This work introduces a direct method called FIXATION for solving the general motion vision problem. This Fixation method results in a constraint equation between translational and rotational velocities that in combination with the Brightness-Change Constraint Equation (BCCE) solves the general motion vision problem, arbitrary motion with respect to an arbitrary rigid environment. Neither Correspondence nor Optical Flow has been used here. Recently Direct Motion Vision methods have used the BCCE for solving the motion vision problem of special motions or environments. In contrast to those solutions, the Fixation method does not put such severe restrictions on the motion or the environment.

This paper presents a method for the estimation of scene structure and camera motion from a sequence of images. This approach is fundamentally new. No computation of optical flow or feature correspondences is required. The method processes image sequences of arbitrary length and exploits the redundancy for a significant reduction in error over time. No assumptions are made about camera motion or surface structure. Both quantities are fully recovered. Our method combines the "direct'' motion vision approach with the theory of recursive estimation. Each step is illustrated and evaluated with results from real images.