Stable real-time 3D tracking using online and offline information

Abstract

We propose an efficient real-time solution for tracking rigid objects in 3D using a single camera that can handle large camera displacements, drastic aspect changes, and partial occlusions. While commercial products are already available for offline camera registration, robust online tracking remains an open issue because many real-time algorithms described in the literature still lack robustness and are prone to drift and jitter. To address these problems, we have formulated the tracking problem in terms of local bundle adjustment and have developed a method for establishing image correspondences that can equally well handle short and wide-baseline matching. We then can merge the information from preceding frames with that provided by a very limited number of keyframes created during a training stage, which results in a real-time tracker that does not jitter or drift and can deal with significant aspect changes.