Performance evaluation of object detection and tracking method under illumination variation

Research on Vehicle Detection and Tracking Algorithm Based on the Methods of Frame Difference and Adaptive Background Subtraction Difference

Abstract: This paper proposed methods of vehicle detection and tracking algorithm in real-time traffic. In the detection of realtime moving vehicle, vehicle areas would be determined through road line detection. Then, the main color information of moving and non-moving area would be obtained through frame difference. Filling the main color information in vehicle moving area would lead to a similar background image. At last, moving vehicles would be determined through adaptive Background Subtraction difference. In the tracking of moving vehicles, firstly, all characteristic corners can be got by using Harris detection. Then, all characteristic corner set in the separate moving area would be collected through cluster analysis. For each characteristic individual corner set can generate a circle embracing all characteristics, some problems like vehicle barrier could be analyzed by using the radius of characteristic circle. At last, conduct feature matching tracking by using the center of feature circle. Experimental result shows that the improving algorithm can extract all moving objects, which was endowed with strong background adaptability and better real-time performance. Keywords-target detection; frame difference method; background subtraction difference method; harris corner detection; clustering analysis

Object tracking: A survey

Abstract: The goal of this article is to review the state-of-the-art tracking methods, classify them into different categories, and identify new trends. Object tracking, in general, is a challenging problem. Difficulties in tracking objects can arise due to abrupt object motion, changing appearance patterns of both the object and the scene, nonrigid object structures, object-to-object and object-to-scene occlusions, and camera motion. Tracking is usually performed in the context of higher-level applications that require the location and/or shape of the object in every frame. Typically, assumptions are made to constrain the tracking problem in the context of a particular application. In this survey, we categorize the tracking methods on the basis of the object and motion representations used, provide detailed descriptions of representative methods in each category, and examine their pros and cons. Moreover, we discuss the important issues related to tracking including the use of appropriate image features, selection of motion models, and detection of objects.

Mean shift, mode seeking, and clustering

Abstract: Mean shift, a simple interactive procedure that shifts each data point to the average of data points in its neighborhood is generalized and analyzed in the paper. This generalization makes some k-means like clustering algorithms its special cases. It is shown that mean shift is a mode-seeking process on the surface constructed with a "shadow" kernal. For Gaussian kernels, mean shift is a gradient mapping. Convergence is studied for mean shift iterations. Cluster analysis if treated as a deterministic problem of finding a fixed point of mean shift that characterizes the data. Applications in clustering and Hough transform are demonstrated. Mean shift is also considered as an evolutionary strategy that performs multistart global optimization. >

Alignment by Maximization of Mutual Information

Abstract: A new information-theoretic approach is presented for finding the pose of an object in an image. The technique does not require information about the surface properties of the object, besides its shape, and is robust with respect to variations of illumination. In our derivation few assumptions are made about the nature of the imaging process. As a result the algorithms are quite general and may foreseeably be used in a wide variety of imaging situations. Experiments are presented that demonstrate the approach registering magnetic resonance (MR) images, aligning a complex 3D object model to real scenes including clutter and occlusion, tracking a human head in a video sequence and aligning a view-based 2D object model to real images. The method is based on a formulation of the mutual information between the model and the image. As applied here the technique is intensity-based, rather than feature-based. It works well in domains where edge or gradient-magnitude based methods have difficulty, yet it is more robust than traditional correlation. Additionally, it has an efficient implementation that is based on stochastic approximation.

Real-time tracking of non-rigid objects using mean shift

Abstract: A new method for real time tracking of non-rigid objects seen from a moving camera is proposed. The central computational module is based on the mean shift iterations and finds the most probable target position in the current frame. The dissimilarity between the target model (its color distribution) and the target candidates is expressed by a metric derived from the Bhattacharyya coefficient. The theoretical analysis of the approach shows that it relates to the Bayesian framework while providing a practical, fast and efficient solution. The capability of the tracker to handle in real time partial occlusions, significant clutter, and target scale variations, is demonstrated for several image sequences.

Incremental Learning for Robust Visual Tracking

Abstract: Visual tracking, in essence, deals with non-stationary image streams that change over time. While most existing algorithms are able to track objects well in controlled environments, they usually fail in the presence of significant variation of the object's appearance or surrounding illumination. One reason for such failures is that many algorithms employ fixed appearance models of the target. Such models are trained using only appearance data available before tracking begins, which in practice limits the range of appearances that are modeled, and ignores the large volume of information (such as shape changes or specific lighting conditions) that becomes available during tracking. In this paper, we present a tracking method that incrementally learns a low-dimensional subspace representation, efficiently adapting online to changes in the appearance of the target. The model update, based on incremental algorithms for principal component analysis, includes two important features: a method for correctly updating the sample mean, and a forgetting factor to ensure less modeling power is expended fitting older observations. Both of these features contribute measurably to improving overall tracking performance. Numerous experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracking algorithm in indoor and outdoor environments where the target objects undergo large changes in pose, scale, and illumination.