While there is a large class
of Multiple-Target Tracking (MTT) problems for which batch
processing is possible and desirable, batch MTT remains relatively
unexplored in comparison to sequential approaches. In this paper,
we give a principled probabilistic formalization of batch MTT in
which we introduce two new, very general constraints that
considerably help us in reaching the correct solution. First, we
exploit the correlation between the appearance of a target and its
motion. Second, entrances and departures of targets are encouraged
to occur at the boundaries of the scene. We show how to implement
these constraints in a formal and efficient manner.
Our approach is applied to challenging 3-D biomedical imaging data where the number
of targets is unknown and may vary, and numerous challenging
tracking events occur. We demonstrate the ability of our model to
simultaneously track the nuclei of over one hundred migrating
neuron precursor cells in image stack series col...