Object-Tracker

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Object-Tracker One - Product description

Object Tracker One  is innovative software for implementing a motion picture processing system with one camera. This system will acquire situations with a digital camera, analyze the resulting image streams, archive images, and act -- if required -- upon the situation, in real-time!

The software can be applied in a variety of tasks where if can support or even replace a human operator. Typical applications are found in the areas of surveillance and safety, process automation, and behavioral analysis, and in any other areas where the motion of objects or persons is to be registered, analyzed, and tracked.

Video sources

Object Tracker One  acquires situations with a stationary camera (WebCam, Network-Camera, analog camera + frame-grabber). The used camera must supply a Video for Windows (VfW) or Windows Driver Model (WDM) compatible software interface. Data files in AVI or MPEG format may be used as video sources as well. In addition, the program can connect to a remote Object Tracker installation on another computer via TCP/IP and use the remote video-data as input.

Tracking technology

Object Tracker One  registers objects with motion and tracks these objects from one image to the next. During this process, a dynamic model of the tracked target (the target model) is created and maintained, which includes variables such as target position, target motion vector, and target size. This target model supports robust tracking and facilitates simultaneous tracking of several objects.

Sensitiv regions

Target models interact with user defined sensitive regions (rectangles, circles, polygons, lines). The user can define these regions graphically in the region editor.

Events

The interaction of target models with regions creates events. OnEnter events are created when targets enter a sensitive region, OnExit events when they leave sensitive regions, and OnInside events when they remain inside a region for a certain amount of time. There are other events that are created when targets cross sensitive lines, when regions change texture, or when timers expire.

Actions and alarms

Every event can be linked to a list of actions and alarms, which will be triggered when the event occurs. Object-Tracker 1 implements 16 action/alarm types, among them:

• Increment counter

• Output an acoustic signal (wav-file, midi-tone)

• Output synthetic speech (2)

• Start an application

• Save current image (BMP of JPG format)

• Record image sequence (AVI format)

• Send messages to network-PCs

• Send emails (with attachments)

• Control periphery systems via serial bus (RS232, RS485)

• Control other programs

Database

All events are stored in a local relational database that can be synchronized with an external database on the same or on a remote machine. This approach enables the processing and joint analysis of data from several Object Tracker installations.

Reports

Object Tracker One  can generate reports in HTML or MS-Word format. The user may configure reports to include a detailed description of events, images and videos of the situation, and analysis of the data.

Communication

Object Tracker One  can communicate with other installations of the same software via a TCP/IP network. This enables, for example, the transfer of image data, or the remote control of an installation.

Additional utilities

Object Tracker One  features additional functions that facilitate surveillance applications: A scheduler allows the definition of active times of tracking and recording functions and deletion of archives. A sophisticated scene background model will adjust (to a certain degree) to camera motion and changes in scene illumination.

User interface

The user may configure a basic Object Tracker One  application in 5 steps via a graphical interface. To do so, the user must define a session, which includes: (1.) select and configure a video source, (2.) define sensitive regions, (3.) select events, (4.) select and define actions, and (5.) define a schedule of the observation. All session configuration parameters are stored in a file and can be retrieved again if required.

Applications

Object Tracker One can be configured for a variety of applications in which it is important to detect and characterize the motion of objects/persons. Potential areas of application are:

• office buildings, homes, vacation homes

• entrance halls, staircases,

• industrial complexes, storage areas,

• car parks, garages,

• hotels, banks, supermarkets, shopping malls

• public areas, schools, zoo's,

• sports complexes, sports events,

• stations, bus-stops,

• traffic monitoring/control, tunnels,

• process-automation, quality control,

• behavioral analysis of humans and animals,

• scientific applications,

• and others.

Minimum system requirements

• PC with 266 MHz-Processor (Pentium III with MMX recommended)

• 32 MB Memory for the application

• 10 MB free hard disk space for program components, additional space for data

• SVGA graphic card (800x 600), 256 colors, or higher

• Microsoft Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP

• Video for Windows

• Recommended: MS-DirectX version 8 or higher

Development and distribution

Object Tracker Technologies

Tel            +43 650 8655606
Fax           +43 1 8655404
Adresse     CompanyAddress
Info            info@object-tracker.com
Web          www.object-tracker.com

 

(1) Real-time performance depends on the system on which Object-Tracker is installed
(2) Synthetic speech output requires the installation of a Microsoft SAPI compatible speech engine