Specialized processor for 3D real-time tracking of moving objects using the knowledge of their chromatic components

Tracking in real-time is a complex problem handled by researchers in may different manners. In a general way, a tracking system can be organized in some pipelined modules: the first one provides sensorial capabilities using some different technologies such as radar, ultrasonic, IR or CCD cameras, etc. The second one works as a pre-processing device, usually in real time, and supplies filtered information. The third step usually deals with algorithms, supplying information to the last and most important phase: scene understanding and taking decisions. This paper describes a whole computer vision system for tracking moving objects in real-time. First, a high-speed image processing hardware for computing 2D positions is presented. This hardware is the basic sensor of a higher-level system where the integration of several views of the scene allows the computation of 3D positions. Then, the mathematical formulation to solve the trinocular problem is pointed out.