Real-Life "Marauder's Map" Has Applications in
Health Care, Security
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a
method for tracking the locations of multiple individuals in complex, indoor settings
using a network of video cameras, creating something similar to the fictional
Marauder's Map used by Harry Potter to track comings and goings at the Hogwarts
School.
The method was able to automatically follow the movements of
13 people within a nursing home, even though individuals sometimes slipped out
of view of the cameras. None of Potter's magic was needed to track them for
prolonged periods; rather, the researchers made use of multiple cues from the
video feed: apparel color, person detection, trajectory and, perhaps most
significantly, facial recognition.