Multiple 3D object position estimation and tracking using double filtering on multi-core processor

We present a new algorithm to tracking multiple 3D objects that has robustness, real-time processing ability and fast object registration. Usually, many augmented reality applications want to track 3D object using natural features in real-time, more accuracy and want to register target object immediately in few seconds. Prevalent object tracking algorithm uses FERN for feature extraction that takes long time to register and learning target object for high quality performance. Our method provides not only high accuracy but also fast target object registering time about 0.3 ms in same environment and real-time processing. These features are presented by using SURF, ROI, double robust filtering and optimized multi-core parallelization. Using our methods, tracking multiple 3D objects with fast and high accuracy is available.     

Pedestrian detection and tracking in infrared imagery using shape and appearance

In this paper, we present an approach toward pedestrian detection and tracking from infrared imagery using joint shape and appearance cues. A layered representation is first introduced and a generalized expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is developed to separate infrared images into background (still) and foreground (moving) layers regardless of camera panning. In the two-pass scheme of detecting pedestrians from the foreground layer: shape cue is first used to eliminate non-pedestrian moving objects and then appearance cue helps to locate the exact position of pedestrians. Templates with varying sizes are sequentially applied to detect pedestrians at multiple scales to accommodate different camera distances. To facilitate the task of pedestrian tracking, we formulate the problem of shot segmentation and present a graph matching-based tracking algorithm that jointly exploits the shape, appearance and distance information. Experimental results with both OSU Infrared Image Database and WVU Infrared Video Database are reported to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of our algorithm.     

W4: real-time surveillance of people and theiractivities

W⁴ is a real time visual surveillance system for detecting and tracking multiple people and monitoring their activities in an outdoor environment. It operates on monocular gray-scale video imagery, or on video imagery from an infrared camera. W⁴ employs a combination of shape analysis and tracking to locate people and their parts (head, hands, feet, torso) and to create models of people's appearance so that they can be tracked through interactions such as occlusions. It can determine whether a foreground region contains multiple people and can segment the region into its constituent people and track them. W⁴ can also determine whether people are carrying objects, and can segment objects from their silhouettes, and construct appearance models for them so they can be identified in subsequent frames. W⁴ can recognize events between people and objects, such as depositing an object, exchanging bags, or removing an object. It runs at 25 Hz for 320×240 resolution images on a 400 MHz dual-Pentium II PC     

基于模糊逻辑的多相机非重叠场景的物体匹配

An approach based on fuzzy logic for matching both articulated and non-articulated objects across multiple non-overlapping field of views (FoVs) from multiple cameras is proposed. We call it fuzzy logic matching algorithm (FLMA). The approach uses the information of object motion, shape and camera topology for matching objects across camera views. The motion and shape information of targets are obtained by tracking them using a combination of ConDensation and CAMShift tracking algorithms. The information of camera topology is obtained and used by calculating the projective transformation of each view with the common ground plane. The algorithm is suitable for tracking non-rigid objects with both linear and non-linear motion. We show videos of tracking objects across multiple cameras based on FLMA. From our experiments, the system is able to correctly match the targets across views with a high accuracy.     

Real-time 3D face tracking based on active appearance model constrained by depth data

Active Appearance Model (AAM) is an algorithm for fitting a generative model of object shape and appearance to an input image. AAM allows accurate, real-time tracking of human faces in 2D and can be extended to track faces in 3D by constraining its fitting with a linear 3D morphable model. Unfortunately, this AAM-based 3D tracking does not provide adequate accuracy and robustness, as we show in this paper. We introduce a new constraint into AAM fitting that uses depth data from a commodity RGBD camera (Kinect). This addition significantly reduces 3D tracking errors. We also describe how to initialize the 3D morphable face model used in our tracking algorithm by computing its face shape parameters of the user from a batch of tracked frames. The described face tracking algorithm is used in Microsoft's Kinect system.     

Tracking and Motion Estimation of the Articulated Object: a Hierarchical Kalman Filter Approach

Real-time motion capture plays a very important role in various applications, such as 3D interface for virtual reality systems, digital puppetry, and real-time character animation. In this paper we challenge the problem of estimating and recognizing the motion of articulated objects using theoptical motion capturetechnique. In addition, we present an effective method to control the articulated human figure in realtime.The heart of this problem is the estimation of 3D motion and posture of an articulated, volumetric object using feature points from a sequence of multiple perspective views. Under some moderate assumptions such as smooth motion and known initial posture, we develop a model-based technique for the recovery of the 3D location and motion of a rigid object using a variation of Kalman filter. The posture of the 3D volumatric model is updated by the 2D image flow of the feature points for all views. Two novel concepts – the hierarchical Kalman filter (KHF) and the adaptive hierarchical structure (AHS) incorporating the kinematic properties of the articulated object – are proposed to extend our formulation for the rigid object to the articulated one. Our formulation also allows us to avoid two classic problems in 3D tracking: the multi-view correspondence problem, and the occlusion problem. By adding more cameras and placing them appropriately, our approach can deal with the motion of the object in a very wide area. Furthermore, multiple objects can be handled by managing multiple AHSs and processing multiple HKFs.We show the validity of our approach using the synthetic data acquired simultaneously from the multiple virtual camera in a virtual environment (VE) and real data derived from a moving light display with walking motion. The results confirm that the model-based algorithm works well on the tracking of multiple rigid objects.     

Contour tracking with automatic motion model switching

In this paper we present an efficient contour-tracking algorithm which can track 2D silhouette of objects in extended image sequences. We demonstrate the ability of the tracker by tracking highly deformable contours (such as walking people) captured by a static camera. We represent contours (silhouette) of moving objects by using a cubic B-spline. The tracking algorithm is based on tracking a lower dimensional shape space (as opposed to tracking in spline space). Tracking the lower dimensional space has proved to be fast and efficient. The tracker is also coupled with an automatic motion-model switching algorithm, which makes the tracker robust and reliable when the object of interest is moving with multiple motion. The model-based tracking technique provided is capable of tracking rigid and non-rigid object contours with good tracking accuracy.     

Real-time face tracking and recognition by sparse eigentracker with associative mapping to 3D shape

This paper proposes a novel framework of real-time face tracking and recognition by combining two eigen-based methods. The first method is a novel extension of eigenface called augmented eigenface and the second method is a sparse 3D eigentemplate tracker controlled by a particle filter. The augmented eigenface is an eigenface augmented by an associative mapping to 3D shape that is specified by a set of volumetric face models. This paper discusses how to make up the augmented eigenface and how it can be used for inference of 3D shape from partial images. The associative mapping is also generalized to subspace-to-one mappings to cover photometric image changes for a fixed shape. A novel technique, called photometric adjustment, is introduced for simple implementation of associative mapping when an image subspace should be combined to a shape. The sparse 3D eigentemplate tracker is an extension of the 3D template tracker proposed by Oka et al. In combination with the augmented eigenface, the sparse 3D eigentemplate tracker facilitates real-time 3D tracking and recognition when a monocular image sequence is provided. In the tracking, sparse 3D eigentemplate is updated by the augmented eigenface while face pose is estimated by the sparse eigentracker. Since the augmented eigenface is constructed on the conventional eigenfaces, face identification and expression recognition are also accomplished efficiently during the tracking. In the experiment, an augmented eigenface was constructed from 25 faces where 24 images were taken in different lighting conditions for each face. Experimental results show that the augmented eigenface works with the 3D eigentemplate tracker for real-time tracking and recognition.     

Real-Time Tracking of Multiple Objects Using Fiducials for Augmented Reality

Augmented reality requires understanding of the scene to know when, where and what to display as a response to changes in the surrounding world. This understanding often involves tracking and recognition of multiple objects and locations in real-time. Technologies frequently used for multiple object tracking, such as electromagnetic trackers are very limited in range, as well as constraining. The use of Computer Vision to identify and track multiple objects is very promising. However, the requirements for traditional object recognition using appearance-based or model-based vision are very complex and their performance is far from real-time. An alternative is to use a set of markers or fiducials for object tracking and recognition. In this paper we present a system of marker coding that, together with an efficient image processing technique, provides a practical method for tracking the marked objects in real-time. The technique is based on clustering of candidate regions in space using a minimum spanning tree. The markers in the codes also allow the estimation of the three dimensional pose of the objects. We demonstrate the utility of the marker-based tracking technique in an Augmented Reality application. The application involves superimposing graphics over real industrial parts that are tracked using fiducials and manipulated by a human in order to complete an assembly. The system aids in the evaluation of the different assembly sequence possibilities.     

