Patent Document ID: 20020008657
Application ID: 09312036
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for tracking a plurality of objects, comprising: repeatedly scanning a region containing a set consisting of one or more moving objects and generating N sequential images or data sets of said region, a plurality of observations in said images or data sets providing positional information for objects in said set; determining a plurality of tracks, at least one track for each object in said set; determining a plurality of costs, wherein each cost is for assigning one of said observations to one of said tracks; defining a linear programming problem: Minimize &Sgr; i 1... i N c i 1... i N z i 1... i N Subject To &Sgr; i 2 i 3... i N z i 1... i N &equals;1 (i 1 &equals;1,...,M 1 ) &Sgr; i 1 i 3... i N z i 1... i N &equals;1 (i 1 &equals;1,...,M 1 ) &Sgr; i 1... i p−1 i p&plus;1... i N z i 1... i N &equals;1 (i p &equals;1,...,M p and p&equals;2,...N−1) &Sgr; i 1 i 2... i N−1 z i 1... i N &equals;1 (i N &equals;1,...,M N ) 0&lE;z i 1... i N &lE;1 for all i 1,..., i N, wherein each c i 1... i N is included in said plurality of costs, each M i, i&equals;1,...,N, being one of: (a) a number of observations in an i th image or data set of said N sequential images or data sets; (b) a sum of a number of tracks in said plurality of tracks, and a number of said observations in the i th image or data set not assigned to one of said tracks; and (c) a number of tracks in said plurality of tracks; solving said linear programming problem for values of z i 1... i N for each i 1... i N ; determining a value z i 1... i N in &lcub;0,1&rcub; for each i.l.i N corresponding to each z i 1... i N, wherein said values z il... 1N provide an optimal or near optimal solution to said linear programming problem; taking one or more of the following actions based on said optimal or near-optimal assignment of said plurality of points to said plurality of tracks: sending a warning to aircraft or a ground or sea facility, controlling air traffic, controlling anti-aircraft or anti-missile equipment, taking evasive action, working on one of said one or more objects, surveilling one of said one or more objects.