Vehicle Segmentation and Tracking from a Low-Angle Off-Axis Camera

We present a novel method for visually monitoring a highway when the camera is relatively low to the ground and on the side of the road. In such a case, occlusion and the perspective effects due to the heights of the vehicles cannot be ignored. Features are detected and tracked throughout the image sequence, and then grouped together using a multilevel homography, which is an extension of the standard homography to the low-angle situation. We derive a concept called the relative height constraint that makes it possible to estimate the 3D height of feature points on the vehicles from a single camera, a key part of the technique. Experimental results on several different highways demonstrate the system's ability to successfully segment and track vehicles at low angles, even in the presence of severe occlusion and significant perspective changes. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) San Diego, California, June 2005 c 2005 IEEE. Personal use of this mater...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CVPR
• Authors: Neeraj K. Kanhere, Shrinivas J. Pundlik, Stan Birchfield
• Keywords: Computer Vision, CVPR 2005, IEEE Conference, Low-angle Situation, Relative Height Constraint, Severe Occlusion, Significant Perspective Changes