OBJECT AREA TRACKING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM OF THE SAME

• US 20140185875A1
• Filed: 12/26/2013
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Tsuji, Ryosuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,258,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body

Abstract

An object area tracking apparatus has: a face detection unit for detecting a face area on the basis of a feature amount of a face from a supplied image; a person'"'"'s body detection unit for detecting an area of a person'"'"'s body on the basis of a feature amount of the person'"'"'s body; and a main object determination unit for obtaining a priority for each of the objects by using detection results by the face detection unit and the person'"'"'s body detection unit and determining a main object of a high priority, wherein for the object detected only by the person'"'"'s body detection unit, the priority is changed in accordance with a past detection result of the object in the face detection unit.

Claims

1. An object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area, comprising:

a first detection unit configured to detect a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a first feature amount;

a second detection unit configured to detect a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a second feature amount different from the first feature amount; and

a main object determination unit configured to obtain a priority for each of the objects by using a detection result of the first detection unit and a detection result of the second detection unit and determine a main object of a high priority from the objects,

wherein for the object which is not detected by the first detection unit and is detected by the second detection unit, the main object determination unit changes the priority in accordance with a detection result of the past of the object in the first detection unit.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a detection result integration unit configured to compare the detection result of the first detection unit with the detection result of the second detection unit and integrate the detection results for the same object, and

wherein the main object determination unit provides a priority for each of the detected objects shown by the detection result integrated by the detection result integration unit.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein for the object which is not detected by the first detection unit and is detected by the second detection unit, if the object is not detected by the first detection unit in the past, the main object determination unit decreases the priority to a value smaller than that in the case where the object is detected by the first detection unit in the past.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein for the object which is not detected by the first detection unit and is detected by the second detection unit, if the object is not detected by the first detection unit in the past, the main object determination unit does not determine that the object is the main object.

5. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the detection result integration unit is arranged to use, for the object having the detection result by the first detection unit, the detection result by the first detection unit as an integrated detection result and use, for the object having only the detection result by the second detection unit, an area where the detection result by the second detection unit is converted into a partial area corresponding to the object area which is detected by the first detection unit as an integrated detection result.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of objects are selected as candidates of the main object, the main object determination unit selects one object, as the main object, from the candidates of the main object on the basis of a position and a size of the object.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first detection unit detects an area of a person'"'"'s face as an object area, and the second detection unit detects an area of a person'"'"'s body as an object area.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the detection results of the object by the first detection unit in the present and past satisfy a condition for an element which is at least one of a reliability of the detection, a period of duration of the detection, a position, and a size, the main object determination unit selects the object as a candidate of the main object.

9. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

an image pickup unit configured to supply a picked-up image;

the object area tracking apparatus according to claim 1; and

a control unit configured to control an image pickup condition in the image pickup unit in accordance with information of the object which is output by the object area tracking apparatus.

10. A display apparatus comprising:

a display unit configured to display an image which is supplied;

the object area tracking apparatus according to claim 1; and

a control unit configured to control a display condition of the image in the display unit in accordance with information of the object which is output by the object area tracking apparatus.

11. A control method of an object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area, comprising:

a first detection step of detecting a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a first feature amount;

a second detection step of detecting a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a second feature amount different from the first feature amount; and

a main object determination step of obtaining a priority for each of the objects by using a detection result in the first detection step and a detection result in the second detection step and determining a main object of a high priority from the objects,

wherein in the main object determination step, for the object which is not detected in the first detection step and is detected in the second detection step, the priority is changed in accordance with a detection result of the past of the object in the first detection step.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a control method of an object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area,

the control method comprising:

a first detection step of detecting a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a first feature amount;

a second detection step of detecting a predetermined object area from the image on the basis of a second feature amount different from the first feature amount; and

a main object determination step of obtaining a priority for each of the objects by using a detection result in the first detection step and a detection result in the second detection step and determining a main object of a high priority from the objects,

wherein in the main object determination step, for the object which is not detected in the first detection step and is detected in the second detection step, the priority is changed in accordance with a detection result of the past of the object in the first detection step.

13. An object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area, comprising:

a first detection unit configured to detect a face area of an object from the image;

a second detection unit configured to detect a predetermined area different from the face area of the object from the image; and

a main object determination unit configured to determine a main object on the basis of a detection result in the first detection unit and a detection result in the second detection unit,

wherein the main object determination unit selects a main object from the objects whose face areas are detected by the first detection unit including the past objects.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the second detection unit detects an area of a person'"'"'s body as an object area.

15. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

an image pickup unit configured to supply a picked-up image;

the object area tracking apparatus according to claim 13; and

a control unit configured to control an image pickup condition in the image pickup unit in accordance with information of an object which is output by the object area tracking apparatus.

16. A display apparatus comprising:

a display unit configured to display an image which is supplied;

the object area tracking apparatus according to claim 13; and

a control unit configured to control a display condition of the image in the display unit in accordance with information of an object which is output by the object area tracking apparatus.

17. A control method of an object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area, comprising:

a first detection step of detecting a face area of an object from the image;

a second detection step of detecting a predetermined area different from the face area of the object from the image; and

a main object determination step of determining a main object on the basis of a detection result in the first detection step and a detection result in the second detection step,

wherein in the main object determination step, a main object is selected from the objects whose face areas have been detected in the first detection step including the past objects.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a control method of an object area tracking apparatus for detecting a target object area from a supplied image and tracking the detected object area,

the control method comprising:

a first detection step of detecting a face area of an object from the image;

a second detection step of detecting a predetermined area different from the face area of the object from the image; and

a main object determination step of determining a main object on the basis of a detection result in the first detection step and a detection result in the second detection step,

wherein in the main object determination step, a main object is selected from the objects whose face areas have been detected in the first detection step including the past objects.