Multi-Camera Piecewise Planar Object Tracking with Mutual Information

Real-time and robust tracking of 3D objects based on a 3D model with multiple cameras is still an unsolved problem albeit relevant in many practical and industrial applications. Major problems are caused by appearance changes of the object. We present a template-based tracking algorithm for piecewise planar objects. It is robust against changes in the appearance of the object (occlusion, illumination variation, specularities). The version we propose supports multiple cameras. The method consists in minimizing the error between the observed images of the object and the warped images of the planes. We use the mutual information as registration function combined with an inverse composition approach for reducing the computational costs and get a near-real-time algorithm. We discuss different hypotheses that can be made for the optimization algorithm.     

Shape from interaction

We present “shape from interaction” (SfI), an approach to the problem of acquiring 3D representations of rigid objects through observing the activity of a human who handles a tool. SfI relies on the fact that two rigid objects cannot share the same physical space. The 3D reconstruction of the unknown object is achieved by tracking the known 3D tool and by carving out the space it occupies as a function of time. Due to this indirection, SfI reconstructs rigid objects regardless of their material and appearance properties and proves particularly useful for the cases of textureless, transparent, translucent, refractive and specular objects for which there exists no practical vision-based 3D reconstruction method. Additionally, object concavities that are not directly observable can also be reconstructed. The 3D tracking of the tool is formulated as an optimization problem that is solved based on visual input acquired by a multicamera system. Experimental results from a prototype implementation of SfI support qualitatively and quantitatively the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Real-time markerless tracking for augmented reality: the virtual visual servoing framework

Tracking is a very important research subject in a real-time augmented reality context. The main requirements for trackers are high accuracy and little latency at a reasonable cost. In order to address these issues, a real-time, robust, and efficient 3D model-based tracking algorithm is proposed for a "video see through" monocular vision system. The tracking of objects in the scene amounts to calculating the pose between the camera and the objects. Virtual objects can then be projected into the scene using the pose. In this paper, nonlinear pose estimation is formulated by means of a virtual visual servoing approach. In this context, the derivation of point-to-curves interaction matrices are given for different 3D geometrical primitives including straight lines, circles, cylinders, and spheres. A local moving edges tracker is used in order to provide real-time tracking of points normal to the object contours. Robustness is obtained by integrating an M-estimator into the visual control law via an iteratively reweighted least squares implementation. This approach is then extended to address the 3D model-free augmented reality problem. The method presented in this paper has been validated on several complex image sequences including outdoor environments. Results show the method to be robust to occlusion, changes in illumination, and mistracking.     

基于相关匹配及自适应模板更新的目标跟踪新方法

传统的相关匹配算法在背景比较简单的情况下可以较好地跟踪到目标,但实际获得的图像存在变形、噪声、遮挡等问题,并且也很难获得比较好的跟踪效果。针对上述问题,提出了一种修正的MCD相关匹配算法和多帧累积的模板更新策略,并对实际图像进行了仿真。实验结果表明,算法在图像存在变形、噪声、遮挡时也可以达到比较理想的跟踪效果。     

Shape registration in implicit spaces using information theory and free form deformations

We present a novel, variational and statistical approach for shape registration. Shapes of interest are implicitly embedded in a higher-dimensional space of distance transforms. In this implicit embedding space, registration is formulated in a hierarchical manner: the mutual information criterion supports various transformation models and is optimized to perform global registration; then, a B-spline-based incremental free form deformations (IFFD) model is used to minimize a sum-of-squared-differences (SSD) measure and further recover a dense local nonrigid registration field. The key advantage of such framework is twofold: 1) it naturally deals with shapes of arbitrary dimension (2D, 3D, or higher) and arbitrary topology (multiple parts, closed/open) and 2) it preserves shape topology during local deformation and produces local registration fields that are smooth, continuous, and establish one-to-one correspondences. Its invariance to initial conditions is evaluated through empirical validation, and various hard 2D/3D geometric shape registration examples are used to show its robustness to noise, severe occlusion, and missing parts. We demonstrate the power of the proposed framework using two applications: one for statistical modeling of anatomical structures, another for 3D face scan registration and expression tracking. We also compare the performance of our algorithm with that of several other well-known shape registration algorithms.     

