The demand for object tracking (OT) applications has been increasing for the past few decades in many areas of interest, including security, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and reconnaissance. Lately, newly-defined requirements for unmanned vehicles have enhanced the interest in OT. Advancements in machine learning, data analytics, and AI/deep learning have facilitated the improved recognition and tracking of objects of interest; however, continuous tracking is currently a problem of interest in many research projects. [1] In our past research, we proposed a system that implements the means to continuously track an object and predict its trajectory based on its previous pathway, even when the object is partially or fully concealed for a period of time. The second phase of this system proposed developing a common knowledge among a mesh of fixed cameras, akin to a real-time panorama. This paper discusses the method to coordinate the cameras' view to a common frame of reference so that the object location is known by all participants in the network.
This paper explores the use of stixels in a probabilistic stereo vision-based collision-warning system that can be part of an ADAS for intelligent vehicles. In most current systems, collision warnings are based on radar or on monocular vision using pat- tern recognition (and ultra-sound for park assist). Since detect- ing collisions is such a core functionality of intelligent vehicles, redundancy is key. Therefore, we explore the use of stereo vi- sion for reliable collision prediction. Our algorithm consists of a Bayesian histogram filter that provides the probability of collision for multiple interception regions and angles towards the vehicle. This could additionally be fused with other sources of informa- tion in larger systems. Our algorithm builds upon the dispar- ity Stixel World that has been developed for efficient automotive vision applications. Combined with image flow and uncertainty modeling, our system samples and propagates asteroids, which are dynamic particles that can be utilized for collision prediction. At best, our independent system detects all 31 simulated collisions (2 false warnings), while this setting generates 12 false warnings on the real-world data.