Feature Tracking with Automatic Selection of Spatial Scales

When observing a dynamic world, the size of image structures may vary over time. This article emphasizes the need for including explicit mechanisms for automatic scale selection in feature tracking algorithms in order to: (i) adapt the local scale of processing to the local image structure, and (ii) adapt to the size variations that may occur over time. The problems of corner detection and blob detection are treated in detail, and a combined framework for feature tracking is presented. The integrated tracking algorithm overcomes some of the inherent limitations of exposing fixed-scale tracking methods to image sequences in which the size variations are large. It is also shown how the stability over time of scale descriptors can be used as a part of a multi-cue similarity measure for matching. Experiments on real-world sequences are presented showing the performance of the algorithm when applied to (individual) tracking of corners and blobs.

[1]  Jitendra Malik,et al.  Robust Multiple Car Tracking with Occlusion Reasoning , 1994, ECCV.

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

[3]  Tony Lindeberg,et al.  Scale selection for differential operators , 1994 .

[4]  Olivier Faugeras,et al.  Three-Dimensional Computer Vision , 1993 .

[5]  Andrew P. Witkin,et al.  Scale-Space Filtering , 1983, IJCAI.

[6]  Tony Lindeberg,et al.  Edge Detection and Ridge Detection with Automatic Scale Selection , 1996, Proceedings CVPR IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[7]  Ian D. Reid,et al.  Tracking foveated corner clusters using affine structure , 1993, 1993 (4th) International Conference on Computer Vision.

[8]  Rachid Deriche,et al.  Accurate corner detection: an analytical study , 1990, [1990] Proceedings Third International Conference on Computer Vision.

[9]  Larry S. Shapiro,et al.  A Matching and Tracking Strategy for Independently Moving Objects , 1992 .

[10]  Atsuto Maki,et al.  Towards an active visual observer , 1995, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision.

[11]  Elizabeth R. Stuck,et al.  Detecting Moving Objects Using the Rigidity Constraint , 1993, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[12]  Andrew Blake,et al.  Affine-invariant contour tracking with automatic control of spatiotemporal scale , 1993, 1993 (4th) International Conference on Computer Vision.

[13]  T. Lindeberg.  On Scale Selection for Di erential Operators , 1993 .

[14]  Michael Brady,et al.  Closing the loop on multiple motions , 1995, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision.

[15]  Andrew Blake,et al.  Parallel Implementation of Lagrangian Dynamics for Real-time Snakes , 1991, BMVC.

[16]  Dana H. Ballard,et al.  Computer Vision , 1982 .

[17]  T. Lindeberg.  Scale-space with Causal Time Direction , 1996 .

[18]  Stephen M. Smith,et al.  ASSET-2: real-time motion segmentation and shape tracking , 1995, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision.

[19]  Tony Lindeberg,et al.  Scale-Space Theory in Computer Vision , 1993, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[20]  Roberto Cipolla,et al.  Fast visual tracking by temporal consensus , 1996, Image Vis. Comput..

[21]  Tony Lindeberg,et al.  Junction detection with automatic selection of detection scales and localization scales , 1994, Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Image Processing.

[22]  Carlo Tomasi,et al.  Good features to track , 1994, 1994 Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[23]  Andrew Blake,et al.  Surface Orientation and Time to Contact from Image Divergence and Deformation , 1992, ECCV.

[24]  Tony Lindeberg,et al.  On Automatic Selection of Temporal Scales in Time-Causal Scale-Space , 1997, AFPAC.

[25]  Max A. Viergever,et al.  Scale and the differential structure of images , 1992, Image Vis. Comput..

[26]  Andrea J. van Doorn,et al.  Generic Neighborhood Operators , 1992, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[27]  Azriel Rosenfeld,et al.  Gray-level corner detection , 1982, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[28]  Jan J. Koenderink,et al.  Two-dimensional curvature operators , 1988 .