Region Template Correlation for FLIR Target Tracking

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of tracking an object from a sequence of images captured from a camera moving towards the object. Many conventional image based trackers trace key reference points over an image sequence using simple correlation processes [1]. However, the presence of noise and the magnification of image features as the camera approaches the object may cause a tracked point to drift. This paper introduces an alternative technique based on tracking regions formed by image segmentation. A region template of the target is acquired in the first frame and correlated over segmented images in future frames. The new technique produces significant reductions in drift rate and results have been obtained for real forward looking infrared (FLIR) images. This paper then discusses the advantages of integrating the new technique with a conventional point correlation based tracker. 1 Introduction The tracking of features in an image sequence is important in the areas of ...