A particle filtering approach to salient video object localization

Abstract

We describe a novel fully automatic algorithm for identifying salient objects in video based on their motion. Spatially coherent clusters of optical flow vectors are sampled to generate estimates of affine motion parameters local to super-pixels identified within each frame. These estimates, combined with spatial data, form coherent point distributions in a 5D solution space corresponding to objects or parts there-of. These distributions are temporally denoised using a particle filtering approach, and clustered to estimate the position and motion parameters of salient moving objects in the clip. We demonstrate localization of salient object/s in a variety of clips exhibiting moving and cluttered backgrounds.