Patent ID: 7653242

Claim:
A method of dynamically adjusting and predicting a segmentation threshold in an image based tracking device, the method comprising: calculating a threshold factor with a processing unit of the image based tracking device; calculating an actual average image pixel intensity for an entire image frame with the processing unit; predicting a future average image pixel intensity for future time t with the processing unit, wherein the predicted future average image pixel intensity is based on past actual average image pixel intensities; combining, with the processing unit, the predicted future average image pixel intensity with the threshold factor to provide an adaptive threshold that adapts to changes in pixel intensity due to movement of an object in the image frame; and updating, with the processing unit, coefficients used in predicting the future average image pixel intensity; wherein updating the coefficients used in predicting the future average image pixel intensity further comprises: receiving image frame data for time t once available; calculating the actual average image pixel intensity at time t; comparing the actual average image pixel intensity with the predicted future average image pixel intensity for time t; and adjusting the coefficients used in predicting the future average image pixel intensity based on differences between the actual average image pixel intensity and the predicted future average image pixel intensity.