Video surveillance using spatial-temporal motion analysis

• US 20070058040A1
• Filed: 09/09/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yu, Li, Haering, Niels, Zhang, Zhong, Yin, Weihong, Liu, Haiying, Lipton, Alan, Venetianer, Peter
• Application Number:
  US11/221,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20070058040A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• 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: G07G 1/0036 Checkout procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 3/00 Alarm indicators, e.g. bells
• 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 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19667 Details realated to data compression, encryption or encoding, e.g. resolution modes for reducing data volume to lower transmission bandwidth or memory requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19684 Portable terminal, e.g. mobile phone, used for viewing video remotely

Abstract

Detection of an omitted process in an event having of a sequence of processes includes: receiving video of an action area; receiving transaction data regarding a transaction occurring at the action area; detecting at least two different actor motion states in the video; detecting an event based on the motion states; and detecting the omitted process based on the detected event and the transaction data.

Claims

1. A machine-accessible medium containing software code that, when read by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for detecting a free-bagging event, the method comprising:

receiving video of a checkout area;

receiving point of sale (POS) data regarding a transaction occurring at the checkout area;

detecting at least two different cashier motion states in the video;

detecting a checkout event based on the cashier motion states; and

detecting a free-bagging event based on the detected checkout event and the POS data.

2. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 1, wherein detecting a cashier motion state comprises performing motion detection and change detection on the video.

3. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 2, wherein detecting a cashier motion state further comprises determining one of a picking-up motion state, a scanning motion state, or a bagging motion state.

4. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 1, wherein detecting the checkout event comprises:

detecting a checkout process; and

detecting whether the checkout event is complete.

5. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 4, wherein detecting the checkout process comprises detecting at least one of a picking-up checkout process, a scanning checkout process, or a bagging checkout process.

6. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 5, wherein detecting whether the checkout event is complete comprises:

monitoring a transition from a detected picking-up checkout process, a detected scanning checkout process, or a detected bagging checkout process to another detected checkout process; and

detecting that the checkout event is complete when a transition to a bagging checkout process is monitored.

7. The machine-accessible medium containing software code of claim 1, wherein detecting the free-bagging event based on the detected checkout event and the POS data comprises:

examining the POS data for the transaction upon detection of the checkout event; and

triggering a free-bagging alert when the POS data does not contain the transaction corresponding to the detected checkout event.

8. A video-surveillance system for detecting free-bagging comprising:

a video source;

a point of sale (POS) system; and

an apparatus receiving input from the video source and from the POS system, and adapted to detect free-bagging at a point of sale location.

9. The video surveillance system of claim 8, further comprising:

a user interface coupled to the apparatus; and

a data storage apparatus coupled to the apparatus.

10. The video surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is further adapted to detect at least two different cashier motion states in the video, to detect a checkout event based on the cashier motion states;

and to detect a free-bagging event based on the detected checkout event and the input received from the POS system.

11. The video surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the apparatus comprises a computer having software to detect free-bagging.

12. The video surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the apparatus comprises application-specific hardware adapted to detect free-bagging.

13. A machine-accessible medium containing software code that, when read by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for detection of an omitted process in an event comprised of a sequence of processes, the method comprising:

receiving video of an action area;

receiving transaction data regarding a transaction occurring at the action area;

detecting at least two different actor motion states in the video;

detecting an event based on the motion states; and

detecting the omitted process based on the detected event and the transaction data.

14. A video-surveillance system for detecting an omitted process comprising:

a video source;

a system adapted to record data regarding an event occurring in a defined area; and

an apparatus receiving input from the video source and from the system, and adapted to detect the omitted process.

15. The video surveillance system of claim 14, wherein the apparatus comprises a computer having software to detect free-bagging.

16. The video surveillance system of claim 14, wherein the apparatus comprises application-specific hardware adapted to detect free-bagging.

17. A computer-implemented method for detecting a free-bagging event, comprising:

receiving video of a checkout area;

receiving point of sale (POS) data regarding a transaction occurring at the checkout area;

detecting at least two different cashier motion states in the video;

detecting a checkout event based on the cashier motion states; and

detecting a free-bagging event based on the detected checkout event and the POS data.