Hierarchical GMM to handle sharp changes in moving object detection

The Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is an important background model of background subtraction methods in moving object detection, and is fit to deal with gradual changes of illumination. To handle sharp changes, hierarchical GMM (HGMM) is proposed as a generic solution which uses state models without temporal correlation on different scales. A new on-line EM algorithm is devised to model new states quickly and accurately. Experiments show that the presented method brings fast adaptation to sharp changes of illumination.