US 11,775,615 B2
System and method for tracking detected objects
Hsu-kuang Chiu, Mountain View, CA (US); Jie Li, Los Altos, CA (US); Rares A. Ambrus, San Francisco, CA (US); and Christin Jeannette Bohg, Palo Alto, CA (US)
Assigned to Toyota Research Institute, Inc., Stanford (CA); and The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US)
Filed by Toyota Research Institute, Inc., Los Altos, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 28, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/242,498.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/121,307, filed on Dec. 4, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0180117 A1, Jun. 9, 2022
Int. Cl. G06K 9/00 (2022.01); G06F 18/22 (2023.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01); G06V 20/64 (2022.01); G06F 18/25 (2023.01); G06F 18/213 (2023.01)
CPC G06F 18/22 (2023.01) [G06F 18/213 (2023.01); G06F 18/25 (2023.01); G06N 3/08 (2013.01); G06V 20/64 (2022.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for tracking detected objects comprising:
a processor;
a memory in communication with the processor, the memory having a feature fusion module, a distance combination module, a matching module, and a track initialization module;
the feature fusion module includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to merge features of detected objects extracted from a point cloud and a corresponding image to generate fused features for the detected objects;
the distance combination module includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to generate a learned distance metric for the detected objects using the fused features at a current time, fused features at a prior time, and Mahalanobis distances indicating distances between positions, orientations, and scales of detected objects at the current time and predicted positions, orientations, and scales of the detected objects determined at the prior time;
the matching module includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine matched detected objects and unmatched detected objects, wherein the matched detected objects are detected objects at the current time that have been matched with detected objects at the prior time based on the learned distance metric;
the matching module includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to apply prior tracking identifiers of the detected objects at the prior time to the matched detected objects; and
the track initialization module includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine a confidence score for the fused features of the unmatched detected objects and apply new tracking identifiers to the unmatched detected objects based on the confidence score.