Efficient parallel implementation of Gaussian Mixture Model background subtraction algorithm on an embedded multi-core Digital Signal Processor

Abstract

Scene segmentation is crucial in video processing applications, such as vehicle detection. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based background subtraction (BS) is a widely employed technique for scene segmentation. However, due to its high computational demands, an efficient parallel implementation is necessary. This paper proposes a parallelized implementation of the GMM algorithm on the C6678 digital signal processor (DSP), utilizing its eight cores. Three different parallelization approaches are presented: Open Multiprocessing (OpenMP), manually optimized method, and manually optimized method involving Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine. To evaluate their effectiveness, a metrics comparison is conducted using background truth images provided by the literature dataset references. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed manually optimized method surpasses the current state-of-the-art. It achieves a remarkable parallel efficiency of approximately 99% for low and medium frame sizes and 83% and 79% for high-definition (HD) and full-HD resolution frames, respectively, when all eight cores are enabled. In contrast, the parallel efficiency obtained using OpenMP is only 45%.