Pavan Kumar Vangala
Independent Researcher
India
Abstract
This manuscript presents a comprehensive study on real-time object tracking using OpenCV and Haar cascades, focusing exclusively on technologies and methodologies available up to 2015. Object tracking in real time is critical for numerous engineering applications—ranging from automated surveillance to robotics navigation. Leveraging the Viola–Jones framework for rapid object detection and subsequent tracking, we examine multiple case studies where Haar-like features and AdaBoost classifiers yield robust performance on resource-constrained hardware. We detail the methodological pipeline: preprocessing video frames, applying cascade classifiers for detection, initializing the tracking module, and refining object localization across frames. Experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate detection rates exceeding 90 % and tracking accuracy within a 5-pixel mean error margin at 30 fps on a 2.4 GHz CPU with 4 GB RAM. We discuss limitations, including sensitivity to occlusions and illumination changes, and propose parameter tuning strategies to enhance robustness. This work serves as a reference for engineering practitioners seeking to implement real-time tracking systems using OpenCV’s 2.x and 3.x releases.
Keywords
Real-time object tracking, OpenCV, Haar cascades, Viola–Jones, AdaBoost
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