint research
projects especially in the field of applying computer vision to
traffic-related problems and security systems. In October 1995,
Dr.  Mester was appointed professor of applied physics at Goethe
University, Frankfurt am Main.  Currently, his research interests
are focussed on statistical signal and image processing methods,
the construction of robust and reliable vision algorithms and
flexible vision systems as well as the theoretical foundations
for "seeing machines".