Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for image-based object detection and tracking

US6434254B1 · kind B1 · utility

34Cited by
5References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 30, 1996
Grant dateAug 13, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 21, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2207/30236
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for detecting objects from a sequence of images of a scene containing an object by using two distinct methods for object detection. One is suited for well-lit scenes (e.g., daytime), while the other is suitable for poorly-lit scenes (e.g., nighttime) where the objects have lights mounted on them. Further, the method and apparatus are adaptive to the image statistics of the objects being detected, and can be programmed to filter out “weak” detections that lie below a certain percentile in the observed statistical distribution of image measures. The specific percentile is determined based on whether the scene has been determined to be well- or poorly-lit and whether it contains shadows or not.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.