VEHICLE OCCUPANCY DETECTION USING TIME-OF-FLIGHT SENSOR

• US 20130148845A1
• Filed: 12/08/2011
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC (Conduent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Maeda, Patrick Yasuo
• Granted Patent: US 9,964,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors

Abstract

Vehicle occupancy detection involves projecting modulated light onto an occupant from a light source outside of a vehicle. Reflections of the light source are received at a detector located outside of the vehicle. Three-dimensional data is determined based on a time-of-flight of the reflections, and the occupant is detected based on the three-dimensional data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

projecting modulated light onto an occupant from a light source outside of a vehicle;

receiving reflections of the light source at a detector located outside of the vehicle;

determining three-dimensional data based on a time-of-flight of the reflections; and

detecting the occupant based on the three-dimensional data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle comprises a moving vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the light source and the detector are part of an apparatus of a traffic monitoring system.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a light source configured to project modulated light onto an occupant from outside of a vehicle;

a detector configured to receiving reflections of the light; and

a processor coupled to the light source and the detector, the processor configured to;

determine time-of-flight of the reflections;

determine three-dimensional data of an interior of the vehicle based on the time-of-flight of the reflections; and

detect the occupant based on the three-dimensional data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the vehicle comprises a moving vehicle.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the apparatus is part of a traffic monitoring system.

13. A system comprising:

a time-of-flight sensor configured to detect objects in an interior of a vehicle from outside of the vehicle; and

a computing arrangement coupled to the time-of-flight sensor, the computing arrangement having a processor configured to;

receive data from the time-of-flight sensor;

detect an occupant of the vehicle based on the data; and

signal the detection of the occupant to an end-user application.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the user application comprises a traffic monitoring system.

18. The system of claim 13, where the data received from the time-of-flight sensor comprises a sequence of frames each having three-dimensional data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein detecting the occupant comprises combining two or more of the frames to form an improved three-dimensional model based on the three-dimensional data.