VEHICLE CLASSIFICATION FROM LASER SCANNERS USING FISHER AND PROFILE SIGNATURES

• US 20150046119A1
• Filed: 08/09/2013
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC (Conduent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Rodriguez Serrano, Jose Antonio, Poirier, Herve, Csurka, Gabriela, Sandhawalia, Harsimrat Singh
• Granted Patent: US 9,683,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/167
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/2518 Projection by scanning of the object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2135 based on approximation criteria, e.g. principal component analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/464 using a plurality of salient features, e.g. bag-of-words [BoW] representations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/7715 Feature extraction, e.g. by transforming the feature space, e.g. multi-dimensional scaling [MDS]; Mappings, e.g. subspace methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/653 by matching three-dimensional models, e.g. conformal mapping of Riemann surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/695 Preprocessing, e.g. image segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/698 Matching; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/382 Preprocessing; Feature extraction

Abstract

Methods, systems and processor-readable media for vehicle classification. In general, one or more vehicles can be scanned utilizing a laser scanner to compile data indicative of an optical profile of the vehicle(s). The optical profile associated with the vehicle(s) is then pre-processed. Particular features are extracted from the optical profile following pre-processing of the optical profile. The vehicle(s) can be then classified based on the particular features extracted from the optical feature. A segmented laser profile is treated as an image and profile features that integrate the signal in one of the two directions of the image and Fisher vectors which aggregate statistics of local “patches” of the image are computed and utilized as part of the extraction and classification process.

Claims

1. A method for vehicle classification, said method comprising:

scanning at least one vehicle utilizing a laser scanner to compile data indicative of an optical profile of said at least one vehicle;

pre-processing said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle;

extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile; and

classifying said at least one vehicle based on said particular features extracted from said optical feature.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein pre-processing said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle, further comprises at least one of the following:

isolating at least one individual profile from said data indicative of said optical profile;

correcting scan reading errors associated scanning said at least one vehicle utilizing said laser scanner;

segmenting data indicative of a vehicle body from said data indicative of said optical profile.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprises:

extracting said particular features including Fisher vectors.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprises:

extracting said particular features including profile features by computing an integral in a horizontal direction and/or in a vertical direction with respect to said optical profile.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein classifying said at least one vehicle based on said particular features extracted from said optical feature, further comprises:

training at least one linear classifier utilizing said particular features extracted from said optical feature; and

classifying said at least one vehicle based on data output from said at least one linear classifier.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising configuring said linear classifier to comprise an SVM (Support Vector Machine) trained via SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent)

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said particular features extracted from said optical feature includes human-used attributes.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein said particular features extracted from said optical feature include a feature set extracted from profile images that include at least one of the following:

raw profile features; and

/or Fisher image signatures; and

/or Fisher laser signatures.

9. A system for vehicle classification, said system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, said computer-usable medium capable of communicating with the processor, said computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for;

scanning at least one vehicle utilizing a laser scanner to compile data indicative of an optical profile of said at least one vehicle;

pre-processing said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle;

extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile; and

classifying said at least one vehicle based on said particular features extracted from said optical feature.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said instructions for pre-processing said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle, further comprise instructions configured for at least one of the following:

isolating at least one individual profile from said data indicative of said optical profile;

correcting scan reading errors associated with scanning said at least one vehicle utilizing said laser scanner;

segmenting data indicative of a vehicle body from said data indicative of said optical profile.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said instructions for extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprise instructions configured for:

extracting said particular features including Fisher vectors.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein said instructions for extracting particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprise instructions configured for:

extracting said particular features including profile features by computing an integral in a horizontal direction and/or in a vertical direction with respect to said optical profile.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein said instructions for classifying said at least one vehicle based on said particular features extracted from said optical feature, further comprise instructions configured for:

training at least one linear classifier utilizing said particular features extracted from said optical feature; and

classifying said at least one vehicle based on data output from said at least one linear classifier.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein said instructions are further modified for configuring said linear classifier to comprise an SVM (Support Vector Machine) trained via SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent).

15. The system of claim 13 wherein said particular features extracted from said optical feature includes human-used attributes.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein said particular features extracted from said optical feature include a feature set extracted from profile images that include at least one of the following:

raw profile features; and

/or Fisher image signatures; and

/or Fisher laser signatures.

17. A processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to cause a process for vehicle classification, said code comprising code to:

scan at least one vehicle utilizing a laser scanner to compile data indicative of an optical profile of said at least one vehicle;

pre-process said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle;

extract particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile; and

classify said at least one vehicle based on said particular features extracted from said optical feature.

18. The processor-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said code to pre-process said optical profile associated with said at least one vehicle, further comprises code to:

isolate at least one individual profile from said data indicative of said optical profile;

correct scan reading errors associated scanning said at least one vehicle utilizing said laser scanner; and

segment data indicative of a vehicle body from said data indicative of said optical profile.

19. The processor-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said code to extract particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprises code to:

extract said particular features including Fisher vectors.

20. The processor-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said code to extract particular features from said optical profile after preprocessing said optical profile, further comprises code to:

extract said particular features including profile features by computing an integral in a horizontal direction and/or in a vertical direction with respect to said optical profile.