Motion tracking webcam software?

[Ackmey]

Heya

Not motion detection - I need something that can track a specific object; ideally locate where on the screen it's situated, and even more ideally, be able to tilt and pan without losing track of the object.

This is for a ballistics project, I'm planning on using two webcams in tandem to triangulate a distance... will this be terribly inefficient, and are there other options? Ultrasound would be nice but probably costly, so I'm not sure... I'm also thinking it may be possible to measure the distance of something like a bright red ball using its size; the bigger the closer.

Any help?

Also, scary number of subforums, wasn't too sure where to post... hope this isn't too far off. :P

Thanks!

 

[Ackmey]

Okay, so I realized the reason I couldn't find any decent software was that I was searching for "webcam motion detectors" rather than trackers. I tested out a few things, lots of fun but they lose accuracy after only a few meters. It may have to do with the lightning conditions (dark in here) but regardless, I don't have a lot of hope for this - I want to get the longest range I possibly can. So, for now disregarding webcams, does anyone have any other ideas for motion tracking - just object detection, really; being able to just recognize a green ball in an area would be great.

For now, I'm going to go try and light the room up more, I'm kind of limited by the fact that I'm on this pc though.

Thanks for any help. :)

EDIT: I'm thinking just writing a simple program, arrow keys to control webcam, center on an object, center other webcam on an object, and there you go.

Also, I know I'm basically just talking to myself, but see I got somewhere! ^^

 

[The Geoff]

OpenCV is the place to start, it's a collection of libraries, mostly in C++, for recognising and tracking objects. Be warned though, for this kind of thing you're generally going to need a fairly powerful machine for anything other than a proof of concept. I've managed to get my netbook (1.66GHz with a Gig of RAM) to recognise hand gestures, and track movements through the webcam, but it's not practical for anything other than showing off a bit.