Because circular objects are projected to ellipses in images, ellipse fitting is a first step for 3-D analysis of circular objects in computer vision applications. For this reason, the study of ellipse fitting began as soon as computers came into use for image analysis in the 1970s, but it is only recently that optimal computation techniques based on the statistical properties of noise were established. These include renormalization (1993), which was then improved as FNS (2000) and HEIV (2000). Later, further improvements, called hyperaccurate correction (2006), HyperLS (2009), and hyper-renormalization (2012), were presented. Today, these are regarded as the most accurate fitting methods among all known techniques. This book describes these algorithms as well implementation details and applications to 3-D scene analysis. We also present general mathematical theories of statistical optimization underlying all ellipse fitting algorithms, including rigorous covariance and bias analyses and the theoretical accuracy limit. The results can be directly applied to other computer vision tasks including computing fundamental matrices and homographies between images. This book can serve not simply as a reference of ellipse fitting algorithms for researchers, but also as learning material for beginners who want to start computer vision research. The sample program codes are downloadable from the website: https://sites.google.com/a/morganclaypool.com/ellipse-fitting-for-computer-vision-implementation-and-applications.

This classroom-tested and easy-to-understand textbook/reference describes the state of the art in 3D reconstruction from multiple images, taking into consideration all aspects of programming and implementation. Unlike other computer vision textbooks, this guide takes a unique approach in which the initial focus is on practical application and the procedures necessary to actually build a computer vision system. The theoretical background is then briefly explained afterwards, highlighting how one can quickly and simply obtain the desired result without knowing the derivation of the mathematical detail. Features: reviews the fundamental algorithms underlying computer vision; describes the latest techniques for 3D reconstruction from multiple images; summarizes the mathematical theory behind statistical error analysis for general geometric estimation problems; presents derivations at the end of each chapter, with solutions supplied at the end of the book; provides additional material at an associated website.