Pedestrian Localization in a Video Sequence Using Motion Detection and Active Shape Models

Abstract

There is increasing interest in video object detection for many situations, such as industrial processes, surveillance systems, and nature exploration. In this work, we were concerned with the detection of pedestrians in video sequences. The aim was to deal with issues associated with the background, scale, contrast, or resolution of the video frames, which cause inaccurate detection of pedestrians. The proposed method was based on the combination of two techniques: motion detection by background subtraction (MDBS) and active shape models (ASM). The MDBS technique aids in the identification of a moving region of interest in the video sequence, which potentially includes a pedestrian; then, the ASM algorithm actively finds and adjusts the silhouette of the pedestrian. We tested the proposed MDBS + ASM method with video sequences from open repositories, and the results were favorable in scenes where pedestrians were in a well-illuminated environment. The mean fit error was up to 4.5 pixels. In contrast, in scenes where reflections, occlusions, or pronounced movement are present, the identification was slightly affected; the mean fit error was 8.3 pixels in the worst case. The main contribution of this work was exploring the potential of the combination of MDBS and ASM for performance improvements in the contour-based detection of a moving pedestrian walking in a controlled environment. We present a straightforward method based on classical algorithms which have been proven effective for pedestrian detection. In addition, since we were looking for a practical process that could work in real-time applications (for example, closed-circuit television video or surveillance systems), we established our approach with simple techniques.