I have software that tracks an object moving (in the x-dimension only) across a video shot from a stationary camera. I need to find the velocity and acceleration of the object as functions of time. This calculation can be done offline, so there are no real-time constraints. The motion of the object is also pretty regular, decelerating approximately constantly throughout the duration of motion.
Normally I would design an FIR differentiator to do the job, however the object in the video becomes occluded for up to a few frames at a time on a regular basis throughout it's motion, so I don't have a point for it for several frames. In other words, my data looks like this:
frame_index = [1 2 3 6 7 8 9 13 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 ... ]
x_position = [0 0.2 0.39 1.14 1.22 ... ]
I've thought about interpolating and then using an FIR differentiator but am unsure what a good scheme for interpolating irregular data like this would be. I've also thought about using a formulation based on Lagrange interpolating polynomials to calculate derivatives directly, but do not know enough about them to understand trade-offs. My goal is accuracy.
So, what would be the best way to go about calculating approximations of the first and second derivatives of the data?