Bilateral Symmetry Detection for Real-time Robotics Applications

Bilateral symmetry is a salient visual feature of many man-made objects. In this paper, we present research that use bilateral symmetry to identify, segment and track objects in real time using vision. Apart from the assumption of symmetry, the algorithms presented do not require any object models, such as colour, shape or three dimensional primitives. In order to remedy the high computational cost of traditional symmetry detection methods, a novel computationally efficient algorithm is proposed. To investigate symmetry as an object feature, our fast detection scheme is applied to the tasks of object detection, segmentation and tracking. We find that objects with a line of symmetry can be segmented without relying on colour or shape models by using a dynamic programming approach. Object tracking is achieved by estimating symmetry line parameters using a Kalman filter. The tracker operates at 40 frames-persecond on 640x480 video while running on a standard laptop PC. We use ten difficul...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: IJRR
• Authors: Wai Ho Li, Alan M. Zhang, Lindsay Kleeman
• Keywords: Bilateral Symmetry, IJRR 2008, Symmetry, Symmetry Lines