Estimation of image motion, luminance variations and time-varying image aberrations

摘要

A system and method is disclosed to estimate dynamic image features, including genuine image motion, luminance variations, and random time-varying image aberrations. The disclosed invention addresses the issue of simultaneous dependence on spatial coordinates and spatial frequency, which is crucial for the estimation of fast-changing image aberrations such as those caused by atmospheric turbulence. It also addresses the problem of jointly estimating multiple dynamic features such as, for example, time-varying image aberrations and genuine image motion. A novel hybrid model of image aberrations is introduced which combines a frequency domain constraint with linearization in the spatial domain. A search is performed for homogeneous data blocks delimited in space, time and spatial frequency in which image aberrations and other dynamic image features are well described by a low-order model. In one embodiment, a windowed Fourier transform is used to convert the input data into a representation that is suitable for this type of hybrid modeling. A local linear parametrization of dynamic image features is introduced, leading to a fast linear estimation algorithm.