MONITORING DEVICE, METHOD THEREOF

• US 20130063593A1
• Filed: 03/23/2012
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: TASAKI, Tsuyoshi, YAMAMOTO, Daisuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,019,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/7864 T.V. type tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10048 Infrared image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A monitoring device includes an indicating unit configured to indicate an object to be monitored; a camera to acquire time-series images; a predicting unit configured to predict the position of destination of the characteristic points belonging to a first aggregation including characteristic points having an amount of movement larger than a reference amount of movement set in advance; a detecting unit configured to detect the position of center of gravity of the changed area; a determining unit configured to determine the positions of destination as an indicating position when representative amount of movement is larger than a first threshold value and determine the position of center of gravity as the indicating position when the representative amount of movement is smaller than the first threshold value; and a control unit configured to control the indicating unit to cause the indicating unit to indicate the indicating position are provided.

Claims

1. A monitoring device comprising:

an indicating unit configured to indicate an object to be monitored;

a camera to take an image of the object to be monitored and acquire time-series images;

a predicting unit configured to extract a plurality of characteristic points from the time-series images, calculate the amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points, predict the position of destination of the characteristic points belonging to a first aggregation including characteristic points having an amount of movement larger than a reference amount of movement set in advance, and obtain an representative amount of movement that is an representative value of amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation;

a detecting unit configured to extract a changed area on the basis of a difference between time-series images, and detect the position of center of gravity of the changed area;

a determining unit configured to determine the positions of destination as an indicating position when the representative amount of movement is larger than a first threshold value and determine the position of center of gravity as the indicating position when the representative amount of movement is smaller than the first threshold value; and

a control unit configured to control the indicating unit to cause the indicating unit to indicate the indicating position.

2. The device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storing unit configured to store a plurality of monitoring areas in the images acquired by the camera, wherein the determining unit

sets a position in the monitoring area as the indicating position when the representative amount of movement is relatively larger than the first threshold value and the distance between the positions in the plurality of monitoring areas and the positions of destinations are relatively smaller than a preset second threshold value.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the predicting unit

calculates the representative amount of movement obtained by averaging the amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation and an representative direction of movement obtained by averaging the directions of movement of the respective characteristic points, and

sets the representative position of the respective characteristic points having the representative amount of movement and the representative direction of movement and belonging to the first aggregation to the position of destination.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the predicting unit

calculates the representative amount of movement obtained by averaging the amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation and an representative direction of movement obtained by averaging the directions of movement of the respective characteristic points,

sets the representative position of the respective characteristic points having the representative amount of movement and the representative direction of movement and belonging to the first aggregation,

obtains a second aggregation including the characteristic points having an angle formed between the direction of movement and the representative direction of movement of the characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation smaller than a reference angle set in advance, and

sets the position of the characteristic point located at the farthest position along the representative direction of movement from the representative position among the characteristic points belonging to the second aggregation as the position of destination.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines the indicating position and then retaining the determination of the indicating position until the elapse of a certain period set in advance.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines the position of center of gravity as the indicating position when dispersion of the changed area is smaller than a predetermined value set in advance.

7. The device according to claim 2, wherein

the determining unit

outputs the position of destination at a time point when the determination to set the position of destination as the indicating position is performed continuously by a reference number of times set in advance and the determination not to set the position of destination as the indicating position is performed as a position of termination of movement to the storing unit, and

the storing unit stores the position of termination of movement or a peripheral area thereof as a new monitoring area.

8. A method of monitoring with a monitoring device including an indicating unit configured to indicate an object to be monitored and a camera to take images of the object to be monitors to obtain time-series images, comprising:

extracting a plurality of characteristic points from the time-series images, calculating the amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points, predicting the position of destination of the characteristic points belonging to a first aggregation including characteristic points having an amount of movement larger than a reference amount of movement set in advance, and obtaining an representative amount of movement that is an representative value of amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation;

extracting a changed area on the basis of a difference between time-series images, and detecting the position of center of gravity of the changed area;

determining the position of destination as an indicating position when the representative amount of movement is larger than a first threshold value and determine the position of center of gravity as the indicating position when the representative amount of movement is smaller than the first threshold value;

and

controlling the indicating unit to cause the indicating unit to indicate the indicating position.

9. A non-transitory program stored in a computer readable medium, causing a computer to perform a monitoring method by a monitoring device including an indicating unit configured to indicate an object to be monitored and a camera to take images of the object to be monitors to obtain time-series images, the method comprising:

extracting a plurality of characteristic points from the time-series images, calculates the amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points, predicting the position of destination of the characteristic points belonging to a first aggregation including characteristic points having an amount of movement larger than a reference amount of movement set in advance, and obtaining an representative amount of movement that is an representative value of amounts of movement of the respective characteristic points belonging to the first aggregation;

extracting a changed area on the basis of a difference between time-series images, and detecting the position of center of gravity of the changed area;

determining the position of destination as an indicating position when the representative amount of movement is larger than a first threshold value and determine the position of center of gravity as the indicating position when the representative amount of movement is smaller than the first threshold value;

and

controlling the indicating unit to cause the indicating unit to indicate the indicating position.