Abstract

This paper presents a method for computing the orientation of physical surfaces relative to the moving observer. The method is theoretically derived; it is not 'ad hoc'. The method exploits the remarkable properties of the optical flow, a concept which figures prominently in the Gibsonian theory of visual perception. We first describe the dynamic nature of visual information, and formally derive the optically sensed velocity field transformation (optical flow) for a moving observer. Then we derive the inverse transformation to show how gradients of optical flow uniquely inform about the orientation and shape of physical surfaces.

Keywords

Observer (physics)Optical flowOrientation (vector space)Transformation (genetics)Computer visionFlow (mathematics)Computer scienceInverseArtificial intelligenceMathematicsGeometryPhysicsImage (mathematics)

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
1978
Type
article
Pages
93-102
Citations
18
Access
Closed

External Links

Citation Metrics

18
OpenAlex

Cite This

William F. Clocksin (1978). Determining the orientation of surfaces from optical flow. , 93-102.