Patent ID: 7283668

Claim:
A method for optimizing the bin resolution of a color histogram for robustly tracking an object in video sequences, the method comprising: (a) assigning an initial object area in one frame of the video sequences desired to be tracked and assigning an initial object effective window containing the initial object area; (b) assigning an object search window containing the initial object effective window assigned in the step (a), in the frame containing the object area assigned in the step (a); (c) calculating a model histogram of the initial object area corresponding to a predetermined bin resolution value and an input histogram of an image in the object search window; (d) calculating an object probability image of the image in the object search window, by using the model histogram and the input histogram; (e) detecting an object area, existing in the frame of the step (a) by using a predetermined method, from the object probability image calculated in the step (d); (f) calculating an object detection performance index which represents how much the initial object area assigned in the step (a) and the new object area obtained in the step (e) coincide, and how well the initial object area is distinguished from an adjacent background area in the object probability image calculated in the step (d); and (g) calculating the object detection performance index for each of all bin resolution values, by repeatedly performing the steps (c) through (f) using all bin resolution values that are available for assigning, and determining a bin resolution value that provides the maximum object detection performance index, as an optimized bin resolution value.