Fast Lighting Independent Background Subtraction

This paper describes a simple method of fast background subtraction based upon disparity verification that is invariant to arbitrarily rapid run-time changes in illumination. Using two or more cameras, the method requires the off-line construction of disparity fields mapping the primary background images. At runtime, segmentation is performed by checking background image to each of the additional auxiliary color intensity values at corresponding pixels. If more than two cameras are available, more robust segmentation can be achieved and, in particular, the occlusion shadows can be generally eliminated as well. Because the method only assumes fixed background geometry, the technique allows for illumination variation at runtime. Since no disparity search is performed, the algorithm is easily implemented in real-time on conventional hardware.