3D head tracking using motion adaptive texture-mapping

We have developed a fast robust 3D head tracking system based on rendering a texture-mapped cylinder. In order to handle the variable frame-to-frame motion changes, the system uses motion templates, which adapt to the current size of the motion increment. The relationship between measurable pixel energy and tracking error is used to design the parameters of the adaptive algorithm. To speedup processing and decouple rotational and translational motion, 2D positional information of the neckline is utilize. The confidence at each point is computed based on the amount of information used in creating the texture map and re-rendering the face. The system can also handle large out-of-plane rotations via additional templates. If the tracker fails, it can recover using an independent face detection routine. We compare the results of our approach with the extensive results of a closely related technique.