VP-transform: A novel vanishing point-based image transform for enhancement of people localization

The widespread use of vision-based surveillance systems has inspires many research efforts on people localization. In this paper, a novel nonlinear image transform based on the vanishing point of vertical lines, entitled VP-transform, is proposed for enhancement of the people localization scheme proposed in [1]. Utilizing the characteristic that the extensions of vertical lines intersect at a vanishing point, the proposed transformation aims at producing rectified images wherein each standing/walking person will have an upright appearance. Thus, the degradation in localization accuracy, due to deviation of the constraint of camera configuration specified in [1], can be alleviated. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed image transform that significant improvement in people localization can be achieved.