New Algorithms for 2D and 3D Point Matching: Pose Estimation and Correspondence

A fundamental open problem in computer vision-determining pose and correspondence between two sets of points in spaceis solved with a novel, robust and easily implementable algorithm. The technique works on noisy point sets that may be of unequal sizes and may differ by nonrigid transformations. A 2D variation calculates the pose between point sets related by an affine transformation-translation, rotation, scale and shear. A 3D to 3D variation calculates translation and rotation. An objective describing the problem is derived from Mean field theory. The objective is minimized with clocked (EMlike) dynamics. Experiments with both handwritten and synthetic data provide empirical evidence for the method. 1 Introduction