Moving Cast Shadow Detection

Moving shadow detection is an important topic in computer vision applications, including video conference, vehicle tracking, and three-dimensional (3-D) object identification, and has been actively investigated in recent years. Because, in real world scenes, moving cast shadows may be detected as foreground object and plauge the moving objects segmentation. For example, in traffic surveillance situation, shadows cast by moving vehicles may be segmented as part of vehicles, which not only interfere with the size and shape information but also generate occlusions (as Fig. 1 illustrates). At the same time, moving cast shadow detection can provide reference information to the understanting of the illumination in the scenes. Therefore, an effective shadow detection algorithm can greatly benefit the practical image analysis system.