DynaTracker: Target tracking in active video surveillance systems

Active video surveillance systems provide challenging research issues in the interface of computer vision, pattern recognition and control system analysis. A significant part of such systems is devoted toward active camera control for efficient target tracking. DynaTracker is a pan-tilt device based active camera system for maintaining continuous track of the moving target, while keeping the same at a pre-specified region (typically, the center) of the image. The significant contributions in this work are the use of mean-shift algorithm for visual tracking and the derivation of the error dynamics for a proportional-integral control action. The stability analysis and optimal controller gain selections are performed from the simulation studies of the derived error dynamics. Simulation predictions are also validated from the results of practical experimentations. The present implementation of DynaTracker performs on a standard Pentium IV PC at an average speed of 10 frames per second while operating on color images of 320times240 resolution