Solution of the simultaneous pose and correspondence problem using Gaussian error model

The use of hypothesis verification is recurrent in the model-based recognition literature. Verification consists in measuring how many model features transformed by a pose coincide with some image features. When data involved in the computation of the pose are noisy, the pose is inaccurate and difficult to verify, especially when the objects are partially occluded. To address this problem, the noise in image features is modeled by a Gaussian distribution. A probabilistic framework allows the evaluation of the probability of a matching, knowing that the pose belongs to a rectangular volume of the pose space. It involves quadratic programming, if the transformation is affine. This matching probability is used in an algorithm computing the best pose. It consists in a recursive multiresolution exploration of the pose space, discarding outliers in the match data while the search is progressing. Numerous experimental results are described. They consist of 2D and 3D recognition experiments using the proposed algorithm. (C) 1999 Academic Press.