Occupancy Interaction Detection

• US 20160098024A1
• Filed: 12/14/2015
• Published: 04/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Building Robotics, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Enlighted, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Mohan, Tanuj, Ericsson, Bo E., Purandare, Neeraj
• Granted Patent: US 10,482,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/10 Occupancy
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/14 Activity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 13/00 Indicating or recording presence, absence, or direction, of movement electric switches H01H; counting moving objects G06M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Apparatuses, methods, apparatuses and systems for occupancy interaction detection, are disclosed. One occupancy interaction detection system includes a plurality of sensors located within an area, the plurality of sensors operative to sense at least motion of a first occupant and a second occupant of the area, and communication links between each of the sensors and a controller. For an embodiment, the controller operative to receive sense data from the plurality of sensors, track locations of the first occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the first occupant, track locations of the second occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the second occupant, and identify an interaction between the first occupant and the second occupant, comprising detecting the first occupant to be within a threshold distance of the second occupant.

Claims

1. An occupancy interaction detection system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors located within an area, the plurality of sensors operative to sense at least motion of a first occupant and a second occupant of the area;

communication links between each of the sensors and a controller, the controller operative to;

receive sense data from the plurality of sensors;

track locations of the first occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the first occupant;

track locations of the second occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the second occupant; and

identify an interaction between the first occupant and the second occupant, comprising detecting the first occupant to be within a threshold distance of the second occupant.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying the interaction further comprises detecting the first occupant to be within the threshold distance of the second occupant for greater than a threshold period of time.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising timing a length of the identified interaction.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors are further operative to sense at least motion of a third occupant of the area;

and

wherein the controller is further operative to track locations of the third occupant of the area;

identify an interaction between the first occupant, the second occupant, and the third occupant, comprising detecting the first occupant, the second occupant and the third occupant to be within a threshold distance of each other.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising tracking motion of at least the first occupant of the second occupant after identifying the interaction.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising identifying an influence of the identified interaction on at least the first occupant of the second occupant based on the tracking of motion of at least the first occupant of the second occupant after identifying the interaction.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors comprises an occupant identifier that is operative to detect an identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant.

8. The system of claim 7, the controller is further operative to generate a profile of at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant based on identification of the at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant, and tracked motion of the at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising detecting a customer engagement, comprising the controller being further operative to:

associate the identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant with a sales associate;

detect the customer engagement based on the identified interaction between the first occupant an the second occupant, and the association of the sales associate with the identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the first occupant or the second occupant is determined to be a customer, and wherein the controller is further operative to track motion of the customer, and determine whether the customer completes a transaction.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the controller is further operative to generate engagement metrics that measure how effective multiple different customer engagements are in completion of a transaction.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further operative to:

identify a group of sensors that includes a plurality of neighboring sensors sensing motion greater than a motion threshold during a time interval; and

wherein the

track motion, comprising linking the group to at least one past group of at least one past time interval.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein tracked motion of the group includes at least one of the plurality of neighboring sensors within the group being different than a plurality of sensors of the at least one past group.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further operative to:

group the sense data according to identified groupings of the plurality of sensors;

sense motion of the occupants within one or more of the groups based on the data analytics processing of the groups of sensed data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data analytics processing comprises pattern recognition processing

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller is further operative to sense numbers of occupants within one or more of the groups based on the data analytics processing of the groups of sensed data.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of sensors comprises motion sensors and wherein sensing numbers of occupants within one or more of the groups based on the data analytics processing of the groups of sensed data comprises the controller being operative to:

group motion sensing data according to one or more identified rooms within the area;

perform the data analytics processing once every sampling period;

perform the data analytics processing on the motion sensing data to determine a number of occupants within the one or more identified rooms, and a level of certainty of the number of occupants.

18. A method of occupancy interaction detection, comprising:

sensing at least motion of a first occupant and a second occupant of the area;

tracking locations of the first occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the first occupant;

tracking locations of the second occupant of the area based on the sensed motion of the second occupant; and

identifying an interaction between the first occupant and the second occupant, comprising detecting the first occupant to be within a threshold distance of the second occupant.

19. The method of claim 18, detecting an identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating a profile of at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant based on identification of the at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant and tracked motion of the at least one of the first occupant and the second occupant.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating detecting a customer engagement, comprising:

associating the identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant with a sales associate;

detecting the customer engagement based on the identified interaction between the first occupant an the second occupant, and the association of the sales associate with the identifier of the first occupant or the second occupant.