Multi-sensing devices cooperative recognition system

• US 20050078854A1
• Filed: 06/28/2004
• Published: 04/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Shikano, Hiroaki, Irie, Naohiko
• Granted Patent: US 7,340,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59

Abstract

Disclosed here is an information processing system capable of recognizing actions and circumstances of a user with respect to both space and time as a “situation” to recognize the user'"'"'s request using a plurality of sensing nodes that work cooperatively with each another, thereby responding autonomously to the user'"'"'s request according to the recognition results. The plurality of sensing nodes and a responding device are disposed in a target space to build up a network for recognizing the situation in the target space. And, a plurality of recognition means are used to recognize the situation with respect to both space and time related to the existence of the user. And, an integral processing portion (master) is selected from among the plurality of sensing nodes, thereby dispersing the system load. If there are a plurality of users, the system can make recognition in accordance with the request of each of those users.

Claims

1. An information processing system comprising:

a plurality of sensing nodes including cameras; and

a responding device,

wherein each of said plurality of sensing nodes recognizes a moving object in a predetermined space using a plurality of recognition methods and sends the recognition result to a master sensing node selected from said plurality of sensing nodes;

wherein said master sensing node sends a command to instruct said responding device to take a predetermined action in accordance with said recognition result; and

wherein said responding device takes an action in accordance with said received command.

2. The system according to claim 1,

wherein said master sensing node, when recognizing a situation change in said space, instructs said plurality of sensing nodes to change their recognition means, algorithm, or combination in accordance with said state change in said space.

3. The system according to claim 1,

wherein said master sensing node, when recognizing a situation change in said space, selects one master node from said plurality of sensing nodes in accordance with said situation change.

4. The system according to claim 1,

wherein said master sensing node, when recognizing an object that is going out of said predetermined space, passes control to another system existing in a space into which said object is moving.

5. The system according to claim 1,

wherein each of said plurality of sensing nodes detects a plurality of moving objects according to a difference between frames positioned before and after a moving image photographed by said camera and sends the detected data to said master sensing node;

and

wherein said master sensing node measures each of said plurality of moving objects at three points using said detected data received from said plurality of sensing nodes.

6. The system according to claim 1,

wherein each of said plurality of sensing nodes recognizes a gesture of an object person and sends the recognition result to said master sensing node;

and

wherein said master sensing node recognizes the meaning of said gesture according to said recognition result to recognize a situation change with respect to the time axis.