Estimation of epipolar geometry from apparent contours: affine and circular motion cases

This paper addresses the problem of estimating the epipolar geometry from apparent contours in two special cases: under weak perspective and for circular motion. An appropriate parametrization of the fundamental matrix is introduced for both cases, as well as suitable cost functions for the estimation of the epipoles. The algorithm used in the affine approximation proven to be robust and accurate under several conditions. The circular motion case turned out to be much more difficult, but for a wide baseline the method introduced here is successful. For small viewing angles the technique is too sensitive to noise to be used in practice. Nevertheless, circular motion with small baseline can be well modeled by an affine camera system, and this approximation should be used in this circumstance.