Tracking of a Moving Object Using One-Dimensional Optical Flow with a Rotating Observer

Abstract

The optical flow is a useful tool for the tracking of a moving object. Estimation of the optical flow based on the gradient method is an ill-posed problem. In order to avoid this ill-posed problem, we proposed a tracking method using a one-dimensional optical flow, which is calculated on a straight line (called the calculation axis) spanning several directions. However, the motion of the observer was not considered. In this paper, we propose object tracking by a one-dimensional optical flow under a rotating observer. The apparent motion of a stationary environment object should be eliminated for calculating the one-dimensional optical flow. Hence, we introduce the detection method of a moving object by mapping, which converts the motion of a stationary environment object into a linear signal trajectory. We calculate the one-dimensional optical flow by using pixels, which belong to the moving object, to eliminate the apparent motion of the stationary environment object. In order to verify the efficacy of the proposed method, simulation is performed using synthesized images. The proposed method successfully tracks the moving object when the observer rotates at a constant angular velocity