Color-based tracking of heads and other mobile objects at video frame rates

We develop a simple and very fast method for object tracking based exclusively on color information in digitized video images. Running on a Silicon Graphics R4600 Indy system with an IndyCam, our algorithm is capable of simultaneously tracking objects at full frame size (640 x 480 pixels) and video frame rate (30 fps). Robustness with respect to occlusion is achieved via an explicit hypothesis-tree model of the occlusion process. We demonstrate the efficacy of our technique in the challenging task of tracking people, especially tracking human heads and hands.