Automatic tracking of an object of interest in a video sequence is a task that has been much researched. Difficulties include varying scale of the object, rotation and object appearance changing over time, thus leading to tracking failures. Different tracking methods, such as short-term tracking often fail if the object steps out of the camera’s field of view, or changes shape rapidly. Also, small inaccuracies in the tracking method can accumulate over time, which can lead to tracking drift. Long-term tracking is also problematic, partly due to updating and degradation of the object model, leading to incorrectly classified and tracked objects.

This master’s thesis implements a long-term tracking framework called Tracking-Learning-Detection which can learn and adapt, using so called P/N-learning, to changing object appearance over time, thus making it more robust to tracking failures. The framework consists of three parts; a tracking module which follows the object from frame to frame, a learning module that learns new appearances of the object, and a detection module which can detect learned appearances of the object and correct the tracking module if necessary.

This tracking framework is evaluated on thermal infrared videos and the results are compared to the results obtained from videos captured within the visible spectrum. Several important differences between visual and thermal infrared tracking are presented, and the effect these have on the tracking performance is evaluated.

In conclusion, the results are analyzed to evaluate which differences matter the most and how they affect tracking, and a number of different ways to improve the tracking are proposed.