Patent ID: 8218011

Claim:
A object tracking method using a camera handoff mechanism, the object tracking method applied in an intelligent distributed object tracking system comprising a control center, a plurality of smart nodes and a plurality of cameras, the smart nodes managing the cameras, the object tracking method comprising steps of: detecting, by a first smart node of the smart nodes, a position of a object to judge whether the object leaves a center region of a first field of view (FOV) of the first smart node for a boundary region when the first smart node is tracking the object; predicting, by the first smart node, a possible path of the object when the object enters the boundary region of the first FOV of the first smart node; predicting, by the first smart node, that the object will appear in a second FOV of a second smart node of the smart nodes according to the possible path of the object and a spatial relation between the cameras when the object gets out of the first FOV of the first smart node; notifying, by the first smart node, the second smart node to detect a first newly entered object inside the second FOV; determining, by the second smart node, a first image characteristic similarity between the object and the first newly entered object, and returning the first image characteristic similarity to the first smart node; deciding, by the first smart node, whether to make handoff transfer to the second smart node according to the first image characteristic similarity returned by the second smart node; and if yes, making handoff transfer, by the first smart node, to the second smart node so that the second smart node takes over tracking on the object.