Patent Document ID: 9228833
Application ID: 13535538
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. Method for tracking a target object utilizing a binocular camera system, comprising: capturing first and second images, the first image captured from a first camera device and the second image captured from a second camera device; generating a four-layer layered graph, comprising; generating a first layer of nodes and a second layer of nodes from the first captured image, each node of the first layer and the second layer comprising a candidate patch, identifying node pairs comprising matched nodes from the first layer and the second layer, with each node pair from the first layer and the second layer representing an image patch including an object of interest in the first captured image, generating a third layer of nodes and a fourth layer of nodes from the second captured image, each node of the third layer and the fourth layer comprising a candidate patch, and identifying node pairs comprising matched nodes from the third layer and the fourth layer, with each node pair from the third layer and the fourth layer representing an image patch for an object of interest in the second captured image; using a pixel-less, patch based analysis to determine a presence of the target object in each of the image patches, the analysis comprising: comparing each of the patches to an object template, and determining a plurality of detection costs associated with respective ones of the image patches based upon the comparing; among the image patches determined to include the target object, determining a plurality of matching costs for each matching pair of image patches between the second layer and the third layer; determining at least one cost flow path from a source vertex linked to the image patches of the first layer to a sink vertex linked to the image patches of the fourth layer based on the detection costs and the matching costs; and tracking the target object based on the at least one minimal cost flow path.