Method and apparatus for video surveillance

• US 20070035622A1
• Filed: 06/01/2005
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation (SRI International, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sarnoff Corporation (SRI International, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sawhney, Harpreet, Aggarwal, Manoj, Hanna, Keith
• Application Number:
  US11/141,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20070035622A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• 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: G08B 13/19602 Image analysis to detect motion of the intruder, e.g. by frame subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19606 Discriminating between target movement or movement in an area of interest and other non-signicative movements, e.g. target movements induced by camera shake or movements of pets, falling leaves, rotating fan
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19613 Recognition of a predetermined image pattern or behaviour pattern indicating theft or intrusion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/144 Movement detection for video coding H04N19/503; analysis of motion in general G06T7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing video surveillance of a field of view is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for performing surveillance of the field of view includes monitoring the field of view and detecting a moving object in the field of view, where the motion is detected based on a spatio-temporal signature (e.g., a set of descriptive feature vectors) of the moving object.

Claims

1. A method for performing surveillance of a field of view, comprising:

monitoring said field of view; and

detecting a moving object in said field of view, in accordance with a spatio-temporal signature of said moving object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said spatio-temporal signature comprises a plurality of feature vectors that describe said moving object and a motion of said moving object over a space-time interval.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said detecting comprises:

determining one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with a background scene of said field of view;

determining a spatio-temporal signature of said moving object; and

determining that said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object does not represent a portion of said background scene as defined by said one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with said background scene.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

classifying said moving object in accordance with said spatio-temporal signature.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said classifying comprises:

comparing said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object to one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects;

identifying at least one known object that said moving object most closely resembles based on said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object and said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects; and

creating a new class if said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object does not resemble, within a predefined threshold of similarity, at least one of said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein information relating to said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects is stored in a database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an alert if said moving object is indicative of one or more alarm conditions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said moving object is indicative of one or more alarm conditions if said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object resembles, within a predefined threshold of similarity, one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with known alarm conditions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein information relating to said one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with known alarm conditions is stored in a database.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said database is built based on at least one previously observed alarm condition and at least one previously observed non-alarm condition.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said building of said database comprises:

computing a difference between said at least one previously observed alarm condition and at least one previously observed non-alarm condition, in accordance with one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing said at least one previously observed alarm condition and one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing at least one previously observed non-alarm condition; and

establishing criteria for detecting said known alarm conditions in accordance with said difference.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said computing comprises:

calculating said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing said at least one previously observed alarm condition and said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing at least one previously observed non-alarm condition;

calculating a first distribution, over time and space, of said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing said at least one previously observed alarm condition;

calculating a second distribution, over time and space, of said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing at least one previously observed non-alarm condition; and

calculating a separation between said first distribution and said second distribution.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said establishing comprises:

maximizing said separation; and

defining said criteria in accordance with one or more parameters resulting from said maximization.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

grouping said at least one previously observed alarm condition into two or more classes of alarm conditions; and

grouping said at least one previously observed non-alarm condition into two or more classes of non-alarm conditions.

15. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of a method of performing surveillance of a field of view, comprising:

monitoring said field of view; and

detecting a moving object in said field of view, in accordance with a spatio-temporal signature of said moving object.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said spatio-temporal signature comprises a plurality of feature vectors that describe said moving object and a motion of said moving object over a space-time interval.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said detecting comprises:

determining one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with a background scene of said field of view;

determining a spatio-temporal signature of said moving object; and

determining that said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object does not represent a portion of said background scene as defined by said one or more spatio-temporal signatures associated with said background scene.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

classifying said moving object in accordance with said spatio-temporal signature.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said classifying comprises:

comparing said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object to one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects;

identifying at least one known object that said moving object most closely resembles based on said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object and said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects; and

creating a new class if said spatio-temporal signature of said moving object does not resemble, within a predefined threshold of similarity, at least one of said one or more spatio-temporal signatures representing known objects.

20. An apparatus for performing surveillance of a field of view, comprising:

means for monitoring said field of view; and

means for detecting a moving object in said field of view, in accordance with a spatio-temporal signature of said moving object.