Television – Special applications – Observation of or from a specific location
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-13
2004-02-24
Rao, Andy (Department: 2713)
Television
Special applications
Observation of or from a specific location
C348S156000, C348S153000, C382S118000, C382S115000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06697104
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to video image processing and more particularly to apparatus, system and a method for obtaining and processing information about the quantity and the direction of movement of people in crowded areas using video image processing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Monitoring the movement of people entering and leaving major public areas, such as malls, shopping areas, chain-stores, casinos, airports, bus and train stations and sport facilities provides significant and valuable information to the management of these areas.
For example, information regarding the number of entrances and exits of people to and from a particular doorway of a specific store, within a period of time, enables the management to evaluate the store efficiency, and obtain a correlation between the number of visitors and sales. Furthermore, it is possible by checking the number of visitors against employees, to check the employee/customer ratio to determine whether the staff are overloaded and analyze the customer service being obtained vis-a-vis sales.
During the last few years, video image processing systems and visual image processing system have been developed in order to provide information about the movement of people. Methods and apparatus using video based systems for obtaining information about the movement of people are known. For example, WO Application No: 98/08208, assigned to Footfall Ltd., entitled “Video Imaging Systems”, describes video image sampling at a low resolution and with a homogenous scattering of sample points. The low resolution and sampling scattering saves computer resources. However, since the samples are taken at low resolution with a homogenous scattering of the sample points, the correlation level between one sample and another of the same area is low and there is a danger of losing positive identification of figures due to the low resolution. This system, which uses the resources of a personal computer (PC), and thus this PC is not capable of performing a high-resolution process of the images, which are constantly being received from several end units.
WO Application No: 99/04378, assigned to Footfall Ltd., entitled “Video Imaging Systems”, describes an improvement of the earlier application (WO 98/08208), described hereinabove, utilizing infra red (IR) light to illuminate the moving figures and recording the image with an IR sensitive video camera. The IR camera and illumination solves the problem of shadowing of their previous patent which is critical in case of low resolution of the video image. Low resolution sampling to distinguish the moving figures from the background and identify them as people is sensitive to shadowing.
However, the addition of IR light resources and IR sensitive video means involve extra costs, making the system more cumbersome and requiring wiring and suitable power sources wherever the units are installed. Usually, these installations are installed in the ceiling, which may, for example, be concrete, thus requiring specialized suspension devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,732 to Guthrie, entitled “Object Tracking System For Monitoring a Controlled Space”, describes video image processing which initially uses low resolution of “super pixels”, that is “cells” or “blocks” of pixels, instead of a processing at single pixel level. This is done in order to reduce the analysis necessary in order to identify and preliminary locate the moving figures within the area of interest. However, by decreasing the sampling resolution to fixed “cells” or “blocks” as mentioned, the system knowingly suffers from an information loss. Thus, since the processing is made according to a net of “cells” or “blocks” having a fixed size, there is a danger that an object, which passes on the borders of two “blocks”, cannot be distinguished from the fixed background, and could not be identified as a figure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,115 assigned to RCT Systems Inc., entitled “Video Traffic Monitor for Retail Establishments and the like”, describes a video detection process of passing figures as such by positioning an imaginary strip of “gates” or in other words or a line of imaginary static “turnstiles” on the video image and identifies the object as a figure when it fills the “gate” or passes through the “turnstile.
The system does not actively search for and track figures over the whole videoed area, but identifies the entry and exit of a figure into and from a the imaginary strip of “gates”, in order to reduce computer resources. This system is inflexible—entry and exit of static to and from the strip could be considered as figures filling (or emptying) the gates and therefore the system requires re-initialization.
Furthermore, the prior art systems do not integrate data collection into an overall system for client commercial purposes. For example a potential client of a system of this kind, could be a manager of an international chain of stores, who needs a daily report regarding the number of people entering and exiting each of his stores the day before. Modern communication systems which enable information to be gathered and transmitted by telephone, modem, cellular communication and Internet, for example, are well known in the art. However, prior art imaging systems, and visual imaging systems which supply information about the movement of people, do not deal with the combination of such systems with on-line communication systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, in view of the limitations of systems based on the prior art, there is need of a video-based system and method for obtaining information about people, whose end unit is integral, easily installable and standalone, to the greatest possible extent, in terms of integral independent capabilities for picture processing and data accumulation therein. Limitatons on processing resources will not make it necessary to forgo reliability, and it will be possible to integrate the end units in modern communications systems (e.g.—cellular communications, the Internet and combinations of the two), such that data can be transferred to the customer easily, without his having to invest in additional communications and data processing systems.
One object of the present invention is to enable easy and convenient installation of the end unit in a ceiling of any type (ordinary or acoustic). The structure of an end unit according to the invention is adapted for installation in a variety of ceilings, and no other infrastructure is required beyond the electricity supply. An end unit according to the invention is thus adapted to the level of a field technician, who will not have to do complicated assembly work or deal with auxiliary installations in the event that the ceiling is of a different type than what he expected.
A further object of the invention is operational independence. The invention does not require dedicated lighting means extrinsic to the end unit, or infrared photography. An end unit according to the invention relies in its operation on the ordinary lighting which is present in any case in the photographed area, and adjusts itself to this lighting. The problem of shadows and changes that occur in the lighting conditions is solved in the end unit without need of additional, dedicated lighting means.
A further object of the invention is to enable immediate processing, which is performed in a standalone processor integrally installed in the end unit itself. The end unit processes the video image produced by an internal camera installed in the end unit, and even enables parallel reception and processing of two video images arriving simultaneously from internal cameras installed in two separate end units. The standalone processor installed in the end unit itself enables independence from distant external processing units, and the ability of a processor in one end unit to process two images simultaneously makes it possible to increase the area in respect of which the data processing is requested. For example—for a wide opening in a shopping mall having a relatively low ceiling necessita
Topaz Dov
Yakobi Ron
CountWise, LLC
Eitan, Pearl, Latzer & Cohen Zedek LLP
Parsons Charles
Rao Andy
LandOfFree
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