One of the most basic building blocks for the understanding of human actions and interactions is the accurate detection and tracking of persons in a scene. In constrained scenarios involving at most one subject, or in situations where persons can be confined to a controlled monitoring space or required to wear markers, sensors, or microphones, these tasks can be solved with relative ease. However, when accurate localization and tracking have to be performed in an unobtrusive or discreet fashion, using only distantly placed microphones and cameras, in a variety of natural and uncontrolled scenarios, the challenges posed are much greater. The problems faced by video analysis are those of poor or uneven illumination, low resolution, clutter or occlusion, unclean backgrounds, and multiple moving and uncooperative users that are not always easily distinguishable.

Peer Reviewed