Virtual access control

• US 10,453,278 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2013
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Bataller, Cyrille, Partington, Alastair, Astrom, Anders, Cavallini, Alessio, Irish, David Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz Criado, Jorge L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tchoussou, Boubacar Abdou
• Application Number:
  US14/011,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20140063191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,247 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/476 using statistical shape modelling, e.g. point distribution models
• 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 20/647 by matching two-dimensional images to three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/20 involving the use of a pass
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/253 visually
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/22 Electrical actuation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/275 from 3D object models, e.g. computer-generated stereoscopic image signals

Abstract

Virtual access control may include detecting entry of a person into a virtual controlled zone, and counting and/or identifying people including the person entering into the virtual controlled zone. Virtual access control may further include determining an authorization of the person to continue through the virtual controlled zone based on a facial identification of the person, and alerting the person to stop, exit from, or continue through the virtual controlled zone based on the determined authorization. An alarm may be generated if the person violates directions provided by the alert.

Claims

1. A method for virtual access control, the method comprising:

detecting entry of a person into a virtual controlled zone;

at least one of counting and identifying people including the person entering into the virtual controlled zone by

capturing a two-dimensional (2D) frontal image of the face of the person by using a camera,

determining, for the 2D frontal image, an angle of the face of the person relative to a central axis of the camera,

determining if the angle of the face of the person for the 2D frontal image is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold relative to the central axis of the camera, wherein the predetermined threshold is approximately ±

30°

relative to the central axis of the camera for a uniform background and approximately ±

45°

relative to the central axis of the camera for a non-uniform background,

in response to a determination that the angle of the face of the person for the 2D frontal image is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold, converting the 2D image to a 3D image model,

rotating the 3D image model to an angle approximately equal to the central axis of the camera,

generating a 2D image based on the rotated 3D model,

comparing the generated 2D image against previously captured images of faces of people, and

identifying the person based on a match of the generated 2D image of the face of the person to one of the previously captured 2D images of faces of people;

determining, by a processor, an authorization of the person to continue through the virtual controlled zone based on a facial identification of the person;

alerting the person to stop, exit from, or continue through the virtual controlled zone based on the determined authorization by

determining whether a number of people inside the virtual controlled zone exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein

the predetermined threshold is at least one,

the number of people is at least one person, and

the exceeding of the predetermined threshold represents an overcrowded state of the virtual controlled zone, wherein the overcrowded state of the virtual controlled zone represents a state of the virtual controlled zone for which the number of people inside the virtual controlled zone exceeds the predetermined threshold that represents a specified number of the people that are to be allowed inside the virtual controlled zone, and

in response to a determination that the number of people inside the virtual controlled zone exceeds the predetermined threshold, displaying a symbol on a graphical user interface (GUI) to indicate the overcrowded state of the virtual controlled zone; and

generating an alarm if the person violates directions provided by the alert.

2. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon machine readable instructions for virtual access control, the machine readable instructions when executed cause a computer system to:

detect entry of a person into a virtual controlled zone;

identify the person entering into the virtual controlled zone by

capturing a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) images of a face of the person by using a camera,

determining, for each of the plurality of captured 2D images of the face of the person, an angle of the face of the person relative to a central axis of the camera,

identifying, from the plurality of captured 2D images of the face of the person, 2D images for which the angle of the face of the person is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold relative to the central axis of the camera, wherein the predetermined threshold relative to the central axis of the camera for a uniform background is less than the predetermined threshold relative to the central axis of the camera for a non-uniform background, and

performing, by using the identified 2D images for which the angle of the face of the person is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold relative to the central axis of the camera, three-dimensional (3D) modeling by converting the identified 2D images to a 3D image model, and using the 3D image model to identify the person based on a match of the 3D image model to one of previously captured 2D images of faces of people;

determine, by a processor, an authorization of the person to continue through the virtual controlled zone based on at least one of a facial and an information based identification of the person;

alert the person to stop, exit from, or continue through the virtual controlled zone based on the determined authorization; and

generate an alarm if the person violates directions provided by the alert.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 2, wherein the machine readable instructions to generate the alarm if the person violates directions provided by the alert, further comprise machine readable instructions that when executed further cause the computer system to:

generate a visual or audible alarm if the person violates directions provided by the alert.