Design and development of automated 3D visual tracking system

Abstract

Camera‐based systems are frequently used to track moving objects which are in the field of their view. This paper describes design and development of a camerabased visual system that can constantly track a moving object without the necessity of calibrating the camera in real world coordinates. This reduces the complexity of the system and processing time due to unnecessary conversions and calibrations. The system consists of a two‐motor pan‐tilt camera driving mechanism, PCI image acquisition board, and PWM‐based DC‐motor driver board. It uses image processing techniques to identify and locate the object in the 3D scene and motion control algorithms to direct the camera towards the object. Thus the objective of the project is to develop a vision system and control algorithms which can be locked on a moving object within the field of its view. The developed software and related interface hardware monitor and control the motors in such a way that the moving object should always be located right at the center of the camera image plane. The system, in general, simulates the 3D motion of the human eye which always tends to focus on a moving object within the range of its view. It actually imitates the tracking ability of human eye.

Key words:

• image processing
• object recognition
• motion control

Notes

Based on an awarded paper presented at Automation 2005, the 8th international conference on automation technology, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C. during May 5–6, 2005.

Corresponding author. (Email: [email protected])