Fast tracking of ellipses using edge-projected integration of cues

Commercial applications of ellipse tracking require robustness and real-time capability. The method presented tracks ellipses at field rate using a Pentium PC. Robustness is obtained by integrating gradient and intensity values for the detection of contour edges and by using a RANSAC-like method to find the most likely ellipse. The method adapts to the appearance along the ellipse circumference and effectively separates object from background. Experiments document the capabilities of the approach with real-world examples.