Velocity and Disparity Cues for Robust Real-Time Binocular Tracking

Abstract

We have designed and implemented a real-time binocular tracking system which uses two independent cues commonly found in the primary functions of biological visual systems to robustly track moving targets in complex environments, without a-priori knowledge of the target shape or texture: a fast optical flow segmentation algorithm quickly locates independently moving objects for target acquisition and provides a reliable velocity estimate for smooth tracking. In parallel, target position is generated from the output of a zero-disparity filter where a phase-based disparity estimation technique allows dynamic control of the camera vergence do adapt the horopter geometry to the target location. The system takes advantage of the optical properties of our custom-designed foveated wide-angle lenses, which exhibit a wide field of view along with a high resolution fovea. Methods to cope with the distortions introduced by the space-variant resolution, and a robust real-time implementation on a high performance active vision head are presented.