Object position tracking using motion estimation

A computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, the method comprising:
• tracking position of at least one object in a plurality of video frames, the tracking comprising:
• processing an initial frame of a set of frames of the plurality of video frames, the processing the initial frame using feature extraction to identify locations, in the initial frame, of features of the at least one object;
• and
• using motion estimation to track locations of the features in subsequent frames of the set of frames, comprising iteratively performing:
• obtaining a next frame of the set of frames;
• and
• applying a motion estimation algorithm as between the next frame and a prior frame of the set of frames to identify updated locations of the features in the next frame, wherein locations of the features as identified based on the prior frame are used as input to the motion estimation algorithm to identify the updated locations of the features in the next frame based on searching less than an entirety of the next frame, and wherein, for a feature of the features, the motion estimation algorithm finds the feature in the next frame by searching a search area, of the next frame, that is less than the entirety of the next frame, and the search area is based on an anchor point of the feature in the prior frame.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor for performing a method comprising:
• tracking position of at least one object in a plurality of video frames, the tracking comprising:
• processing an initial frame of a set of frames of the plurality of video frames, the processing the initial frame using feature extraction to identify locations, in the initial frame, of features of the at least one object;
• and
• using motion estimation to track locations of the features in subsequent frames of the set of frames, comprising iteratively performing:
• obtaining a next frame of the set of frames;
• and
• applying a motion estimation algorithm as between the next frame and a prior frame of the set of frames to identify updated locations of the features in the next frame, wherein locations of the features as identified based on the prior frame are used as input to the motion estimation algorithm to identify the updated locations of the features in the next frame based on searching less than an entirety of the next frame, and wherein, for a feature of the features, the motion estimation algorithm finds the feature in the next frame by searching a search area, of the next frame, that is less than the entirety of the next frame, and the search area is based on an anchor point of the feature in the prior frame.