Evaluation of subpixel feature localization methods for precision measurement

Abstract
This paper provides a review of a number of subpixel estimators classified as moment based, local modelling and reconstruction. Three algorithms are described in detail, one from each class. In the first, the basic centroid method is generalized so that it is applicable to a wider class of problems and the general formulation is applied to develop a subpixel ridge estimator. The second algorithm is a restricted polynomial model and is developed based on the assumption that an edge profile remains invariant in a local neighborhood. The third algorithm uses Gaussian interpolation to perform local image reconstruction. Simulations are performed to measure the performance of these three algorithms under ideal and noisy conditions.