MONOCULAR VS BINOCULAR 3D REAL-TIME BALL TRACKING FROM 2D ELLIPSES

Real-Time tracking of elliptical objects, e.g. a ball, is a well studied field. However, the question between a monocular and binocular approach for 3D objects localization is still an open issue. In this work we implemented a real-time algorithm for 3D ball localization and tracking from 2D image ellipse fitting with calibrated cameras. We will exploit both approaches, together with their own characteristics. Our algorithm features the following key features: (1) a real-time video segmentation by means of a Gaussian mixture descriptor; (2) a closed-form ellipse fitting algorithm; and (3) a novel 3D reconstruction algorithm for spheres from the 2D ellipse parameters. We test the algorithm’s performance in several conditions, by performing experiments in virtual scenarios with ground truth. Finally, we show the results of monocular and binocular reconstructions and evaluate the influence of having prior knowledge of the ball’s dimension and the sensitivity of binocular reconstruction to mechanical calibration errors.