2D-2D correspondence

Given feature matches between two images — with no 3D information yet — 2D-2D geometry estimates the relative camera motion. The three workhorse models are the essential matrix, the fundamental matrix, and the homography, each estimated by a minimal or linear solver wrapped in RANSAC.

Five-Point Algorithm for the Essential Matrix

With calibrated cameras, the essential matrix $E$ can be estimated from 5 point correspondences (Nister, 2004). The constraints are:

Epipolar constraint: $\mathbf{x}_2^T E\,\mathbf{x}_1 = 0$ (linear in the 9 entries of $E$ ).
Internal constraints: $\det(E) = 0$ and $2EE^TE - \mathrm{trace}(EE^T)E = 0$ (cubic polynomials).

The result is up to 10 real solutions, disambiguated by additional points. Combined with RANSAC, the five-point algorithm is the preferred method for essential matrix estimation in practice: a smaller minimal sample means far fewer RANSAC iterations at the same inlier ratio.

Eight-Point Algorithm for the Fundamental Matrix

The fundamental matrix $F$ has 7 degrees of freedom. With 8+ correspondences, the 8-point algorithm (Longuet-Higgins, 1981; Hartley, 1997) solves a linear homogeneous system $A\mathbf{f} = 0$ with $\mathbf{f} = \mathrm{vec}(F)$ via SVD. Hartley showed that normalizing point coordinates (zero mean, unit variance) before solving dramatically improves numerical conditioning — the “normalized 8-point algorithm” is the version everyone actually uses. After solving, the rank-2 constraint is enforced by zeroing the smallest singular value of the estimated $F$ .

Direct Linear Transform for Homography

When the scene is planar or the motion is a pure rotation, a homography $H$ explains the correspondences. Each correspondence $\mathbf{x}' \sim H\mathbf{x}$ gives 2 linear equations in the 8 DOF of $H$ ; with $N \geq 4$ correspondences the DLT stacks a $2N \times 9$ matrix and solves $A\mathbf{h} = 0$ via SVD. Normalization is again critical.

Why minimal solvers matter: RANSAC iteration counts

Feature matches contain outliers, so every solver above runs inside RANSAC: sample a minimal set, fit the model, count inliers, repeat. With inlier ratio $w$ and sample size $s$ , the probability that $N$ iterations produce at least one all-inlier sample is $1 - (1 - w^s)^N$ ; requiring success probability $1 - \eta$ gives

$N = \frac{\log \eta}{\log(1 - w^s)}$

For $w = 0.5$ : the 8-point algorithm ( $s = 8$ ) needs $N \approx 1177$ iterations, while the 5-point algorithm ( $s = 5$ ) needs only $N \approx 145$ . The exponential dependence on $s$ is the whole argument for minimal solvers — and why P3P (s = 3) is preferred once 3D information exists.

From model to motion

After RANSAC selects the best model on the inliers:

$E$ is decomposed via SVD into 4 candidate poses $[R|\pm\mathbf{t}]$ ; the cheirality check (triangulated points in front of both cameras) picks the right one. Translation is recovered only up to scale.
$H$ can likewise be decomposed into rotation, plane normal, and scaled translation (with its own multi-solution ambiguity).
The inlier correspondences are then triangulated to create the first landmarks.

Choosing the model

Degenerate configurations matter: a planar scene or pure rotation makes $F$ / $E$ estimation ill-posed, while a general 3D scene breaks the homography assumption. ORB-SLAM famously fits both models during monocular initialization and picks the winner by a per-model score.

Common pitfalls

Skipping normalization before the 8-point algorithm or DLT: raw pixel coordinates (hundreds to thousands) produce a catastrophically ill-conditioned $A$ .
Estimating $E$ under pure rotation: with $\mathbf{t} \to \mathbf{0}$ the essential matrix degenerates; detect the case (or fit a homography) instead of trusting a garbage pose.
Trusting inlier counts alone: a homography can collect many inliers on a dominant plane even when the scene is 3D; use per-model scoring/model selection, not raw counts.

Why it matters for SLAM

2D-2D correspondence is the entry point of monocular SLAM: it bootstraps the first relative pose (up to scale) before any map exists, after which triangulation creates landmarks and the pipeline switches to 2D-3D (PnP) tracking. The same solvers also verify loop-closure candidates geometrically and underpin structure-from-motion pipelines such as COLMAP.

Hands-on

Epipolar geometry hands-on