ChromaTag: A Colored Marker and Fast Detection Algorithm

TL;DR

ChromaTag is a novel colored fiducial marker and detection algorithm that significantly speeds up detection while maintaining high accuracy, leveraging opponent colors for quick false positive rejection in real-time applications.

Contribution

Introduces ChromaTag, a fiducial marker and detection method that uses opponent colors for fast false detection rejection and grayscale for precise localization, improving speed and accuracy.

Findings

ChromaTag detection is significantly faster than existing markers.

Detection accuracy is comparable or better than current methods.

Tag size and viewing angle affect detection performance.

Abstract

Current fiducial marker detection algorithms rely on marker IDs for false positive rejection. Time is wasted on potential detections that will eventually be rejected as false positives. We introduce ChromaTag, a fiducial marker and detection algorithm designed to use opponent colors to limit and quickly reject initial false detections and grayscale for precise localization. Through experiments, we show that ChromaTag is significantly faster than current fiducial markers while achieving similar or better detection accuracy. We also show how tag size and viewing direction effect detection accuracy. Our contribution is significant because fiducial markers are often used in real-time applications (e.g. marker assisted robot navigation) where heavy computation is required by other parts of the system.