Systems and methods of person recognition in video streams

• US 10,685,257 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2019
• Issued: 06/16/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bapat, Akshay R., Heitz, George Alban, Chaudhry, Rizwan Ahmed, Dalal, Navneet, Stewart, James Edward, Bush, Jennifer, Venters, Joe Delone, Gates, Kara, Butler, Timothy, Kifle, Yohannes, Bastov, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayat, Ali
• Application Number:
  US16/565,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20200005079A1
• Time in Patent Office: 281 Days
• Field of Search: 382118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/45 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23 Clustering techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/53 Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/173 face re-identification, e.g. recognising unknown faces across different face tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/179 metadata assisted face recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1966 Wireless systems, other than telephone systems, used to communicate with a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19663 Surveillance related processing done local to the camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

The various implementations described herein include systems and methods for recognizing persons in video streams. In one aspect, a method includes: (1) obtaining a live video stream; (2) detecting person(s) in the stream; and (3) determining, from analysis of the live video stream, first information of the detected person(s); (4) determining, based on the first information, that the first person is not known to the computing system; (5) in accordance with the determination that the first person is not known: (a) storing the first information; and (b) requesting a user to classify the first person; and (6) in accordance with a determination that a response was received classifying the first person as a stranger, deleting the stored first information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a computing system having one or more processors and memory;

obtaining a live video stream;

detecting a first person in the live video stream;

determining, from analysis of the live video stream, first information that identifies an attribute of the first person;

determining, based on at least some of the first information, that the first person is not a known person to the computing system;

in accordance with the determination that the first person is not a known person;

storing at least some of the first information; and

requesting a user to classify the first person; and

in accordance with (i) a determination that a response was not received from the user, or (ii) a determination that a response was received from the user classifying the first person as a stranger, deleting the stored first information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first information comprises:

selecting one or more images of the first person from the live video stream; and

characterizing a plurality of features of the first person based on the one or more images.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying a pose of the first person in each of the one or more images; and

for each identified pose, in accordance with a determination that an image of the first person in the identified pose has not previously been stored, storing (i) the image of the first person in the identified pose, and (ii) corresponding pose information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of features includes one or more features that can personally identify the first person.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of features includes one or more facial features of the first person.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

detecting the first person comprises detecting an entity in the live video stream; and

the method further comprises;

receiving, from the user, a designation that the detected entity is not a person; and

responsive to the designation, storing the designation in association with the first information of the first person.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in accordance with the determination that the first person is not a known person, generating a timely notification of detection of an unknown person.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a second person in the live video stream;

characterizing a plurality of features of the second person based on one or more images of the second person in the live video stream; and

determining whether the second person is a same person as the first person by comparing the plurality of characterized features of the second person with the stored first information regarding a plurality of characterized features of the first person.

9. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

obtaining a live video stream;

detecting a first person in the live video stream;

determining, from analysis of the live video stream, first information that identifies an attribute of the first person;

determining, based on at least some of the first information, whether the first person is a known person to the computing system;

in accordance with a determination that the first person is not a known person;

storing at least some of the first information; and

requesting a user to classify the first person; and

in accordance with (i) a determination that a response was not received from the user, or (ii) a determination that a response was received from the user classifying the first person as a stranger, deleting the stored first information.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein detecting the first person comprises detecting the first person within a first predefined threshold time.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for comparing the first information of the first person with stored first information of the first person previously classified by the user;

and

wherein determining that the first person is not a known person comprises determining that the first information of the first person does not match, within a predetermined threshold, the stored first information of the first person previously classified by the user.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for:

determining that the first person is a known person to the computing system; and

in accordance with the determination that the first person is a known person, forgoing requesting the user to classify the first person.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for forgoing generating a timely notification in accordance with the determination that the first person is a known person.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for generating a timely notification identifying the first person in accordance with the determination that the first person is a known person.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for:

determining a location of the first person;

determining whether the first person has previously been authorized by the user to access the location; and

wherein generating the timely notification identifying the first person comprises generating the timely notification identifying the first person and the location in accordance with a determination that the first person has not previously been authorized to access the location.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computing system, cause the system to:

obtain a live video stream;

detect a first person in the live video stream;

determine, from analysis of the live video stream, first information that identifies an attribute of the first person;

determine, based on at least some of the first information, whether the first person is a known person to the computing system;

in accordance with a determination that the first person is not a known person;

store at least some of the first information; and

request a user to classify the first person; and

in accordance with (i) a determination that a response was not received from the user, or (ii) a determination that a response was received from the user classifying the first person as a stranger, delete the stored first information.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions, which when executed by the computing system, cause the system to:

detect the first person by performing facial detection on a first frame in the live video stream; and

track the first person through time by analyzing a plurality of video frames in the live video stream, the plurality of video frames subsequent to the first frame.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions, which when executed by the computing system, cause the system to:

for each video frame of the first frame and the plurality of video frames, determine an identification quality factor for the video frame;

select one or more video frames of the first frame and the plurality of video frames based on the determined identification quality factors; and

wherein determining the first information comprises determining first information based on an analysis of the selected one or more images.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions, which when executed by the computing system, cause the system to:

determine an activity of the first person based on the tracking of the first person; and

send a notification with identification of the first person and the determined activity.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions, which when executed by the computing system, cause the system to provide a notification to the first person in accordance with the determination that the first person is not a known person.