Real-time scene background initialization based on spatio-temporal neighborhood exploration

In this paper, we address the problem of scene background initialization to define a background model free from foreground objects. The complexity of this task resides in the continuous clutter of the scene by moving and stationary objects. To face this challenge, we propose a robust real-time iterative model completion method based on online block-level processing to initialize the background with low computational cost. First, temporal data analysis is conducted to cluster similar blocks. Meanwhile, a two-folded inter-block spatial neighborhood exploration is performed. It aims to capture relationships among neighboring clusters and reduce the number of candidate clusters employed in the next phase. Then, a smoothness analysis between neighboring locations is performed to iteratively reconstruct the background based on a newly proposed edge matching metric and an inter-block color discontinuity. Extensive evaluations of the proposed approach on the public Scene Background Initialization 2015 dataset and on the Scene Background Modeling Contest 2016 dataset revealed a performance superior or comparable to state-of-the-art methods.