Object Tracking
Definition
Frame-by-frame identification of a target (person, vehicle, or object) across a video sequence, recording its position and trajectory. Used to reconstruct movement through a scene or across multiple camera views.
- Unit of analysis
- Frame-by-frame position of a target
- Target types
- Person, vehicle, or object
- Output
- Position and trajectory over the sequence
- Use case
- Reconstructing movement across a scene or multiple cameras
Common questions
What makes object tracking across multiple CCTV cameras harder than within one camera's feed?+
Each camera has its own clock, frame rate, resolution and field of view, so the tracked object must be re-identified by appearance when it exits one camera's view and enters another, and any timestamp used to link the two sequences must first be corrected for clock drift between the devices.
Can automated object tracking software be relied on without human review in court?+
Automated trackers can lose or swap a target during occlusion, poor lighting or crowd crossing, producing a trajectory that silently jumps to the wrong object. Forensic use typically requires a trained analyst to verify the tracked path frame by frame rather than accepting the software's output unreviewed.
How does object tracking differ from simple motion detection in video analysis?+
Motion detection flags that something changed between frames, without identifying what moved or following it over time. Object tracking maintains the identity of a specific target across the sequence, producing a continuous trajectory rather than isolated motion events.
Related terms
- Colour Calibration
- The process of correcting a camera's colour rendering to match a known standard, using a colour reference chart captured under the same...
- De-Interlacing
- The process of reconstructing a full progressive frame from the two interlaced fields captured by analogue video systems. Different algorithms (line doubling,...
- Multi-Frame Averaging
- A noise reduction technique that registers multiple frames of the same scene and averages pixel values. Random noise, which differs between frames,...
- Super-Resolution
- Methods that attempt to produce an image with higher pixel density than the source. Interpolation-based SR fills in values by estimation; learning-based...
- Temporal Synchronisation
- The process of aligning the timelines of two or more camera recordings so that events captured from different viewpoints can be placed...