Content-aware H.264 encoding for traffic video tracking applications

The compression of video can reduce the accuracy of tracking algorithms, which is problematic for centralized applications that rely on remotely captured and compressed video for input. We show the effects of high compression on the features commonly used in real-time video object tracking. We propose a computationally efficient Region of Interest (ROI) extraction method, which is used during standard-compliant H.264 encoding to concentrate bitrate on regions in video most likely to contain objects of tracking interest (vehicles). This algorithm is shown to significantly increase tracking accuracy, which is measured by employing a commonly used automatic tracker.