SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COUNTING PEOPLE NEAR EXTERNAL WINDOWED DOORS
First Claim
1. A system for counting objects crossing an area comprising:
- a camera for capturing images along an image plane of a surface in which objects to be counted cross over said surface;
two-dimensional shapes or design spaced along said surface; and
a computer system for receiving said images and detecting objects associated with change occurring in said images, and counting one of said detected objects at least in accordance with said one of said detected objects approximates a shape associated with the object to be counted that fully or substantially blocks a portion said two-dimensional shapes or design in one of said images associated with the detected object.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for counting objects, such as people, is provided having a camera (22) for capturing video images along an image plane (25) in which two-dimensional shapes or design (28) are spaced along the image plane (25), and a computer system (14, 22) for receiving the images and detecting objects associated with change occurring in the images, and counting one of the detected objects when of the detected objects approximates a shape (31) associated with the object being counted (e.g., ellipse shape, to count a person) that fully or substantially blocks a portion said two-dimensional shapes or design (28) in the image associated with the detected object, and the detected object meeting other criteria for the object, such as size or compactness of detected change within the object. The system is especially useful for counting people near external windowed doors (19) of a building entranceway doors by discriminating between spurious light crossing the image plane and people.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A system for counting objects crossing an area comprising:
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a camera for capturing images along an image plane of a surface in which objects to be counted cross over said surface; two-dimensional shapes or design spaced along said surface; and a computer system for receiving said images and detecting objects associated with change occurring in said images, and counting one of said detected objects at least in accordance with said one of said detected objects approximates a shape associated with the object to be counted that fully or substantially blocks a portion said two-dimensional shapes or design in one of said images associated with the detected object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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13. A method for counting objects comprising the steps of:
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capturing images along an image plane of a surface in which objects to be counted cross over said surface; providing two-dimensional shapes or design spaced along said surface; detecting one or more objects in one of said captured images associated with change along said image plane in accordance with one of a previously one of said captured images or a background image providing a motionless representation of said image plane; determining whether each of said one or more detected objects represents a real object when the detected object approximates a shape associated with the object to be counted that at least substantially blocks a portion of said two-dimensional shapes or design in said one of said captured images; and counting the real object in accordance with one or more characteristics of the detected object associated with the real object. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 35)
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28. A user interface for counting objects in images captured by a video camera comprising:
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at least one window capable of displaying video image data captured by the camera; means utilizing at least one of said displayed images for enabling a user to define a region along which objects crossing are to be counted in which along said region are spaced two-dimensional shapes or design; and means for displaying a number of the counted objects crossing the region. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30)
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Specification