A New Adaptive Zoom Algorithm for Tracking Targets Using Pan-Tilt-Zoom Cameras

We present a new method to adaptively configure the focal-length of a pan-tilt-zoom camera to track a point target with improved accuracy. The target tracker is implemented by using a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter. The focal-length of the camera is configured to include a time varying percentage of the projected particles on the camera image plane. The performance of the adaptive zoom algorithm was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations and found to significantly reduce tracking errors compared to a previous method presented by the same authors