360 tracking using a virtual PTZ camera

Object tracking using still or PTZ cameras is a hard task for large spaces and needs several devices to completely cover the area or to track multiple subjects. The introduction of 360° camera technology offers a complete view of the scene in a single image and can be useful to reduce the number of devices needed in the tracking problem. In this paper we present a framework using 360 cameras to simulate an unlimited number of PTZ cameras and to be used for tracking. The proposed method to track a single target process an equirectangular view of the scene and obtains a model of the moving object in the image plane. The target is tracked analyzing the next frame of the video sequence and estimating the P,T and Z shifts needed to keep the target in the center of the virtual camera view. The framework allows to use a single 360° device to obtain an equirectangular video sequence and to apply the proposed tracking strategy on each target simulating several virtual PTZ cameras.