Stay condition analyzing apparatus, stay condition analyzing system, and stay condition analyzing method

• US 10,049,283 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2015
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Yuichi, Yoshio, Hiroaki, Gouda, Youichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Bailey, Frederick D
• Application Number:
  US14/668,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20150278608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/53 Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

Provided is a stay condition analyzing apparatus including a stay information acquirer which acquires stay information for each predetermined measurement period of time on the basis of positional information of a moving object which is acquired from a captured image of a target area, a heat map image generator which generates a heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information, a background image generator which generates a background image from the captured image, and a display image generator which generates a display image by superimposing the heat map image on the background image. The background image generator generates the background image by performing image processing for reducing discriminability of the moving object appearing in the captured image on the captured image.

Claims

1. A stay condition analyzing apparatus that acquires stay information regarding a stay condition of a plurality of moving objects within a target area, generates a heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information, and displays the heat map image on a display device, the stay condition analyzing apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory which stores an instruction, wherein as a configuration when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory;

a stay information acquirer which acquires, from a plurality of captured images of a same target area, the stay information corresponding to the same target area for each predetermined measurement period of time based on positional information of the moving objects acquired, the plurality of captured images being captured with respect to time;

a heat map image generator which generates the heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information acquired by the stay information acquirer, the heat map image indicating a heat area corresponding to the stay information of the moving objects;

a background image generator which selects a target image from the plurality of captured images of the same target area with respect to time, and sets the selected target image as a background image; and

a display image generator which generates a display image by superimposing the heat map image generated by the heat map image generator on the background image selected by the background image generator,

wherein the background image generator includes

a similarity calculator which calculates a similarity of positional information of the moving objects included in each of the plurality of captured images of the same target area and the stay information of the same target area, and

a background image selector which selects the target image among the plurality of captured images to be used as the background image based on the similarity calculated by the similarity calculator.

2. The stay condition analyzing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the background image generator further includes an evaluator that evaluates whether or not the selected target image is suitable as the background image by comparing the similarity calculated by the similarity calculator with a predetermined threshold value.

5. The stay condition analyzing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the stay information includes duration of stay and frequency of stay at a particular position within the target area by a moving object, and

wherein a degree of heat of the heat area is indicated based on a size and color of an indicator overlapping the display image.

6. The stay condition analyzing apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of moving objects is included in the display image.

7. The stay condition analyzing apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of moving objects is overlapping with the heat area included in the heat map.

3. A stay condition analyzing system that acquires stay information regarding a stay condition of a plurality of moving objects within a target area, generates a heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information, and displays the heat map image on a display device, the stay condition analyzing system comprising:

a camera which captures an image of the target area;

a plurality of information processing apparatuses,

wherein each of the plurality of information processing apparatuses includes a processor and a memory that stores an instruction, and

wherein, when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory;

a moving object detector which detects the moving objects from the image captured by the camera and acquires positional information of the moving objects;

a stay information acquirer which acquires, from a plurality of captured images of a same target area, the stay information corresponding to the same target area for each predetermined measurement period of time based on the positional information of the moving objects;

a heat map image generator which generates the heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information acquired by the stay information acquirer, the heat map image indicating a heat area corresponding to the stay information of the moving objects;

a background image generator which selects a target image from the plurality of captured images of the same target area with respect to time, and sets the selected target image as a background image; and

a display image generator which generates a display image by superimposing the heat map image generated by the heat map image generator on the background image selected by the background image generator,

wherein the background image generator includes

a similarity calculator which calculates a similarity of positional information of the moving objects included in each of the plurality of captured images of the same target area and the stay information of the same target area, and

a background image selector which selects the target image among the plurality of captured images to be used as the background image based on the similarity calculated by the similarity calculator.

4. A stay condition analyzing method of causing an information processing apparatus to perform a process of acquiring stay information regarding a stay condition of a plurality of moving objects within a target area, generating a heat map image obtained by visualizing the stay information, and displaying the heat map image on a display device, the stay condition analyzing method comprising, when a processor of the information processing apparatus executes an instruction stored in a memory:

acquiring, from a plurality of captured images of a same target area, the stay information corresponding to the same target area for each predetermined measurement period of time based on positional information of the moving objects acquired, the plurality of captured images being captured with respect to time;

generating the heat map image obtained by visualizing the acquired stay information, the heat map image indicating a heat area corresponding to the stay information of the moving objects;

selecting a target image from the plurality of captured images of the same target area with respect to time, and sets the selected target image as a background image; and

generating a display image by superimposing the generated heat map image on the selected background image,

wherein the selecting the background image includes

calculating a similarity of positional information of the moving objects included in each of the plurality of captured images of the same target area and the stay information of the same target area, and

selecting the target image among the plurality of captured images to be used as the background image based on the calculated similarity.