Sensors, Vol. 19, Pages 5114: Robust Detection of Abandoned Object for Smart Video Surveillance in Illumination Changes (Sensors)

Most existing abandoned object detection algorithms use foreground information generated from background models. Detection using the background subtraction technique performs well under normal circumstances. However, it has a significant problem where the foreground information is gradually absorbed into the background as time passes and disappears, making it very vulnerable to sudden illumination changes that increase the false alarm rate. This paper presents an algorithm for detecting abandoned objects using a dual background model, which is robust even in illumination changes as well as other complex circumstances like occlusion, long-term abandonment, and owner re-attendance. The proposed algorithm can adapt quickly to various illumination changes. And also, it can precisely track the target objects to determine whether it is abandoned regardless of the existence of foreground information and the effect from the illumination changes, thanks to the largest-contour-based presence authentication mechanism proposed in this paper. For performance evaluation, we trialed the algorithm with the PETS2006, ABODA datasets as well as our dataset, especially to demonstrate its robustness in various illumination changes.