I wish I could give a "positive" advice but best I can say is that what you describe is a tough, tough problem. There is no off-the-shelf solution and if you are new at this, you are up for a lot of pain with a slim chance of success. Sorry, can’t be more helpful.
I suppose it depends on the definition of "success". Learning about the state of the art and writing some enlightening code, no matter its ultimate usefulness, would be plenty successful for me.
I'm mostly surprised at the lack of papers I'm able to find that have been published after the mid '90s.
I will give major kudos to you though, sir. I've spent the last hour or so reading through the wiki. Please, keep up the great work.