Title: GPS-based visual tracking for Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera in a ubiquitous camera environment

Authors: Hsien-Chou Liao; Heng-Chi Lin

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, No. 168, Gifong E. Road, Wufong District, Taichung, Taiwan ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, No. 168, Gifong E. Road, Wufong District, Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract: The installation of cameras is becoming evermore pervasive, especially in urban areas. In response to this Ubiquitous Camera (UbiCam) environment, a new service, called GPS-based Visual Tracking (GPS-VT), incorporating the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the visual tracking function, was proposed in our previous study, whereby an object can be tracked when it is within any field-of-view (FOV) of any wide-angle camera according to its real-time GPS coordinates. To realise GPS-VT on a Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) camera, a new approach is now proposed in this paper. This approach includes the calibration of the PTZ camera, the transformation of GPS coordinates to pan, tilt and zoom values, and the incorporation of an image-based tracker for the precise tracking of the target object. A prototype system is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of GPS-VT for the PTZ camera.

Keywords: location-based services; object tracking; camera calibration; mobile computing; ubiquitous computing; visual tracking; global positioning systems; GPS; wide-angle cameras; localisation; pan; tilt; zoom; PTZ cameras.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2012.050432

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2012 Vol.11 No.4, pp.225 - 236

Accepted: 15 Jul 2011
Published online: 22 Nov 2012 *

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