Determination Of Class, Attributes, And Identity Of An Occupant

• US 20100124376A1
• Filed: 11/19/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 75F, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Deepinder Singh Thind
• Inventors: Thind, Deepinder Singh
• Granted Patent: US 8,553,992 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method and system for determining class, attributes, and identity of an occupant in an occupancy space. An infra-red image of the occupant in the occupancy space is captured. The infra-red image information of the captured image is digitized to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant. The thermal signature of the occupant is compared with thermal signatures, characteristics, and attributes common to a class of occupants stored in a thermal signature database to determine the class, the attributes, and the identity of the occupant. The determination of the class and the attributes may, for example, comprise distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant, analyzing gait of the animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non-human motion, and enumerating occupants in the occupancy space using an edge detection algorithm.

Claims

1. A method of determining the class and attributes of an occupant in an occupancy space, comprising the steps of:

capturing an infra-red image of said occupant in said occupancy space;

digitizing infra-red image information of said captured image to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant; and

comparing said thermal signature of the occupant with thermal signatures of a plurality of occupants stored in a thermal signature database for determining said class and said attributes of the occupant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining the class and the attributes of the occupant comprises the steps of:

distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant;

analyzing gait of said animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non-human motion; and

enumerating occupants in the occupancy space using an edge detection algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of indicating status of said determination of the class and the attributes of the occupant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said infra-red image of the occupant in the occupancy space is captured at one of a predefined time, on occurrence of an event, and at periodic intervals.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the thermal signature is obtained based on intensity, frequency, and shape of said infra-red image.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said thermal signatures of said occupants are taken against a plurality of different environments.

7. The method of claim 1 stored and implemented on a chip.

8. A method of determining the class and attributes of an occupant in an occupancy space, comprising the steps of:

capturing an infra-red image of said occupant in said occupancy space;

digitizing infra-red image information of said captured image to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant;

comparing said thermal signature of the occupant with class characteristics and attributes common to a class of occupants stored in a thermal signature database, comprising one or more of the steps of;

distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant;

analyzing gait of said animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non -human motion; and

enumerating occupants in the occupancy space using an edge detection algorithm.

9. A method of identifying a specific occupant in an occupancy space, comprising the steps of:

capturing an infra-red image of said occupant in the occupancy space;

digitizing infra-red image information of said captured image to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant;

comparing said thermal signature of the occupant with a set of previously stored thermal signatures of occupants in a thermal signature database; and

determining identity of said specific occupant in the occupancy space based on said comparison.

10. A system for determining the class and attributes of an occupant in an occupancy space, comprising:

an image capture device for capturing an infra-red image of said occupant in said occupancy space;

an information digitizer for digitizing infra-red image information of said captured image to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant; and

an information processor for processing said digitized image information, comprising;

a thermal signature comparison module for comparing said thermal signature of the occupant with thermal signatures of a plurality of occupants stored in a thermal signature database for determining said class and said attributes of the occupant.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said information processor further comprises a distinguishing module for distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said information processor further comprises a gait analysis module for analyzing gait of an animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non-human motion.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said information processor further comprises an enumeration module for enumerating occupants in the occupancy space.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising an embedded microcontroller for controlling one or more of said capture of said infra-red image, said digitization of the captured image information, said processing of the digitized image information, and indicating status of said processed image information.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising a thermal signature database for storing the thermal signature of the occupant.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the thermal signature database stores said thermal signatures of said occupants in different environmental settings.

17. The system of claim 10 stored and implemented on a chip.

18. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium, wherein said computer program product comprises:

a first computer parsable program code for capturing an image of an occupant in an occupancy space;

a second computer parsable program code for digitizing image information of said captured image to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant;

a third computer parsable program code for comparing said thermal signature of the occupant with a class and attributes common to a class of occupants stored in a thermal signature database;

a fourth computer parsable program code for distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant;

a fifth computer parsable program code for analyzing gait of said animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non-human motion; and

a sixth computer parsable program code for enumerating occupants in said occupancy space using an edge detection algorithm.