Abstract
A real-time object tracking system with stereo vision and an image processing method on a PC-based platform was developed. We designed the experimental setup by combining two binocular webcams which can perform pan and tilt, independently. First, the binocular webcams intercept the paired-images simultaneously, then the system separates the target object and the background from the paired-images by an image processing method. Finally, the system locates the target object by using the paired-images for stereo matching. After camera calibration and measuring the difference between the target object and the optical axes, the system can calculate the depth between the target object and the webcams, then commands the webcams to track the object in real-time. There are two experimental verifications were performed. The first experiment is the reconstruction of a three-dimensional stereo vision from 2-D images. The objective of this part is to calculate the distance between the webcams and the target object. We try to simplify the paired-images by using various image processing methods at the outset. Measuring the difference between the paired-images in order to calculate the depth of the target object and discussing every possible reason that could have caused the error between the result and the correct data in the end. The second experiment is a real-time image tracking system. The objective of this experiment is to command the webcams rotating in the direction of the target object. By applying the moving target shifting method, we measure the geometric center of the target object and let the webcams rotate in the direction of the target object.