Re: [Image-SIG] Newbie question on color detection and tracking

[adam naples]

a) yes, a lot, 

b) I don't think PIL is the way to go, use openCV, you can use it with python. 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/

c) computer vision is hard, but it sounds like you're talking about a very basic optitrack (maybe? I have no idea). I've not used them but remember to think about what will happen if the user occludes the color or t-shirt. Another  reason this is hard is that the  shadows and illumination will change a lot from frame to frame, so a background substitution will be hard even if the person is in a grey room with no furniture or wall decorations, they'll still cast shadows. My suggestion, that may make your life a lot easier is to install open cv and run the python lucas-kanade demo. it will capture frames from a camera, and you click the feature that you want it to track, if the conditions are good, it tracks it, and can do a pretty good job; even with multiple features. 

http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/

hope this helps

-a

On Aug 13, 2007, at 10:08 PM, Jonathan Shao wrote:

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to image processing, so please bear with me...

What I want to do is to set up a static camera such that it can track the motion of a person wearing a particular color marker walking around in an interior room (no windows). The "color marker" can be something like a t-shirt with a unique color distinctly different from the background, and I think I'll need to take periodic snap-shots of the room to simulate real-time tracking as closely as possible. In effect, it's a simplified scenario for person tracking.

 

For now, I'm just trying to get the color detection part of my project working. I think I should be to just do a simple background subtraction between a snapshot by the camera and a reference image of the background, and that should be able to give me good color detection. The issues I'm concerned with:

 

a) Do I need to worry about different hues/illuminations of the same color?

 

b) Is this a realistic method to implement with the PIL, or would I have to deal with issues of speed while trying to track the marker?

--
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~ T.H.White

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