Matching error based criterion of region merging for joint motion estimation and segmentation techniques

This paper describes a region merging method for joint motion estimation and segmentation of digital video sequences. The region merging criterion is based on the measure of the matching error for a region when applying a previously estimated motion to it. A region adjacency graph is used for data representation, which allows a scan independent processing and gives a high-level view. The method is simple-shape object-oriented and starts from a block-based segmentation. The aim of the proposed technique is to define simple shaped objects in a scene using motion information and a simple test.