Design and implementation of high-speed visual tracking system for real-time motion analysis

This paper describes the design and the implementation of a high-speed visual tracking system based on local correlation matching. The system consists of only two PC board modules, which conform to VME bus specifications. The video module is used to input and output video signals, while the tracking module is used to perform visual tracking with the local correlation method. The tracking module contains three frame memories, an image flow controller, a DMA controller for image data transfer, and a dedicated LSI to perform the correlation matching of 8-bit gray-scale images. The processing time is 110 microseconds for an 8×8 pixel template and 290 microseconds for a 16×16 pixel template. This paper also describes some of our experimental implementations, including human tracking, recognition of hand movements and signs, and traffic monitoring. Compared to conventional general-purpose image processing systems, our hardware system is compact and inexpensive. This high-performance system can be used for a wide variety of motion analysis applications