Patent ID: 6687386
Filing Date: 2004-02-03
Classification: G06K,G06T

Abstract:
A tracking method for detecting an object in an image pickup field of an image pickup device, comprising the steps of:forming from an image of said image pickup field a template image of a predetermined size including at least a part of said object; storing said template image in a memory; performing a template matching between an input image of said image pickup field from said image pickup device and said template image from said memory to detect a location of a part of said object in said input image which has a maximum degree of coincidence with said template image; performing an edge density detection of said object over an expanded part of said input image which has a larger size than said predetermined size and includes said part of said object of said template image; detecting a location of said object having a maximum edge density in said performing an edge density detection step; compensating a location of said template image based on said location of said object having a maximum edge density so that a greater part of said template image contains said detected object; and updating said template image, a location of which is compensated, into a new template image for a next input image.