Binocular tracking using log polar mapping

This paper describes a new binocular tracking method using log polar mapping (LPM) which approximately represents the mapping of the retina into the visual cortex in primate vision. Using LPM makes it possible not only to obtain both a high central resolution and a wide field of view, but also to significantly reduce the processing of image data. In this paper, LPM is performed in software by the lookup table method. Our tracking method utilizes a zero disparity filter (ZDF) for extracting the target object and virtual horopter method for estimating binocular disparities, respectively. The performance of both target extraction and disparity estimation is improved in comparison with the conventional methods, by using LPM. Some experimental results are also shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.