Indirect tracking to reduce occlusion problems

Abstract

There exist many infrared inside-out 6-DOF pose tracking configurations with cameras mounted rigidly to the environment. In such a setup, tracking is inherently impossible for IR targets inside/below/behind other opaque objects (occlusion problem). We present a solution for the integration of an additional, mobile IR tracking system to overcome this problem. The solution consists of an indirect tracking setup where the stationary cameras track the mobile cameras which in turn track the target. Accuracy problems that are inherent to such an indirect tracking setup, are tackled by an error correction mechanism based on reference points in the scene that are known to both tracking systems. An evaluation demonstrates that, in naive indirect tracking without error correction, the major source of error consists in a wrong detection of orientation of the mobile system and that this source of error can be practically eliminated by our error correction mechanisms. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.