The present invention is embodied in a system and process for automatically learning
a reliable color-based tracking system. The tracking system is learned by using
information produced by an initial object model in combination with an initial
tracking function to probabilistically determine the configuration of one or more
target objects in a temporal sequence of images, and a data acquisition function
for gathering observations relating to color in each image. The observations gathered
by the data acquisition function include information that is relevant to parameters
desired for a final color-based object model. A learning function then uses probabilistic
methods to determine conditional probabilistic relationships between the observations
and probabilistic target configuration information to learn a color-based object
model automatically tailored to specific target objects. The learned object model
is then used in combination with the final tracking function to probabilistically
locate and track specific target objects in one or more sequential images.