Subject Tracking Systems for a Movable Imaging System

A method for tracking a subject in successive image frames comprising:

• determining a predicted frame location at which a subject is estimated to appear in a subsequent image frame to be obtained at a subsequent time;
• determining a region of interest corresponding to the subsequent image frame, including determining a location of the region of interest to be in a predetermined spatial relationship relative to the predicted frame location;
• obtaining the subsequent image frame at the subsequent time with an imaging device;
• and
• processing the region of interest of the subsequent image frame to locate the subject.

A movable imaging system comprising:

• a movable platform movable in real space;
• an imaging device for capturing successive image frames that form a video and being connected to the movable platform;
• and
• a tracking system for maintaining a subject in the successive image frames, wherein the tracking system locates a region of interest for a subsequent image frame at a predicted frame location of the subject in a future image frame based on previous frame positions of the subject in the successive images, motion information of the imaging device, and motion information of the subject, and thereafter processes the region of interest of the future image frame to locate the subject in the future image frame.