Simple Hardware Implementation of Motion Estimation Algorithms

Abstract

We present in the following work a hardware implementation of the two principal optical flow methods. The work is based on the methods developed by Lucas & Kanade, and Horn & Schunck. The implementation is made by using a field programmable gate array and Hardware Description Language. To achieve a successful implementation, the algorithms were optimized. The results show the optical flow as a vector field over one frame, which enable an easy detection of the movement. The results are compared to a software implementation to insure the success of the method. The implementation is a fast implementation capable of quickly overcoming a traditional implementation in software.