CUSTOMER CATEGORY ANALYSIS DEVICE, CUSTOMER CATEGORY ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND CUSTOMER CATEGORY ANALYSIS METHOD

• US 20140358639A1
• Filed: 05/22/2014
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: HIRAKAWA, Kunio, UNO, Yoshinobu, NAKAHATA, Yuichi, TAKEMOTO, Yuichiro
• Application Number:
  US14/284,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20140358639A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.33
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16

Abstract

A customer category analysis device includes: a customer category identification unit that identifies a customer category of each person appearing in an imaging region defined such that an image of each customer moving from a waiting area of the commercial establishment toward a seating area is captured from a front of the customer and obtains customer category information indicating a result of customer category identification; and a filtering unit that, based on a mode of behavior of each person appearing in the imaging region, determines whether the person is to be included in the analysis according to a predetermined criteria for limiting persons to be included in the analysis to customers who exhibit a behavior of moving toward the seating area, and excludes the person from the analysis if the person is determined not to be included in the analysis.

Claims

1. A customer category analysis device for analyzing customer categories of customers visiting a commercial establishment, comprising:

a customer category identification unit configured to identify a customer category of each person appearing in an imaging region defined such that an image of each customer moving from a waiting area near a doorway of the commercial establishment toward a seating area is captured from a front of the customer, and obtain customer category information indicating a result of customer category identification;

a filtering unit configured to, based on a mode of behavior of each person appearing in the imaging region, determine whether the person is a customer to be included in the analysis according to a predetermined determination criteria for limiting persons to be included in the analysis to customers who exhibit a mode of behavior of moving toward the seating area, and exclude the person from the analysis if the person is determined not to be included in the analysis;

a totaling unit configured to total the customer category information obtained by the customer category identification unit for persons selected by the filtering unit; and

an output information generation unit configured to generate output information representing a result of analysis based on a result of totaling by the totaling unit.

2. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the filtering unit determines whether each person appearing in the imaging region is a customer to be included in the analysis by making a stay determination, which is a determination of whether each person appearing in the imaging region is in a staying state.

3. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the filtering unit determines whether each person appearing in the imaging region is a customer to be included in the analysis by making a movement path determination, which is a determination of whether a movement path of the person appearing in the imaging region is different from a movement path assumed of a customer to be included in the analysis.

4. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the filtering unit divides the persons appearing in the imaging region into groups and determines whether each person appearing in the imaging region is a customer to be included in the analysis based on a determination of whether each group consists of a single person.

5. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the filtering unit divides the persons appearing in the imaging region into groups and determines whether each person appearing in the imaging region is a customer to be included in the analysis by making a group front determination, in which it is determined, when a group consisting of a plurality of persons is detected, whether each person in the group is a person who exits the imaging region first in the group.

6. The customer category analysis device according to claim 2, wherein the filtering unit makes the stay determination based on a determination of whether the person exits a determination area defined in the imaging region.

7. The customer category analysis device according to claim 3, wherein the filtering unit makes the movement path determination based on a state of intersection of the movement path of each person appearing in the imaging region with a determination line defined on a boundary of the imaging region.

8. The customer category analysis device according to claim 7, wherein the filtering unit obtains a direction of movement of each person immediately after the person has entered the imaging region, and based on the direction of movement, estimates an entry point to the imaging region, wherein the filtering unit obtains a direction of movement of each person immediately before the person leaves the imaging region, and based on the direction of movement, estimates an exit point from the imaging region, and wherein the filtering unit makes the movement path determination by determining whether the obtained entry point and exit point are on the determination line.

9. The customer category analysis device according to claim 4, wherein the filtering unit divides the persons appearing in the imaging region into groups based on intervals between times of detection of the persons detected sequentially in the imaging region.

10. The customer category analysis device according to claim 5, wherein the filtering unit obtains an amount of movement of each person immediately before exiting the imaging region, and based on the amount of movement, estimates a time when the person exited the imaging region.

11. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the output information generation unit generates, as the output information, customer category trend information relating to a trend of change in the number of customers in each category based on a time series of number of customers in each category obtained for every predetermined time period.

12. The customer category analysis device according to claim 11, wherein the customer category trend information represents a ratio of the number of customers in each category to a total number of customers obtained every said predetermined time period within daily opening hours of the commercial establishment.

13. The customer category analysis device according to claim 1, the customer category information includes at least one of gender and age.

14. A customer category analysis system for analyzing customer categories of customers visiting a commercial establishment, comprising:

an imaging device capturing images of customers; and

a plurality of information processing devices,

wherein the plurality of information processing devices jointly comprise;

a customer category identification unit configured to identify a customer category of each person appearing in an imaging region defined such that an image of each customer moving from a waiting area near a doorway of the commercial establishment toward a seating area is captured from a front of the customer, and obtain customer category information indicating a result of customer category identification;

a filtering unit configured to, based on a mode of behavior of each person appearing in the imaging region, determine whether the person is a customer to be included in the analysis according to a predetermined determination criteria for limiting persons to be included in the analysis to customers who exhibit a mode of behavior of moving toward the seating area, and exclude the person from the analysis if the person is determined not to be included in the analysis;

a totaling unit configured to total the customer category information obtained by the customer category identification unit for persons selected by the filtering unit; and

an output information generation unit configured to generate output information representing a result of analysis based on a result of totaling by the totaling unit.

15. A customer category analysis method for analyzing customer categories of customers visiting a commercial establishment by use of an information processing device set up inside or outside the commercial establishment, comprising:

identifying a customer category of each person appearing in an imaging region defined such that an image of each customer moving from a waiting area near a doorway of the commercial establishment toward a seating area is captured from a front of the customer, and obtaining customer category information indicating a result of customer category identification;

determining, based on a mode of behavior of each person appearing in the imaging region, whether the person is to be included in the analysis according to a predetermined determination criteria for limiting persons to be included in the analysis to customers who exhibit a mode of behavior of moving toward the seating area, and excluding the person from the analysis if the person is determined not to be included in the analysis;

totaling the customer category information obtained by the customer category identification unit for persons determined to be included in the analysis; and

generating output information representing a result of analysis based on a result of totaling.