Identifying and tracking an entity of interest in an image data stream

Abstract

A method and system for identifying and tracking an entity of interest in an image data stream are provided. The method includes: monitoring an image data stream to detect an entity of interest; when the entity of interest is detected, initiating tracking of a location of the entity of interest in a sequence of image frames; associating image frames in which the location of the entity of interest is detected and tracked with a subtrack identifier; processing a selected image frame associated with the subtrack identifier to extract data elements including one or both of classification data elements and identification data elements relating to the entity of interest; and, generating and outputting one or both of an entity classification and an entity signature for the entity of interest based on the data elements, wherein the entity signature is usable in distinguishing the entity of interest from other entities of interest.

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