COLOUR LOOK-UP TABLE FOR BACKGROUND SEGMENTATION OF SPORT VIDEO

A method of detecting background pixels in a video, the video including a sequence of frames, each frame having a pitch and people. The method includes segmenting the pitch and determining a height of one of the people. An inclusion mask for the sequence of frames is then created using the pitch segmentation and the people's height. Each of the sequence of frames is segmented into foreground and background pixels. The method then creates a foreground appearance model from the foreground pixels inside said inclusion mask over the sequence of frames, and a background appearance model from the background pixels inside said inclusion mask over the sequence of frames. The method then uses the created foreground and background appearance models to segment one of the sequence of frames into definite foreground, definite background and uncertain pixels.