A REAL- TIME, SEMI-AUTOMATIC METHOD FOR TARGET TRACKING WINDOW INITIALIZATION IN THERMAL IMAGERY

A real-time, semi-automatic method for discriminant track initialization in thermal imagery is very critical for tracking since it determines what to track for the tracker. Therefore, any insignificant or false information may result in redundant features or deceptive appearance that can cause premature track losses. To achieve long-term tracking, a real-time, semi-automatic track initialization methodology for images is proposed which takes a single image coordinate as input, then generates target bounding box for the most salient segment. The present invention is designed for real-time applications in which erroneous user input is unavoidable. Therefore, error compensation capability of present invention both introduces many practical advantageous together with performance boost. Low computational cost and requirement of only a point coordinate as input in the vicinity of the target make this approach preferable in real-time tracking applications.