Automatic Tracking of Multiple Pedestrians with Group Formation and Occlusions

This work addresses the problem of automatic tracking of pedestrians observed by a fixed camera in outdoor scenes. Tracking isolated pedestrians is not a difficult task. The challenge arises when the tracking system has to deal with temporary occlusions and groups of pedestrians. In both cases it is not possible to track each pedestrian during the whole video sequence. However, the system should be able to recognize each pedestrian as soon as he/she becomes visible and isolated from the group. This paper presents methods to tackle these difficulties. The proposed system is based on a hierarchical approach which allows the application of the same methods for tracking isolated pedestrians and groups.