People identification using shadow dynamics

People identification has numerous applications, ranging from surveillance/security to robotics. Face and body movement/gait biometrics are the most important tools for this task. Traditional biometrics use direct observation of the body, yet in some situations a projection may offer more information than the direct signal, for example the shadow of a person observed from overhead, e.g. from an unmanned aerial vehicle, may contain more detail than the top view of the head/body. We introduced the idea of shadow biometrics, exploiting biometrics information in human shadow silhouettes as derived from video imagery; this enables "overhead biometrics", for recognition of human identity and behavior from high altitude airborne platforms using overhead video sequences. In this paper, we provide a demonstration of person identification based on gait recognition from shadow analysis. We describe compensation steps to address shadow variation with conditions of observation (sun posit...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICIP
• Authors: Yumi Iwashita, Adrian Stoica, Ryo Kurazume
• Keywords: Biometrics, ICIP 2010, Image Processing, K-nearest Neighbor Classifier, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle