A Modified Expansion-Contraction Method for Mobile Object Tracking in Video Surveillance: Indoor Environment

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the fields of video surveillance and mobile object tracking. This paper proposes a mobile object tracking algorithm. First, several parameters such as object window, object area, and expansion-contraction (E-C) parameter are defined. Then, a modified E-C algorithm for multiple-object tracking is presented. The proposed algorithm tracks moving objects by expansion and contraction of the object window. In addition, it includes methods for updating the background image and avoiding occlusion of the target image. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified experimentally. For example, the first scenario traces the path of two people walking in opposite directions in a hallway, whereas the second one is conducted to track three people in a group of four walkers.