Real-time monocular human height estimation using bimodal background subtraction

Abstract

A human height is one property used in conjunction with others for person identification. The method of human height estimation, using only one camera and some simple settings on the floor, is proposed to automatically determine the vertical distance of human head from the ground in real-time. Bimodal background subtraction technique helps locate the position of head top and lower foot bottom in each image frame, and the upright distance from the lower foot to the position closest to the head top is defined as the candidate of human height in the corresponding frame. A distribution of all heights estimated so far is finally used to determine the height of human in that frame. The proposed method establishes the range of possible heights from all frames in real-time-this information potentially helps increase the performance of automatic person identification in surveillance system.