Object tracking in surveillance videos using compressed domain features from scalable bit-streams

Recent developments in the video coding technology brought new possibilities of utilising inherently embedded features of the encoded bit-stream in applications such as video adaptation and analysis. Due to the proliferation of surveillance videos there is a strong demand for highly efficient and reliable algorithms for object tracking. This paper presents a new approach for the fast compressed domain analysis utilising motion data from the encoded bit-streams in order to achieve low-processing complexity of object tracking in the surveillance videos. The algorithm estimates the trajectory of video objects by using compressed domain motion vectors extracted directly from standard H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) and Scalable Video Coding (SVC) bit-streams. The experimental results show comparable tracking precision when evaluated against the standard algorithms in uncompressed domain, while maintaining low computational complexity and fast processing time, thus making the algorithm suitable for real time and streaming applications where good estimates of object trajectories have to be computed fast.