SIMD, SMP and MIMD-DM parallel approaches for real-time 2D image stabilization

We present a real-time image stabilization method, based on a 2D motion model and different levels of parallel implementation. This stabilization method is decomposed into three main parts. First, the image matching is determined by a feature-based technique, then the motion between consecutive frames is estimated and filtered to extract the unwanted motion component. This component is finally used to correct (warp) the images, resulting in a stable sequence. To validate our stabilization approach in a real-time on-board system context, the algorithm was implemented and tested over different hardware platforms, allowing a performance evaluation in function of the adopted architecture. In this paper, we present some of the results, concerning the parallel implementation of the algorithm, using the MW ALTIVEC® instructions set, a symmetric multi-processor (SMP) architecture and MIMD-DM architecture.