Fast occluded object tracking by a robust appearance filter

• Published in: IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence Vol. 26; no. 8; pp. 1099 - 1104
• Main Authors: Nguyen, H.T., Smeulders, A.W.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01-08-2004; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; appearance tracking; Artificial Intelligence; Cameras; Cluster Analysis; Computer Graphics; Filters; Image edge detection; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Image sequences; Information Storage and Retrieval - methods; Monte Carlo methods; Movement; Noise shaping; Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; Object tracking; occlusions; Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods; Photometry; Reproducibility of Results; robust Kalman filter; Robustness; Sensitivity and Specificity; Shape; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Smoothing methods; Subtraction Technique; Video Recording - methods
• ISSN: 0162-8828; 1939-3539
• DOI: 10.1109/TPAMI.2004.45

We propose a new method for object tracking in image sequences using template matching. To update the template, appearance features are smoothed temporally by robust Kalman filters, one to each pixel. The resistance of the resulting template to partial occlusions enables the accurate detection and handling of more severe occlusions. Abrupt changes of lighting conditions can also be handled, especially when photometric invariant color features are used, The method has only a few parameters and is computationally fast enough to track objects in real time.