Automatic camera control in virtual environments augmented using multiple sparse videos

Automated virtual camera control has been widely used in animation and interactive virtual environments. We have developed a multiple sparse camera based free view video system prototype that allows users to control the position and orientation of a virtual camera, enabling the observation of a real scene in three dimensions (3D) from any desired viewpoint. Automatic camera control can be activated to follow selected objects by the user. Our method combines a simple geometric model of the scene composed of planes (virtual environment), augmented with visual information from the cameras and pre-computed tracking information of moving targets to generate novel perspective corrected 3D views of the virtual camera and moving objects. To achieve real-time rendering performance, view-dependent textured mapped billboards are used to render the moving objects at their correct locations and foreground masks are used to remove the moving objects from the projected video streams. The current prototype runs on a PC with a common graphics card and can generate virtual 2D views from three cameras of resolution 768×576 with several moving objects at about 11 fps.     

Mutual Information-Based 3D Object Tracking

We propose a robust methodology for 3D model-based markerless tracking of textured objects in monocular image sequences. The technique is based on mutual information maximization, a widely known criterion for multi-modal image registration, and employs an efficient multiresolution strategy in order to achieve robustness while keeping fast computational time, thus achieving near real-time performance for visual tracking of complex textured surfaces. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

人体三维运动实时跟踪与建模系统

提出了一种新的人体三维运动实时跟踪与建模系统设计方法,并基于此实现了一套鲁棒的参考应用系统.针对人机交互等对跟踪精度要求不是很高的应用场合,系统在跟踪精确性和简易性与可推广性之间做了很好的折中.系统使用多个摄像头采集图像,实时计算场景深度信息,然后结合使用深度和颜色信息进行人体跟踪.应用一个简易的人体上半身三维模型,并使用基于颜色直方图的粒子滤波算法对头部和手部进行跟踪,从而恢复出模型的各个参数.系统以人脸检测和人手肤色聚类算法为初始化方法.大量实验证明,该系统能在复杂背景下进行人体上半身的跟踪和三维模型恢复,能进行完全自动的初始化,有较强的抗干扰能力和自动错误恢复能力.系统在2.4GHz PC机上能以25帧/秒的速度运行.     

Stable real-time 3D tracking using online and offline information

We propose an efficient real-time solution for tracking rigid objects in 3D using a single camera that can handle large camera displacements, drastic aspect changes, and partial occlusions. While commercial products are already available for offline camera registration, robust online tracking remains an open issue because many real-time algorithms described in the literature still lack robustness and are prone to drift and jitter. To address these problems, we have formulated the tracking problem in terms of local bundle adjustment and have developed a method for establishing image correspondences that can equally well handle short and wide-baseline matching. We then can merge the information from preceding frames with that provided by a very limited number of keyframes created during a training stage, which results in a real-time tracker that does not jitter or drift and can deal with significant aspect changes.     

Real-time optical markerless tracking for augmented reality applications

Augmented reality (AR) technology consists in adding computer-generated information (2D/3D) to a real video sequence in such a manner that the real and virtual objects appear coexisting in the same world. To get a realistic illusion, the real and virtual objects must be properly aligned with respect to each other, which requires a robust real-time tracking strategy—one of the bottlenecks of AR applications. In this paper, we describe the limitations and advantages of different optical tracking technologies, and we present our customized implementation of both recursive tracking and tracking by detection approaches. The second approach requires the implementation of a classifier and we propose the use of a Random Forest classifier. We evaluated both approaches in the context of an AR application for design review. Some conclusions regarding the performance of each approach are given.