APPARATUS, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR MONITORING A NUMBER OF PASSENGERS IN AN AUTOMOBILE

• US 20140375808A1
• Filed: 11/27/2013
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Utechzone Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Utechzone Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kao, Chia Wen, Lin, Po Tsung, Fang, Chih Heng, Tsou, Chia Chun
• Application Number:
  US14/092,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20140375808A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/066 actuating a signalling device B60K28/063 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/00 Pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/593 Recognising seat occupancy
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A monitor is utilized for installing inside an automobile to monitor a number of passengers in an automobile. The monitor includes an image capturing device, and a processing unit is connected to the image capturing device. The image capturing device successively captures a plurality of images in the automobile. The processing unit receives the images from the image capturing device to arrange an image sequence, wherein the processing unit includes an image dividing module, an image processing module, and a motion detecting module. The image dividing module divides each of the images into a plurality of recognition blocks, the image processing module compares the recognition blocks of consecutive images in the image sequence to acquire an image variance value, and the motion detecting module has a threshold value and determines the recognition blocks as a human-present condition when the image variance value surpasses the threshold value.

Claims

1. A monitor for installing inside an automobile to monitor a number of passengers in an automobile, wherein the monitor includes:

an image capturing device, which successively captures a plurality of images in the automobile; and

a processing unit, which receives the images from the image capturing device to arrange an image sequence, wherein the processing unit includes an image dividing module, an image processing module, and a motion detecting module;

wherein the image dividing module divides each of the images into a plurality of recognition blocks;

wherein the image processing module compares the recognition blocks of consecutive images in the image sequence to acquire an image variance value;

wherein the motion detecting module has a threshold value and determines the recognition blocks as a human-present condition when the image variance value surpasses the threshold value.

2. The monitor of claim 1, wherein the image variance value is a distance of variance vector acquired from an intermediate coordinate that distinguishes two image trait blocks after the image processing module removes a background of the consecutive images in the image sequence.

3. The monitor of claim 1, wherein the consecutive images respectively includes a pixel matrix, and the image variance value is a sum of an absolute value of a subtraction between the pixel matrixes of the consecutive images.

4. The monitor of claim 1, wherein the consecutive images respectively includes a pixel matrix, and the image variance value is a proportion between the recognition blocks and a difference value matrix acquired from a subtraction between the pixel matrixes of the consecutive images.

5. The monitor of claim 1, wherein each of the recognition blocks respectively includes a depth reference range, and the image capturing device includes two cameras that measure the depths of the recognition blocks to detect whether there are objects within the depth reference range.

6. The monitor of claim 1, wherein each of the recognition blocks respectively includes a depth reference range, and the image capturing device is a depth camera that measures the depths of the recognition blocks to detect whether there are objects within the depth reference range.

7. The monitor of claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a counter that records the number of people through the motion detecting module, and the monitor includes a wireless communication device that transmits data of the number of people to a remote server.

8. The monitor of claim 7, wherein the wireless communication device is established on the wireless communication system 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi of a communication protocol.

9. The monitor of claim 1, which further includes a driver attention alarm, and the driver attention alarm includes another image capturing device that captures a facial image of the driver and records a number of winks in the facial image, and a warning indicator connected to the another image capturing device that sends out a warning when the number of winks in a stipulated time surpasses a first threshold value.

10. The monitor of claim 1, which further includes a driver attention alarm, and the driver attention alarm includes another image capturing device that captures a facial image of the driver and detects an angle of face turning in the facial image, and a warning indicator connected to the another image capturing device that sends out a warning when the angle of face turning surpasses a second threshold value.

11. A method for monitoring a number of passengers in an automobile, including:

a) successively capturing a plurality of images in the automobile through an image capturing device, and arranging the images into an image sequence;

b) dividing each image of the image sequence into a plurality of recognition blocks;

c) comparing the recognition blocks of consecutive images in the image sequence to acquire an image variance value; and

d) comparing the image variance value with a threshold value, and when the image variance value surpasses the threshold value, determining the recognition block as a human-present condition.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the image variance value is a distance of variance vector acquired from an intermediate coordinate that distinguishes two image trait blocks after the image processing module removes a background of the consecutive images.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the consecutive images respectively includes a pixel matrix, and the image variance value is a sum of the absolute value of a subtraction between the pixel matrixes of the consecutive images.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the consecutive images respectively includes a pixel matrix, and the image variance value is a proportion between the recognition blocks and a difference value matrix acquired from a subtraction between the pixel matrixes of the consecutive images

15. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the recognition blocks respectively includes a depth reference range, and in step b), the image capturing device measures the depths of the recognition blocks to detect whether there are objects within the depth reference range.

16. The method of claim 11, which further includes a step e), the step in which by the results of detecting the recognition blocks the number of passengers inside the automobile is counted and a warning indication is transmitted to a remote server when the number of passengers fails to reach a required number of regulation

17. A computer-readable recording medium, installed on an electronic device, wherein the computer-readable recording medium is recorded with a method for monitoring the number of passengers in automobiles, and the method is according to the method of any one of claims 11.