DETERMINING SOURCE LANE OF MOVING ITEM MERGING INTO DESTINATION LANE
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a camera network comprising at least two imaging devices aimed at a first location, said imaging devices having field of views that are fixed and overlap said first location, said first location comprising multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, and moving items within said primary lanes initiating transactions while in said primary lanes and completing said transactions while in said secondary lane;
a processor operatively connected to said camera network, said processor calculating distances of said moving items from said camera network to identify in which of said primary lanes each of said moving items was located before merging into said secondary lane, and said processor ordering said transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which said moving items entered said secondary lane from said primary lanes; and
an interface operatively connected to said processor, said interface outputting said transactions in said merge order.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and devices acquire images using a stereo camera or camera network aimed at a first location. The first location comprises multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, and moving items within the primary lanes initiate transactions while in the primary lanes and complete the transactions while in the secondary lane. Such methods and devices calculate distances of the moving items from the camera to identify in which of the primary lanes each of the moving items was located before merging into the secondary lane. These methods and devices then order the transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which the moving items entered the secondary lane from the primary lanes. Also, the methods and devices output the transactions in the merge.
28 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a camera network comprising at least two imaging devices aimed at a first location, said imaging devices having field of views that are fixed and overlap said first location, said first location comprising multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, and moving items within said primary lanes initiating transactions while in said primary lanes and completing said transactions while in said secondary lane; a processor operatively connected to said camera network, said processor calculating distances of said moving items from said camera network to identify in which of said primary lanes each of said moving items was located before merging into said secondary lane, and said processor ordering said transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which said moving items entered said secondary lane from said primary lanes; and an interface operatively connected to said processor, said interface outputting said transactions in said merge order. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus comprising:
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an optical stereo camera comprising multiple cameras aimed at a first location, said multiple cameras having field of views that are fixed and overlap said first location, said first location comprising multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, and moving items within said primary lanes initiating transactions while in said primary lanes and completing said transactions while in said secondary lane; a processor operatively connected to said stereo camera, said processor calculating distances of said moving items from said stereo camera based on differences between images of said moving items obtained by said multiple cameras to identify in which of said primary lanes each of said moving items was located before merging into said secondary lane, and said processor ordering said transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which said moving items entered said secondary lane from said primary lanes; and an interface operatively connected to said processor, said interface outputting said transactions in said merge order. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus comprising:
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an optical stereo camera comprising multiple cameras aimed at a first location, said multiple cameras having field of views that are fixed and overlap said first location, said first location comprising a horizontal surface having multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, said stereo camera being aimed in a horizontal direction parallel to said horizontal surface, and moving items within said primary lanes initiating transactions while in said primary lanes and completing said transactions while in said secondary lane; a processor operatively connected to said stereo camera, said processor calculating distances of said moving items from said stereo camera in said horizontal direction based on differences between images of said moving items obtained by said multiple cameras to identify in which of said primary lanes each of said moving items was located before merging into said secondary lane, and said processor ordering said transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which said moving items entered said secondary lane from said primary lanes; and an interface operatively connected to said processor, said interface outputting said transactions in said merge order. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method comprising:
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acquiring images using an camera network comprising at least two imaging devices aimed at a first location, said imaging devices having field of views that are fixed and overlap said first location, said first location comprising multiple parallel primary lanes merging into a reduced number of at least one secondary lane, and moving items within said primary lanes initiating transactions while in said primary lanes and completing said transactions while in said secondary lane; calculating distances of said moving items from a reference device of said imaging devices in said camera network using a processor operatively connected to said camera network to identify in which of said primary lanes each of said moving items was located before merging into said secondary lane; ordering said transactions in a merge order corresponding to a sequence in which said moving items entered said secondary lane from said primary lanes, using said processor; and outputting said transactions in said merge order using an interface operatively connected to said processor. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification