Module #1: A Basic Surveillance System
Week #3: Optimization-Based Data Association
Performing detection does provide a means to identify objects of interest versus the prevailing background image. However if we are interested in maintaining the identity of the objects, additional processing and logic is required. The simplest scheme simply considers the spatio-temporal history of the targets and tries to link the current detected objects to the previously detected objects. This form of data association is known as the assignment problem.
The classic algorithms for performing the assignment are the www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/20652-hungarian-algorithm-for-linear-assignment-problems--v2-3-|Hungarian or Munkres' algorithm]] and Jonker-Volgenant Algorithm. Another paper a few years ago looked at a different version of the assignment problem based on “stable marriage” selection. All of them seek a solution to the assignment problem, but do so in different ways.
Incorporate the assignment component into your surveillance system. The net result should be similar to this Matlab demo on multiple object tracking, which also implements far more than what is described. You should strip the extras. You'll get there, but I want for you to see the role that each component plays. Yes, Matlab gives almost all of the answer, but that's not the point. At least not for me.
Explore and Deliverables: Run your surveillance system on the two videos selected plus the mandatory one from earlier weeks, both with and without the assignment problem. Turn in how many people there really were, plus how many the two versions of the system claimed there were at the end of the video, or at the end of the processing. Comment on whether the identity tracking appeared to improve the system's ability to maintain the identity of the targets.