Patent Document ID: 7684590
Application ID: 11108430
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of recognizing and tracking objects which correspond to real objects in at least one sensing zone of at least one sensor for electromagnetic radiation on the basis of images of the sensing zone repeatedly sensed by means of the sensor, wherein successive images are evaluated in successive cycles and a respective search is made in a later cycle in a corresponding later image for at least one object found in a cycle on the basis of at least one corresponding image in order to track it, and wherein, upon the recognition of a new object in a current image of a current cycle, an earlier image in the successive images is at least partly reevaluated on the basis of the results of an at least preliminary evaluation of the current image, and wherein, during the current cycle, at least one part of an earlier image or at least one indication with respect to an earlier state of the object or of a real object corresponding to it, which indication is determined using the corresponding earlier image in the current cycle, is associated with at least one part of a current image determined in the current cycle or with an object recognized in the current cycle wherein distance images and video images of at least one common part region of the sensing zone are used which are associated with one another in time; in that a search is made in video images for objects or features only in part sections which are determined in dependence on distance picture elements associated in time; in that, in a current cycle, the new object or feature in the video image is tracked back in time to an earlier cycle; and in that a position of the real object corresponding to the new object or feature in the earlier cycle is determined while using the information on an object or feature corresponding to the real object in the earlier video image.