Plan-view projections of depth image data for object tracking

A system for tracking an object observable in a time series of video frames representative of a visual scene, comprising one or more processing modules operable to:

• generate a three-dimensional point cloud having members with one or more associated attributes obtained from the time series of video frames and representing selected image pixels in a three-dimensional coordinate system spanned by a ground plane and a vertical axis orthogonal to the ground plane;
• partition the three-dimensional point cloud into a set of vertically-oriented bins;
• map the partitioned three-dimensional point cloud into one or more plan-view images each containing for each vertically-oriented bin a corresponding pixel having one or more values computed based upon one or more attributes of the three-dimensional point cloud members occupying the corresponding vertically-oriented bin;
• and
• track the object based at least in part upon one or more of the plan-view images.

A method of tracking an object observable in a time series of video frames representative of a visual scene, comprising:

• generating a three-dimensional point cloud having members with one or more associated attributes obtained from the time series of video frames and representing selected pixels in a three-dimensional coordinate system spanned by a ground plane and a vertical axis orthogonal to the ground plane;
• partitioning the three-dimensional point cloud into a set of vertically-oriented bins;
• mapping the partitioned three-dimensional point cloud into one or more plan-view images each containing for each vertically-oriented bin a corresponding pixel having one or more values computed based upon the three-dimensional point cloud members occupying the corresponding vertically-oriented bin;
• extracting one or more object templates from at least one of the one or more plan-view images;
• and
• tracking the object based at least in part upon a comparison of at least one of the object templates with regions of the corresponding plan-view images.

A system for tracking an object observable in a time series of video frames representative of a visual scene, comprising one or more processing modules operable to:

• generate a three-dimensional point cloud having members with one or more associated attributes obtained from the time series of video frames and representing selected pixels in a three-dimensional coordinate system spanned by a ground plane and a vertical axis orthogonal to the ground plane;
• partition the three-dimensional point cloud into a set of vertically-oriented bins;
• map the partitioned three-dimensional point cloud into one or more plan-view images each containing for each vertically-oriented bin a corresponding pixel having one or more values computed based upon the three-dimensional point cloud members occupying the corresponding vertically-oriented bin;
• extract one or more original object templates from at least one of the one or more plan-view images;
• track the object based at least in part upon a comparison of at least one of object templates with regions of the corresponding plan-view images.

A method of tracking an object observable in a time series of video frames representative of a visual scene, comprising:

• generating a three-dimensional point cloud having members with one or more associated attributes obtained from the time series of video frames and representing selected image pixels in a three-dimensional coordinate system spanned by a ground plane and a vertical axis orthogonal to the ground plane;
• partitioning the three-dimensional point cloud into a set of vertically-oriented bins;
• discretizing the three-dimensional point cloud along the vertical axis into two or more horizontal partitions;
• mapping the partitioned three-dimensional point cloud into two or more plan-view images each containing for each vertically-oriented bin a corresponding pixel having one or more values computed based upon the three-dimensional point cloud members occupying a respective horizontal partition of the corresponding vertically-oriented bin;
• and
• tracking the object based at least in part upon one or more of the plan-view images.