A scheme for ball detection and tracking in broadcast soccer video

In this paper we propose a scheme for ball detection and tracking in broadcast soccer video. There are two alternate procedures in the scheme: ball detection and ball tracking. In ball detection procedure, ball candidates are first extracted from several consecutive frames using color, shape, and size cues. Then a weighted graph is constructed, with each node representing a candidate and each edge linking two candidates in adjacent frames. Finally, Viterbi algorithm is employed to extract the optimal path as ball's locations. In ball tracking procedure, Kalman filter based template matching is utilized to track the ball in subsequent frames. Kalman filter and the template are initialized using detection results. In each tracking step, ball location is verified to update the template and to guide possible ball re-detection. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is promising.