Identification of seat occupancy by means of a camera

• US 10,296,797 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Mobility GmbH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Mobility GmbH (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Porsch, Roland
• Primary Examiner(s): Sosanya, Obafemi O
• Application Number:
  US15/301,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20170116489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,502 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01538 for image processing, e.g. cameras or sensor arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06028 using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/593 Recognising seat occupancy
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for identifying occupancy of a seat use a camera. In order to achieve permanently reliable identification of the occupancy of a seat, the camera is oriented such that it captures at least one area of interest of the seat. An evaluation apparatus is used to identify the area of interest in a picture taken by the camera and to store a position for the area of interest. The evaluation apparatus selects the area of interest in pictures subsequently taken by the camera at the stored position and compares the area of interest with at least one stored picture sample. A result of this comparison is taken as a basis for identifying the seat as being occupied. In addition, an apparatus having a camera and an evaluation apparatus is described for performing the method.

Claims

1. A method for identifying occupancy of a seat, the method comprising:

orienting a camera towards and capturing at least one area of interest of the seat;

identifying the area of interest in an image taken by the camera with an evaluation apparatus and storing a position of the area of interest as a given image sample;

selecting the area of interest in images subsequently taken by the camera at the stored position by the evaluation apparatus and comparing the selected area of interest with the given image sample;

in the event of a discrepancy between the selected area of interest and the given image sample, identifying the seat as being occupied;

before identifying the seat as being occupied, performing a plausibility check;

comparing a deviation from the image sample with a parameterized interference pattern and identifying the seat as being occupied if the parameterized interference pattern can be brought into coincidence with the deviation at least to a prespecified minimum degree by a choice of parameters lying within prespecified parameter limits.

2. The method according to claim 1, which comprises defining a head area of the seat as an area of interest of the seat.

3. The method according to claim 1, which comprises examining a deviation from the image sample by the evaluation apparatus for biometric features of a human head and identifying the seat as being occupied if a prespecified minimum quantity of the biometric features is found in the deviation.

4. The method according to claim 1, which comprises:

using an infrared camera as the camera;

providing at least one thermal image pattern of a human head is provided as the at least one stored image sample; and

identifying the seat as being occupied if said comparison finds a structure in the selected area of interest which coincides with at least one thermal image pattern to a prespecified minimum degree.

5. The method according to claim 1, which comprises reading a marking disposed in the identified area of interest identifying the seat and storing the information.

6. The method according to claim 1, which comprises, for a seat that was previously identified as being occupied and that is not currently identified as being occupied, canceling the occupied status only after an expiry of a given period of time as long as the seat is not again identified as being occupied within the given period of time.

7. The method according to claim 1, which comprises:

orienting the camera towards areas of interest of a plurality of seats; and

performing the method steps for at least some of the seats.

8. The method according to claim 7, which comprises performing the method steps for each of the seats.

9. An apparatus for identifying occupancy of a seat by carrying out the method according to claim 1, the apparatus comprising:

a camera;

an evaluation apparatus configured to;

identify areas of interest in images taken by said camera with reference to a pattern identification and store positions of the areas of interest; and

compare areas of interest from images taken by the camera with stored image patterns; and

store areas of interest identified, to determine discrepancies during the comparison and to compare the discrepancies with a parameterized interference pattern.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said evaluation apparatus is configured to store areas of interest identified, to determine discrepancies during the comparison and to examine the discrepancies for biometric features of a human head.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said camera is an infrared camera and said evaluation apparatus is configured to identify a structure in the areas of interest during the comparison, which coincides with one of the stored image samples at least to a predetermined minimum degree.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said evaluation apparatus is configured to identify and read markings of the seat in images taken by the camera.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the markings are bar codes or two-dimensional codes.