Eigenbackground Revisited: Can We Model the Background with Eigenvectors?

Abstract

Using dominant eigenvectors for background modeling (usually known as Eigenbackground) is a common technique in the literature. However, its results suffer from noticeable artifacts. Thus have been many attempts to reduce the artifacts by making some improvements/enhancement in the Eigenbackground algorithm. In this paper, we show the main problem of the Eigenbackground is in its own core and in fact, it is not a good idea to use strongest eigenvectors for modeling the background. Instead, we propose an alternative solution by exploiting the weakest eigenvectors (which are usually thrown away and treated as garbage data) for background modeling. MATLAB codes are available at \url{https://github.com/mamintoosi/Eigenbackground-Revisited}