Particle filter for object tracking

2008-10-20T12:07:31Z

ManuelFossati:

== '''Part 1: project profile''' ==

=== Project name ===

Particle filter for object tracking.

=== Project short description ===

The aim of this project is to construct a robust particle filter for object tracking, able to follow a moving object given its starting position (in a fixed scene).
To obtain this goal, we compare different similarity measures, such as color histograms and joint spatial-color mixtures of gaussians, in different color spaces (RGB, HSV).

=== Dates ===

Start date: 01/01/2008

End date: 15/07/2008

=== Internet site(s) ===

=== People involved ===

==== Project head(s) ====

Matteo Matteucci - matteucc (at) elet (dot) polimi (dot) it

==== Other Politecnico di Milano people ====

Davide Migliore - migliore (at) elet (dot) polimi (dot) it

==== Students ====

Manuel Fossati - manuel (dot) fossati (at) mail (dot) polimi (dot) it

==== External personnel: ====

=== Laboratory work and risk analysis ===

Since laboratory work for this project is limited to software related activities, there are no potential risks.

== '''Part 2: project description''' ==

=== State of the art ===
This project is based on the paper ''Effective Appearance Model and Similarity Measure for Particle Filtering and Visual Tracking, Hanzi Wang, Suter David, Schindler Konrad, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2007''.

We compared the SMOG model proposed in the paper with a standard color histogram, using the [http://www.cvg.rdg.ac.uk/slides/pets.html PETS dataset] as our primary test source.

=== The Problem ===
The standard color histogram model used in particle filtering suffers from several limitations, and fails under many circumstances.

=== The Idea ===
Wang et al. propose a new adaptive model which incorporates additional information about the spatial layout, making the similarity measure more discriminative. This model is known as SMOG (joint spatial-color mixture of gaussians). The main idea is to keep track of both color and spatial distributions, in order to be able to successfully identify the object even in critical conditions (such as changes in foreground appearance, occlusions, presence of similar objects).

=== The Project ===
The particle filter algorithm has been implemented in C, using both histogram and SMOG models and allowing the user to choose which one to use.

The algorithm is as follows:

# model the object appearance (color histogram/SMOG)
# initialize random samples
# propagate the samples (according to a motion model)
# assign a weight to each sample according to its similarity measure
# estimate the new object position as the weighted mean of samples
# update the object model
# repeat from step 3

=== Experimental Results ===
Some sample videos showing the particle filter in action can be downloaded [[Media:Videopf.zip | here]].

=== Conclusions ===
The performed tests have shown that the SMOG model is indeed more robust than the standard color histogram, allowing us to succesfully track objects under many different circumstances.

File:Videopf.zip

2008-10-20T12:01:35Z

ManuelFossati:

Particle filter for object tracking

2008-02-29T16:50:51Z

ManuelFossati:

Projects

2008-02-29T16:47:21Z

ManuelFossati: /* Computer Vision and Image Analysis */

This page is a repository of links to the pages describing the '''projects''' we at the AIRLab are working on, or have been in the past.

== Ongoing projects ==
''by research area (areas are defined in the [[Main Page]]); for each project a name and a link to its AIRWiki page is given''

==== [[Agents, Multiagent Systems, Agencies]] ====
----
==== [[BioSignal Analysis]] ====
----
====== [[Affective Computing]] ======

* [[Driving companions]]

* [[Affective Robotic Rehabilitation]]

====== [[Brain Computer Interface]] ======

====== [[Automatic Detection Of Sleep Stages]] ======
* [[Sleep Staging with HMM]]

==== [[Computer Vision and Image Analysis]] ====
----

* [[Data collection for mutual calibration|Data collection for laser-rangefinder and camera calibration]]

* [[Particle filter for object tracking]]

==== [[E-Science]] ====
----
==== [[Machine Learning]] ====
----
==== [[Ontologies and Semantic Web]] ====
----
* [[JOFS|JOFS, Java Owl File Storage]]

==== [[Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence]] ====
----
==== [[Robotics]] ====
----
* [[LURCH - The autonomous wheelchair]]

* [[Rawseeds|RAWSEEDS]]

==== [[Soft Computing]] ====
----

== Finished projects ==
''by research area (areas are defined in the [[Main Page]]; for each project a name and a link to its AIRWiki page is given''

==== [[Agents, Multiagent Systems, Agencies]] ====

==== [[BioSignal Analysis]] ====

==== [[Computer Vision and Image Analysis]] ====

==== [[E-Science]] ====

==== [[Machine Learning]] ====

==== [[Ontologies and Semantic Web]] ====

* [http://smw.elet.polimi.it Swiki] (external link)
* [[Design and development of a semantic wiki engine]]
* [[Sandbox ontologies for semantic wikis]]
* [[Tagonto]]
* [[SpeakinAbout|Speakin'About - a tool for semantic annotation of text documents]]
* [[Tag based filesystems]]
* [[Semantic wiki extensions with context ontologies]]

==== [[Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence]] ====

==== [[Robotics]] ====

==== [[Soft Computing]] ====

== Note for students ==

If you are a student and there isn't a '''page describing your project''', this is because YOU have the task of creating it and populating it with (meaningful) content. If you are a student and there IS a page describing your project, you have the task to complete that page with (useful and comprehensive) information about you and your own contribution to the project.

