# TraX: The visual Tracking eXchange Protocol and Library

## TL;DR

TraX introduces a standardized communication protocol and library that decouples visual tracking algorithms from applications, enabling easier evaluation, reusability, and advancement in the field.

## Contribution

It provides a novel protocol and reference implementation that facilitate algorithm evaluation and development in visual tracking.

## Key findings

- Protocol enables complex evaluation scenarios.
- Reference implementation supports multiple programming languages.
- Protocol is already adopted in some tracking applications.

## Abstract

In this paper we address the problem of developing on-line visual tracking algorithms. We present a specialized communication protocol that serves as a bridge between a tracker implementation and utilizing application. It decouples development of algorithms and application, encouraging re-usability. The primary use case is algorithm evaluation where the protocol facilitates more complex evaluation scenarios that are used nowadays thus pushing forward the field of visual tracking. We present a reference implementation of the protocol that makes it easy to use in several popular programming languages and discuss where the protocol is already used and some usage scenarios that we envision for the future.