Title: Attention region detection and tracking for observing a person manipulating day-to-day objects

Authors: Kotaro Nagahama; Tomohiro Nishino; Kimitoshi Yamazaki; Kei Okada; Masayuki Inaba

Addresses: Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bukyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan ' Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bukyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan ' Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, 1-14-7, Wakasato, Nagano, Nagano, Japan ' Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bukyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan ' Department of Creative Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bukyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract: This paper presents a method for robots tracking multiple important regions with proper resolution while the robot is observing a person in daily environments. The system consists of a visual function to track end points and a composite vision system. The visual function uses 'continuous disparity filtering' that is an expansion of zero disparity iltering and other evaluation functions to track a person's head, hands and tips of tools. Besides, we developed a composite vision head with wide-angle cameras and zoom-enabled stereo cameras. We tested the visual function and the vision system by experiments to track a human head and hands, and to change the attention position to be captured with high resolution. These results showed the effectiveness of our approach.

Keywords: observation; gaze control; end points; multiple targets; composite vision system; zoom enabled cameras; daily environment; robot tracking; continuous disparity filtering; mechatronics; attention region detection; object manipulation; day-to-day objects; robot vision.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2013.052615

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2013 Vol.3 No.1, pp.58 - 67

Received: 05 Apr 2012
Accepted: 26 Jul 2012
Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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