ELITE: A goal oriented vision system for moving objects detection

SUMMARY A specially designed system for movement monitoring is here presented. The system has a two level architecture. At the first level, a hardware processor analyses in real-time the images provided by a set of standard TV cameras and, using a technique based on the convolution operator, recognizes in each frame objects that have a specific shape. The coordinates of these objects are fed to a computer, the second level of the system, that analyses the movement of these objects with the aid of a set of rules representing the knowledge of the context. The system was extensively tested on the field and the main results are reported. The whole system can work as a controlling device in robotics or as a general real-time image processor as well as an automatic movement analyser in biomechanics, orthopedic and neurological medicine.