Pedestrian Tracking Using Single-row Laser Range Scanners

In this research, we propose a novel method of monitoring and tracking pedestrians in wide and open area, such as shopping mall and exhibition hall, using a number of laser range scanners (LD-A). LD-A, produced by IBEO Lasertechnik, is a single-row type laser range scanner with a high profiling rate of lOHz and wide viewing angle of 270 degree. LD-As are set on the ground doing horizontal scanning, so that horizontal cross sections of the surroundings, containing moving legs of pedestrians as well as still objects, are obtained in a rectangular coordinate system of real dimension. Each LD-A is controlled by a client computer, which gathers laser data, extracts the data of moving objects by background subtraction, and sends them to a server computer through network. The server computer synchronizes all client computers, integrates the data of moving objects from client computers to a global coordinate system, and tracks trajectories by identifying the pattern of moving legs. An experiment is conducted in Tokyo BigSite to monitor the pedestrian's movement in an exhibition hall, where three LD-As are used, and trajectories of more than 50 pedestrians are tracked simultaneously.