a backward motion estimator, receiving a base object location in a base frame, for generating backward motion vectors representing displacements from regions in a current frame to best-matching regions in the base frame;

an object-location generator that generates a current object location for the current frame by including regions from the current frame that match best-matching regions in the base frame that are within the base object location and including sub-regions in the current frame matching best-matching sub-regions that are within the base object location;

a forward motion estimator, receiving the current object location in the current frame, for generating forward motion vectors representing displacements to best-matching regions in a second frame from the current frame;

an occlusion detector, receiving the forward motion vectors, the occlusion detector comprising:

a forward difference generator that finds a suspect covered region in the current frame and within the current object location, the suspect covered region not having a best-matching region in the second frame;

an object clusterer that divides regions in the current object location into a plurality of object clusters by minimizing variance of backward motion vectors of regions within an object cluster, each object cluster being represented by a centroid motion vector;

a motion-similarity comparator that compares an average motion vector for the suspect covered region to the centroid motion vector for each object cluster and signals an occlusion when a minimum difference between the average motion vector and the centroid motion vectors is less than an occlusion threshold; and

an occlusion remover that receives the current object location and removes the suspect covered region when the motion-similarity comparator signals the occlusion,

whereby suspect covered regions are removed as occluded regions when the motion-similarity comparator signals the occlusion.