Misregistration errors in change detection algorithms and how to avoid them

Background subtraction is a popular algorithm for video object segmentation. It identifies foreground objects by comparing the input images with a pure background image. In camera-motion compensated sequences, small errors in the motion estimation can lead to large image differences along sharp edges. Consequently, the errors in the image registration finally lead to segmentation errors. This paper proposes a computationally efficient approach to detect image areas having a high risk of showing misregistration errors. Furthermore, we describe how existing change detection algorithms can be modified to avoid segmentation errors in these areas. Experiments show that our algorithm can improve the segmentation quality. The algorithm is memory efficient and suitable for real-time processing.