Patent Document ID: 6130964
Application ID: 09018984
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An object tracking method applied to an image sequence, said method comprising in series the following steps: (A) a segmentation step for defining the regions of a first coarse partition P(t-1) of an image I(t-1), said regions corresponding to the objects to be tracked, and, from said coarse partition P(t-1) and on the basis of a spatial homogeneity criterion, a finer partition FP(t-1); (B) a projection step for defining a projection PFP(t) of said fine partition FP(t-1) into the current image I(t); (C) a re-labelling step of said projected fine partition PFP(t), for defining the final partition P(t); wherein said projection step comprises in series the following sub-steps: (1) a marker projection sub-step, provided for yielding on the basis of motion and spatial information a set of markers for the current image, said marker projection sub-step itself comprising in series the following operations: (a) based on a motion estimation operation between the images I(t-1) and I(t), a backwards motion compensation operation of the fine partition FP(t-1), yielding a compensated fine partition CFP(t-1) made of so-called compensated markers; (b) in said compensated fine partition, a component selection operation, provided for selecting, among the possible unconnected components that correspond to a single label of the coarse partition P(t-1) and have the same label, only the components that, for each of these specific labels, satisfy a predetermined spatial criterion; (2) a partition creation sub-step, by means of a growing process of said set of compensated markers in order to obtain said final partition.