Method and apparatus for detecting and separating objects of interest in soccer video by color segmentation and shape analysis

A method for detecting and isolating overlapping human objects in an image of a playfield, the image comprising a plurality of playfield and non-playfield pixels, the method comprising:

• extracting, by a processor, a plurality of substantially non-playfield pixels from the image as a candidate object;
• generating, by the processor, shape information from the candidate object;
• detecting, by the processor, in at least a portion of the candidate object presence of at least one human characteristic at a position by analyzing one or more features of the shape information for the candidate object;
• identifying, by the processor, a subset of the plurality of image pixels included in said candidate object as representative of the human object, wherein the subset is positioned based at least in part on the position of the at least one characteristic detected in at least the portion of the candidate object;
• and
• removing, by the processor, from the candidate object the subset of pixels associated with the human object.