Statistically tuned Gaussian background subtraction technique for UAV videos

Abstract

Background subtraction is one of the efficient techniques to segment the targets from non-informative background of a video. The traditional background subtraction technique suits for videos with static background whereas the video obtained from unmanned aerial vehicle has dynamic background. Here, we propose an algorithm with tuning factor and Gaussian update for surveillance videos that suits effectively for aerial videos. The tuning factor is optimized by extracting the statistical features of the input frames. With the optimized tuning factor and Gaussian update an adaptive Gaussian-based background subtraction technique is proposed. The algorithm involves modelling, update and subtraction phases. This running Gaussian average based background subtraction technique uses updation at both model generation phase and subtraction phase. The resultant video extracts the moving objects from the dynamic background. Sample videos of various properties such as cluttered background, small objects, moving background and multiple objects are considered for evaluation. The technique is statistically compared with frame differencing technique, temporal median method and mixture of Gaussian model and performance evaluation is done to check the effectiveness of the proposed technique after optimization for both static and dynamic videos.