SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OCCUPANCY DETECTION USING DIFFERENTIAL IMAGE SENSING AND OPTICAL MARKERS

• US 20140293032A1
• Filed: 03/25/2014
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Urjagreen Technologies PVT Limited
• Original Assignee: Urjagreen Technologies PVT Limited
• Inventors: GONTINA, SATYA KISHORE
• Granted Patent: US 9,336,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69

Abstract

A system and method for detecting occupancy of live objects, using differential image sensing and optical markers is provided. The system includes a live object(s) or a human, a stationary object(s), an image capturing device, an imaging system, a network, and an occupancy determination and parsing server. The image capturing device may capture the image sequences from a physical location which may be within the camera viewing area. The image capturing device may also be configured to track motions of the live objects. The imaging system may be connected to the occupancy determination and parsing server through the network. The occupancy determination and parsing server based on the information received from the imaging system may determine whether the physical location is occupied with the live objects or the stationary objects. The occupancy determination module and parsing server may be connected with at least one the imaging system.

Claims

1. An occupancy detection system for detecting occupancy of live objects in a physical location, said occupancy detection system comprising:

a memory that stores computer executable instructions, a set of modules and a database;

a display unit; and

a processor configured by said computer executable instructions, that executes said set of modules, said set of modules comprising;

at least one image capturing device executed by said processor, wherein said at least one image capturing device captures image sequences of said physical location;

an image processing module, executed by said processor, that obtains a first set of information from said at least one image capturing device at a first time and a second set of information from said at least one image capturing device at a second time, wherein said first set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live objects, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences, and wherein said second set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live object, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences;

an image subtraction module executed by said processor, wherein said image subtraction module subtracts said second set of information obtained at said second time from said first set of information obtained at first time, to obtain an image information on (i) said stationary object(s), and (ii) said live object(s) in said physical location;

a motion estimation module, executed by said processor, that estimates a motion of said live object, with at least one of said image capturing device, configured to track motion to obtain an information of said live object(s);

a tag detection module, executed by said processor, that identifies tags from said images sequences captured by said at least one image capturing device, to obtain information on said tags which are blocked by said live object(s); and

an occupancy determination module executed by said processor, wherein said occupancy determination module collates and compares (i) said image information on said live object(s) obtained from said image subtraction module, (ii) said information of said live object(s) obtained from said motion estimation module, and (iii) said information on tags which are blocked by said live object(s), to determine occupancy of said live object(s) in said physical location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said image subtraction module comprises:

a light equalization module executed by said processor, wherein said light equalization module normalizes lighting levels of said image sequences captured from said at least one image capturing device;

a shadow removal module, executed by said processor, that is configured to minimize shadows in said image sequences captured from said at least one image capturing device; and

a periodic motion identification module, executed by said processor, that is configured to periodically select said image sequences captured at said first time and said second time, wherein said captured images sequences at said second time is subtracted from images captured at said first time, to obtain an image information with pixel value of said image sequences on motion of said stationary object(s).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said motion estimation module comprises a periodic identification module, executed by said processor, that detects a periodic motion of said stationary object(s), wherein said periodic motion is a movement of said stationary object occurring at regular intervals.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said stationary object(s) comprises a self-motion, wherein said self-motion is a table fan, a moving chair, waving trees or plants in the background.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said tags are a Quick Response (QR) code tags.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said Quick Response (QR) code tags is physically tagged to said stationary object(s) in said physical location.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said QR code tag is configured to be detected by said image capturing device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said live objects is masked for privacy protection without affecting inherited property of detected said live objects.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said privacy protection is performed before or after determining occupancy of said live objects in said physical location.

10. A non-transitory program storage device readable by computer, and comprising a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method for detecting occupancy of a live object(s) in a physical location, said method comprising:

capturing, using an image capturing device, image sequences of said physical location;

extracting a first set of information from said at least one image capturing device at a first time and a second set of information from said at least one image capturing device at a second time, wherein said first set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live objects, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences, and wherein said second set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live object, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences;

subtracting said second set of information obtained at second time from said first set of information obtained at first time, to obtain an image information on (i) said stationary object(s), and (ii) said live object(s) in said physical location;

estimating track motions of said live object(s) to obtain information of said live object(s);

identifying tags to obtain information on said tags which are blocked by said live object(s); and

comparing said image information on said live object(s) obtained from image subtraction, said information of said live object(s), and said information on tags which are blocked by said live object(s), to determine occupancy of said live object(s) in said physical location.

11. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein said method further comprises (a) normalizing lighting levels in said image sequences;

and (b) removing shadows of said image sequences captured from said at least one image capturing device at said first time and said second time.

12. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein said method further comprises:

selecting, periodically, images from said image sequences at said second time and subtracting with images from said image sequences at first time to obtain image information on said stationary object(s).

13. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein said tags is a Quick Response (QR) code tag, and wherein said Quick Response (QR) code tag is physically tagged to said stationary object(s) in said physical location.

14. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 13, wherein said QR code tag is configured to be detected by said image capturing device.

15. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein said live object is masked for privacy protection without affecting inherited property of detected said live object, and wherein said privacy protection is performed before or after determining occupancy of said live objects in said physical location.

16. A method for detecting occupancy of live objects in a physical location, and comprising a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method for detecting occupancy of a live object(s) in a physical location, said method comprising:

capturing, using an image capturing device, image sequences of said physical location;

extracting a first set of information from said at least one image capturing device at first time and a second set of information from said at least one image capturing device at second time, wherein said first set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live objects, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences, and wherein said second set of information comprises an image information on at least one of (a) live object, (b) stationary object(s), (c) current light levels, and (d) current shadow levels of said image sequences;

subtracting said second set of information obtained at second time from said first set of information obtained at first time, to obtain an image information on (i) said stationary object(s), and (ii) said live object(s) in said physical location;

identifying tags to obtain information on said tags which are blocked by said live object(s); and

comparing, said image information on said live object(s) obtained from image subtraction, and said information on tags which are blocked by said live object(s), to determine occupancy of said live object(s) in said physical location.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

estimating track motions of said live object(s) to obtain information of said live object(s);

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

comparing said image information on said live object(s) obtained from image subtraction, said information of said live object(s), and said information on tags which are blocked by said live object(s), to determine occupancy of said live object(s) in said physical location

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising (a) normalizing lighting levels in said image sequences;

and (b) removing shadows of said image sequences captured from said at least one image capturing device at said first time and said second time.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting, periodically, images from said image sequences at said second time and subtracting with images from said image sequences at first time to obtain image information on said stationary object(s).