We present a simple and efficient algorithm for determining the position of static occluding bodies within a scene viewed by one or more static cameras. All information about the occluding bodies is derived from the perimeter of a figure moving through the scene. Once the positions of the occlusions are learned, successful reasoning about the observability of future figures in the scene is demonstrated. The method is extended to derive an estimate of the 3D position of the occluding bodies from multiple views. Several experimental results are described.

When designing a mobile robotic team, an engineer is faced with many design choices. This paper discusses the design of a team consisting of two different models of robots with significantly different sensing and control capabilities intended to accomplish a similar task. Two new robotic platforms, the COTS Scout and the MegaScout are described along with their respective design considerations.

In this paper, we introduce a novel method for employing image-based rendering to extend the range of use of human motion recognition systems. We demonstrate the use of image-based rendering to generate additional training sets for view-dependent human motion recognition systems. Input views orthogonal to the direction of motion are created automatically to construct the proper view from a combination of non-orthogonal views taken from several cameras. To extend motion recognition systems, image-based rendering can be utilized in two ways: (i) to generate additional training sets for these systems containing a large number of non-orthogonal views, and (ii) to generate orthogonal views (the views those systems are trained to recognize) from a combination of non-orthogonal views taken from several cameras. In this case, image-based rendering is used to generate views orthogonal to the mean direction of motion. We tested the method using an existing view-dependent human motion recognition system on two different sequences of motion, and promising initial results were obtained.