1. Introduction 3 Moving Cast Shadow Detection.pdfVIP

3Moving Cast Shadow Detection Wei Zhang1, Q.M. Jonathan Wu1 and Xiangzhong Fang2 University of Windsor1, Shanghai Jiao Tong University2 Canada1, China2 1. Introduction Moving shadow detection is an important topic in computer vision applications, including video conference, vehicle tracking, and three-dimensional (3-D) object identification, and has been actively investigated in recent years. Because, in real world scenes, moving cast shadows may be detected as foreground object and plauge the moving objects segmentation. For example, in traffic surveillance situation, shadows cast by moving vehicles may be segmented as part of vehicles, which not only interfere with the size and shape information but also generate occlusions (as Fig. 1 illustrates). At the same time, moving cast shadow detection can provide reference information to the understanting of the illumination in the scenes. Therefore, an effective shadow detection algorithm can greatly benefit the practical image analysis system. Fig. 1. Examples of moving cast shadows. Source: Vision Systems: Segmentation and Pattern Recognition, ISBN 987-3-902613-05-9, Edited by: Goro Obinata and Ashish Dutta, pp.546, I-Tech, Vienna, Austria, June 2007 Vision Systems - Segmentation and Pattern Recognition 48 Fig. 2. Illumination model of moving cast shadows: the umbra, penumbra, and geometric relationship. Essentially, shadow is formed by the change of illumination conditions and shadow detection comes down to a problem of finding the illumination invariant features. From the viewpoint of geometric relationship, shadow can be divided into umbra and penumbra (Stander et al., 1999). The umbra corresponds to the background area where the direct light is almost totally blocked by the foreground object, whereas in the penumbra area, the light is partially blocked (as Fig. 2 illustrates). From the viewpoint of motion property, shadow can be divided into static shadow and dynamic shadow. Static shad