A robust algorithm to estimate the fundamental matrix

A new method, the biepipole constraint algorithm, is developed to estimate the fundamental matrix (F-matrix) based on an 8-parameter model and the geo metrical analysis. First, through the analysis of the new constraints, the four parameters of the F-matrix can be estimated by solving a nonlinear unc onstraint optimization problem. The objective function of the optimization problem is an equation of degree six in four unknowns. Then, the four other parameters of the F-matrix can be evaluated by using the SVD method. Parti cular novelties of the algorithm are the obvious geometrical meanings of th e parameters, fewer matching point pairs and higher accuracy. Results are p resented for synthetic and real image pairs, which show that our algorithm performs very well in terms of robustness to outliers and noises, so that e xcellent results can be obtained. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.