Be aware that you can work within the AIRLab's structures (see [[The Labs]]) ''only after the page of your project has been set up AND completed with all the above information''. Be also aware that the quality of your work (or lack of it) on the AIRWiki will be evaluated by the Teachers and will influence your grades.

Instructions to add a new project are available at [[Projects#HOWTO add a new project to the AIRWiki]]

== HOWTO add a new project to the AIRWiki ==
Contributing to a wiki is easy, and leaves you with a deep sense of satisfaction: by contributing, you are documenting your work in a durable form ''and'' helping all the other users of the wiki as well.

Of course, to contribute you need an '''AIRWiki account''' (the wiki is open only to teachers and students working at the AIRLab): the instructions to get one are on the [[Main Page]]. By the way, a well thought out help for MediaWiki (the software that AIRWiki, or for that matter also Wikipedia and many other websites, is built upon) is available [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents here]. So even if this is your first experience with a wiki, you should not have any problems.
Please note that all the content you insert into the AIRWiki must be written ''in English''.

Here is a complete description of the procedure to create a new page associated to your project: follow its steps carefully, because other contributors do not appreciate when their content is damaged or destroyed by careless people. Be ''very'' careful with that 'Save page' button...

'''Preparing the new project page'''
# open a text editor (e.g. Notepad);
# create a new, empty text file: let's call it ''YourPage.txt'';
# open the [[Project page template]] AIRWiki page with a browser (e.g. Firefox): the internet address is http://airwiki.elet.polimi.it/mediawiki/index.php/Project_page_template;
# click the ''edit'' tab on the top of the [{{fullurl:Project page template|action=edit}} Project page template] to expose the wiki source text;
# copy all the content of the source text window into YourPage.txt, e.g. by using Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. '''Make sure not to cut or alter the source text of the [[Project page template]]! Do NOT click on the 'Save page' button!'''
# close your browser;
# modify the YourPage.txt file by substituting all the example text with information about your project. It is likely that, for the time being, Part 2 of the page (project description) will be empty: after all you just started working on the project, isn't it?

'''Adding the new project to the [[Projects]] page of the AIRWiki'''
# with a browser, open the Projects page: the internet address is http://airwiki.elet.polimi.it/mediawiki/index.php/Projects;
# go to the 'Ongoing projects' section and find the subsection having the name of the research area of your project: e.g. "E-Science" (if you have doubts, ask the teachers);
#choose a name of your liking for the new AIRWiki page dedicated to your project: use a word or a short phrase with only the first letter in capitals (of course you have to choose a name that is coherent with the objectives of the project);
# click the ''edit'' link on the right of the subsection to expose the wiki source text;
# add a new text line with the name of your project and a link to its wiki page: the latter is simply the page name you chose surrounded by double square parentheses (this will create the page when you will click the "Save page" button - DON'T click it now);
# use a blank line to separate the new line from pre-existing text;
#'''be extremely careful not to alter pre-existing text: if you think you could have done that, press the 'back' button of your browser now to exit from the editing page without saving''', then repeat the editing steps;
# click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the page, and look carefully at the whole subsection (not only to the part you added): if it doesn't seem to be ''perfectly right'', press the 'back' button of your browser to exit from the editing page without saving, then repeat the editing;
# when you are certain that all is ok, click the "Save page" button at the bottom of the page.

If you didn't screw up, you should be now (proudly) looking at the description of your project, perfectly set among the others.

Now, clicking on the link to your project's page in the [[Projects]] page of the AIRWiki, you will see one of these:
* the 'edit' tab of an empty page: good, you chose a good name for your page. Proceed to fill the page as described below.
* a non-blank page: argh, you chose an already-used name for your page. Re-edit the Projects page and modify the link (i.e. the name between double square parentheses) you put in it, changing the name of your new page (i.e. again, the name between double square parentheses). As before, click the "Save page" button '''only if and when you are certain that all is ok in the whole page'''.
Go on with this checking and modifying until you find a (sensible!) name that no other project has yet used.

'''Filling the new page'''
# If you are looking at the 'edit' tab of your project's new page, simply open file "YourPage.txt" (you know, the one containing the content for your page, which you prepared before) and copy its entire contents into the page. If not, first use a browser to open your page (the internet address is http://airwiki.elet.polimi.it/mediawiki/index.php/NameOfYourPage) and click on the 'edit' tab on the top of the page.
# click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the page, and look carefully at the result: if it doesn't seem to be right, press the 'back' button of your browser now to exit from the editing page without saving, then repeat the page editing by clicking on the 'edit' tab on the top of the page;
# when you are certain that all is ok, click the "Save page" button at the bottom of the page.

You should now be able to (veeery proudly) see your project's page in its full glory. If you aren't satisfied with the result, just go back to page editing by clicking on the 'edit' tab on the top of the page.

As your work on your project will go on, don't forget to keep your project's page up-to-date by editing it every time you have new material. Remember that for your teachers it will be the main source of information about how your project is going, so they will look at it often and with attention :-)

AIRWiki - User contributions [en]

Particle filter for object tracking

File:Videopf.zip

Particle filter for object tracking

Projects