Object tracking circuit using particle filter with multiple features

Object tracking is a challenging problem in a number of computer vision applications. A number of approaches have been proposed and implemented to track moving objects in image sequences. The particle filter, which recursively constructs the posterior probability distributions of the state space, is the most popular approach. In the particle filter, many kinds of features are used for tracking a moving object in cluttered environments. The specific feature for tracking is selected according to the type of moving object and condition of the tracking environment. Improved tracking performance is obtained by using multiple features concurrently. This paper proposes the particle filter algorithm, using multiple features, such as IFD (Inter-Fame Difference) and gray level, to track a moving object. The IFD is used to detect an object and the gray level is used to distinguish the target object from other objects. This paper designs the circuit of the proposed algorithm using VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) in an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) for tracking without considerable computational cost, since the particle filter requests many computing powers to track objects in real-time. All functions of the proposed tracking system are implemented in an FPGA. A tracking system with this FPGA is implemented and the corresponding performance is measured.