Abstract

A new apparatus and method for tracking a moving object with a moving camera provides a real-time, narrow field-of-view, high resolution and on target image by combining commanded motion with an optical flow algorithm for deriving motion and classifying background. Commanded motion means that movement of the pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) unit is “commanded” by a computer, instead of being observed by the camera, so that the pan, tilt and zoom parameters are known, as opposed to having to be determined, significantly reducing the computational requirements for tracking a moving object. The present invention provides a single camera pan and tilt system where the known pan and tilt rotations are used to calculate predicted optical flow points in sequential images, so that resulting apparent movement can be subtracted from the movement determined by an optical flow algorithm to determine actual movement, following by use of a Kalman filter algorithm to predict subsequent locations of a determined moving object and command the pan and tilt unit to point the camera in that direction.

Document Type

Patent

Status

Issued

Issue Date

7-4-2017

Patent Number

US 9696404 B1 [9,696,404]

CPC Classification

G01S3/7864

Application number

14/705922

Assignees

Government of the United States, as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, DC (US)

Filing Date

5-16-2015

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