An Objective Comparison Methodology of Edge Detection Algorithms Using a Structure from Motion Task

This paper presents a task-oriented evaluation methodology for edge detectors. Performance is measured based on the task of structure from motion. Eighteen real image sequences from 2 different scenes varying in the complexity and scenery types are used. The task-level ground truth for each image sequence is manually specified in terms of the 3D motion and structure. An automated tool computes the accuracy of the motion and structure achieved using the set of edge maps. Parameter sensitivity and execution speed are also analyzed. Four edge detectors are compared. All implementations and data sets are publicly available.