Egomotion determination through an intelligent gaze control strategy

We present a computationally inexpensive method that rapidly and robustly determines both the translational direction and rotational component of motion through the use of an active vision sensor. The method employs an intelligent gaze control strategy where an active camera first fixates on an item in the environment while simultaneously measuring motion parallax. The camera then rapidly saccades to a different fixation point, based on this measure. The algorithm iteratively seeks out fixation points that are closer to the translational direction of motion, rapidly converging so that the camera always points in the instantaneous direction of motion. At that point, the tracking motion of the camera is equal but opposite in sign to the mobile entity´s rotational component of motion