Head detection and tracking for the car occupant's pose recognition

Abstract

This paper describes a Vision-based Occupant Pose Recognition (VOPR) system, which can ensure a safe airbag deployment. Head detection and its tracking are necessary for occupant's pose recognition in the car, since the position of occupant's head provides valuable information, such as his pose, size, position, and so on. We use the stereo cameras to extract a disparity map. Against variable lighting conditions including the night drive, we adopt infrared illumination as well as normal one. Results suggest that VOPR system is reliable and performs reasonably well.