Robust tracking of soccer players based on data fusion

Presents a technique for integrating multiple visual features for tracking moving objects. Our proposed method consists of observation (pattern-matching) units and prediction units, which form a ladder structure. The major feature of our proposed method is that each of the observation units with different pattern matching algorithms is executed step-by-step to innovate the state vector considering the reliability of the observation. The fusion of multiple observations makes the tracks robust to occlusion and to deformation. Experiments with soccer sequences are shown to validate the technique's robustness. Its applications to broadcasting services are also briefly discussed.

[1]  Patrick Bouthemy,et al.  Region-Based Tracking Using Affine Motion Models in Long Image Sequences , 1994 .

[2]  Aaron F. Bobick,et al.  Closed-world tracking , 1995, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision.

[3]  Aaron F. Bobick,et al.  Visual Tracking Using Closed-Worlds , 1995 .

[4]  Dinggang Shen,et al.  An affine-invariant active contour model (AI-snake) for model-based segmentation , 1998, Image Vis. Comput..

[5]  Yoshinori Izumi,et al.  Morphological segmentation of sport scenes using color information , 2000 .

[6]  J. Pers,et al.  Computer vision system for tracking players in sports games , 2000, IWISPA 2000. Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis. in conjunction with 22nd International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces. (IEEE.

[7]  Rachid Deriche,et al.  Geodesic Active Contours and Level Sets for the Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[8]  Seok-Woo Jang,et al.  Structured Kalman Filter for Tracking Partially Occluded Moving Objects , 2000, Biologically Motivated Computer Vision.

[9]  J. Crowley,et al.  Multi-Modal Tracking of Interacting Targets Using Gaussian Approximations , 2001 .

[10]  Roger D. Boyle,et al.  Tracking multiple sports players through occlusion, congestion and scale , 2001, BMVC.

[11]  Demetri Terzopoulos,et al.  Snakes: Active contour models , 2004, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[12]  Michael Isard,et al.  CONDENSATION—Conditional Density Propagation for Visual Tracking , 1998, International Journal of Computer Vision.