A mutual information approach to articulated object tracking

A mutual information based articulated object tracking scheme is proposed in this paper. Articulation constraints are introduced using a kinematic model. Further constraints are introduced based on the human joint anatomy and flexibility. The tracking scheme is enhanced by using the tracked object texture map image. The tracking history is incorporated in the tracking scheme by using a temporal model or a Kalman filtering scheme. The Kalman filtering scheme greatly enhances the tracking scheme provided the suitable initial conditions are set. The resulting system was tested on arm and finger tracking cases using real image sequences.