Automatic object extraction

Abstract

A method for automatic, stable and robust object extraction of moving objects in color video frames, achieved without any prior knowledge of the video content. For high rate video, the method includes providing at least a first and a second high frame rate video frames, performing a reciprocal illumination correction of the first and second video frames to yield respective first and second smoothed frames, performing a change detection operation between the first and second smoothed frames to obtain a difference image, and performing a local adaptive thresholding operation on the difference image to generate a binary image containing extracted objects, the local thresholding operation using a weight test to determine a boundary of each of the extracted objects. For an extracted object with a fragmented boundary, the method further comprises re-unifying the boundary. For low rate video, additional steps include: an edge correction applied on the first image to yield a first edge-corrected image, a global thresholding applied to the first edge-corrected image to yield a first binary edge image, and an ANDing operation on the difference image and the first binary edge image to generate a second binary image which is fed to the local adaptive thresholding operation.