A new algorithm for robust pedestrian tracking based on manifold learning and feature selection

Abstract

Manifold learning has been a popular method in many areas such as classification and recognition. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for pedestrian tracking based on our previous work on manifold learning. A new kind of manifold subspace is introduced, in which the intrinsic features of the target's motion can be best preserved, and the dimensionality of feature is very low. In the proposed subspace, variations of continuous pedestrian postures can be represented well by these intrinsic features. This also validates our conjecture that the movement of pedestrians can be described by some intrinsic and low-dimensional features, which are significant for tracking. Although intrinsic features are useful for tracking, algorithms that directly apply intrinsic features could not guarantee stable performance due to the influence from a complicated background. To address this issue, a foreground extraction method is introduced to enhance tracking stability by selecting the most discriminative color features to automatically distinguish the foreground from the candidate image. This preprocessing stage is proven to promote the accuracy of low-dimensional feature representation in pedestrian tracking. The whole tracking procedure, particularly dimensionality reduction, is linear and fast without complicated calculations. The experimental results validate the effectiveness of our algorithm under challenging conditions, such as a complex background, various pedestrian postures, and even occlusion. © 2011 IEEE.