Visual tracking using Snake for object´s discrete motion

An active contour model, Snake, as a useful segmenting and tracking tool for rigid or non-rigid (deformable) objects, was developed by Kass (1987). Snake was designed on the basis of Snake energies. Segmenting and tracking can be executed successfully by the process of energy minimization. Kass´ Snake can be applied to the case of small changes between images because its solutions can be achieved on the basis of variational approach. If a somewhat fast moving object exists in successive images, Kass´ Snake will operates not well because the moving object may have large differences in its position or form between successive images. Snake´s nodes may fall into the local minima in their motion to the new positions of the target object in next image. When the motion is too large to apply image flow energy for tracking, a jump mode is proposed for solving the problem. The vector used to make Snake´s nodes jump to a new location can be obtained by processing the image flow. The effectiveness of the proposed Snake is confirmed by simulations.