ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

Head Tracking and Pose Estimation With a Single Webcam

Heads (and more specifically, faces) play an important role in the way humans perceive and interact with the world and each other, ranging from simply looking around to see different parts of the world to estimating where another person is looking in order to better interpret their speech or actions. As such, it seems obvious that allowing computers to track the location and estimate the pose of a face would allow for much more natural and intuitive interactions in a variety of applications. However, the majority of commercially available systems for achieving this have required specialised optical hardware or irritating head-mounted equipment, which has limited their uptake to dedicated enthusiasts. This thesis investigates the feasibility of a head tracking and pose estimation system that uses a minimum of readily available, consumer-grade hardware: a mid-range PC and a single USB webcam. The aim of this thesis is to produce a system capable of real-time head tracking and pose estimation that could be used by the average user with a minimum of extra effort or expenditure. Potential applications for the system are also investigated, with the goal of producing a program to demonstrate the system’s operation and the new interactions it enables.