AUTOMATIC MOVING OBJECT TRACKING METHOD AND ITS SYSTEM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic tracking method and its system capable of improving precision and stability of an automatic tracking camera. SOLUTION: The video screen of a camera having functions of panning, tilting, and zooming is divided into m×m pieces of blocks, and the amount of movement of each block is calculated. The block having maximum movement amount is found from the video screen of the camera, and the fact is detected that the blocks of maximum movement in one frame and the next frame are in the mutual temporal chain relationship. The region is detected where the blocks are successively present across k (k≥2) pieces of frames. Based on the maximum/minimum value of row number of the block constituting the region and maximum/minimum value of column number, the range of presence and center coordinate of the region are determined. Panning, tilting, and zooming function of the camera are so controlled that the center of the region agree with the center of camera's video screen, with the region displayed on the entire display screen in just proportion. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI