OPTIMAL LINE FITTING AND RELIABILITY EVALUATION

Introducing a mathematical model of image noise, wee formalize the pro blem of fitting a line to point data as statistical estimation. It is shown that the reliability of the fitted line can be evaluated quantit atively in the form of the covariance matrix of the parameters. We pre sent a numerical scheme called renormalization for computing an optima l fit and at the same time evaluating its reliability. We also present a scheme for visualizing the reliability of the fit by means of the p rimary, deviation pair and derive an analytical expression for the rel iability of a line fitted to an edge segment by using an asymptotic ap proximation. Our method is illustrated by showing simulations and real -image examples.