Patent ID: 8320613

Claim:
A device for detecting predetermined targets of at least one class that are captured within an image that is inputted from an image input device, the device including: a foreground/background classification device that is configured to analyze the inputted image to determine a foreground probability image that represents a probability that pixels in the inputted image are part of a foreground of the inputted image; a target geometry dictionary including precomputed geometric size information of the predetermined targets of the at least one class; and a target detection device that is configured to analyze the foreground probability image and determine a most likely target configuration of detected targets that corresponds to the foreground probability image based on the precomputed geometric size information of the predetermined targets of the at least one class from the target geometry dictionary and based on geometric information of the image input device, wherein the geometric information of the image input device includes at least one of a focal length, height, tilt and roll angle of the image input device, and the target detection device is configured to iteratively add targets to the most likely target configuration of detected targets beginning with a largest target.