Method and apparatus for tracking head candidate locations in an actuatable occupant restraining system

An apparatus ( 100 ) for tracking at least one head candidate comprises an image analyzer ( 104 ) for analyzing an image signal to identify at least one of a possible plurality of new head candidates within an area of interest. The image analyzer ( 104 ) provides data regarding the identified head candidates. A tracking system ( 108 ) stores location information for at least one tracked head candidate. A candidate matcher ( 106 ) predicts the current position of a given tracked head candidate and selects a subset of the at least one of a plurality of new head candidates according to their distance from the predicted position. The similarity of each member of the selected subset to the tracked candidate is evaluated to determine if a member of the selected subset represents a current position of the tracked candidate.