IMAGE/LOCATION-BASED TRACKING

• US 20160241815A1
• Filed: 02/13/2015
• Published: 08/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 355323 B.C. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: 355323 B.C. Ltd.
• Inventors: Baxter, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 10,091,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/62 relating to a temporal dimension, e.g. time-based feature extraction; Pattern tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to tracking authorized individuals, and identifying the presence of unauthorized individuals. As may be consistent with one more embodiments, respective cameras capture images of regions of a common premises, and a filter circuit detects the presence of individuals in the images, and filters the detected presence as follows. The location of one or more authorized users are tracked relative to the premises via location-based information indicative of each authorized user'"'"'s location. Each detected individual'"'"'s location is identified and compared to the tracked location of the at least one authorized user. The detected individual is identified as being an unauthorized individual in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is not common to the tracked location.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cameras respectively configured and arranged to capture images of regions of a common premises; and

a filter circuit configured and arranged to detect the presence of individuals in the images, and to filter the detected presence by

tracking the location of at least one authorized user relative to the premises via location-based information indicative of each authorized user'"'"'s location, and

for each detected individual in the images;

identifying a location of the detected individual,

comparing the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location of the at least one authorized user, and

in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is not common to the tracked location on the premises, facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to initiate a security-based analytics protocol in response to detecting an individual in one of the captured images, and to pacify execution of the security-based analytics protocol in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is common to the tracked location of the authorized user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to identify the location of the detected individual by identifying a camera by which the image of the detected individual was taken, and to compare the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location of the at least one user by comparing GPS-based coordinates of the tracked location of the at least one authorized user with GPS-based coordinates of a specified area of the premises captured by the identified camera.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to filter the detected presence by

tracking the location of the at least one authorized user by identifying the user as being present within GPS-based coordinates of a specified area of the premises captured by one of the cameras, and

facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual by detecting that the camera capturing the image of the detected individual is different than the camera that captures said specified area.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to disable a security feature for each camera that captures a field of view of an area of the premises that includes tracked GPS coordinates of the at least one authorized user, during a time period in which the tracked GPS coordinates are present in the area, and to re-enable the security feature in response to the tracked GPS coordinates of the at least one authorized user moving out of the area of the premises.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to initiate a security-based analytics protocol in response to the identified location being different than the tracked location of the at least one authorized individual.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to

track the location of the at least one authorized user by tracking respective locations of a plurality of authorized users that are located in the premises,

compare the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location by comparing the identified location against all of the plurality of authorized users that are tracked as being located in the premises, and

facilitate identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual in response to the comparison indicating that the detected individual is not in any one of the respective locations.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter circuit is configured and arranged to, in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is common to the tracked location on the premises:

analyze facial characteristics in the image of the detected individual relative to facial recognition data for the at least one authorized user, and

facilitate the identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual in response to the analyzing of the facial characteristics failing to identify the detected individual as being the at least one authorized user.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a remote circuit configured and arranged to:

wirelessly communicate with a plurality of external signal sources and identify therefrom the location of the remote circuit,

compare the identified location of the remote circuit with location information characterizing the premises, and

transmit location-based information, including information indicative of the identified location of the remote circuit, to the filter circuit based on the comparing indicating that the remote circuit is on the premises.

10. A method comprising:

capturing images of regions of a common premises via a plurality of cameras;

detecting the presence of individuals in the images; and

filtering the detected presence by

tracking the location of at least one authorized user relative to the premises via location-based information indicative of each authorized user'"'"'s location, and

for each detected individual in the images;

identifying a location of the detected individual,

comparing the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location of the at least one authorized user, and

in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is not common to the tracked location on the premises, facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual.

11. The method of claim 10, further including initiating a security-based analytics protocol in response to detecting an individual in one of the captured images, and pacifying execution of the security-based analytics protocol in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is common to the tracked location of the authorized user.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein

identifying the location of the detected individual includes identifying a camera by which the image of the detected individual was taken, and

comparing the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location of the at least one user includes comparing GPS-based coordinates of the tracked location of the at least one authorized user with GPS-based coordinates of a specified area of the premises captured by the identified camera.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein

tracking the location of the at least one authorized user includes identifying the user as being present within GPS-based coordinates of a specified area of the premises captured by one of the cameras, and

facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual includes detecting that the camera capturing the image of the detected individual is different than the camera that captures said specified area.

14. The method of claim 10, further including:

disabling a security feature for each camera that captures a field of view of an area of the premises that includes tracked GPS coordinates of the at least one authorized user, during a time period in which the tracked GPS coordinates are present in the area, and

re-enabling the security feature in response to the tracked GPS coordinates of the at least one authorized user moving out of the area of the premises.

15. The method of claim 10, further including initiating a security-based analytics protocol in response to the identified location being different than the tracked location of the at least one authorized individual.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein:

tracking the location of the at least one authorized user includes tracking respective locations of a plurality of authorized users that are located in the premises,

comparing the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location includes comparing the identified location against all of the plurality of authorized users that are tracked as being located in the premises, and

facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual includes identifying the individual as being unauthorized in response to the comparison indicating that the detected individual is not in any one of the respective locations.

17. The method of claim 10, further including, in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is common to the tracked location on the premises:

analyzing facial characteristics in the image of the detected individual relative to facial recognition data for the at least one authorized user, and

facilitating the identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual in response to the analyzing of the facial characteristics failing to identify the detected individual as being the at least one authorized user.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cameras respectively configured and arranged to capture images of regions of a common premises;

for each camera, a first circuit configured and arranged to detect the presence of an individual in one of the images captured by the camera, and to provide an output in response to detecting the presence of the individual; and

a second circuit configured and arranged to;

track the location of at least one authorized user relative to the premises via location-based information indicative of each authorized user'"'"'s location, and

for each of the cameras, control the output of the first circuit based on the tracked location relative to a region of the common premises that the camera captures images from.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the second circuit is configured and arranged to control the output of the first circuit by inhibiting the output in response to the tracked location being indicative of an authorized user being in the image in which the presence of the individual is detected.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a remote circuit configured and arranged to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of external signal sources and identify therefrom the location of the remote circuit, and to transmit location-based information indicative of the identified location of the remote circuit; and

a filter circuit configured and arranged to detect the presence of individuals in images of a common premises captured by a plurality of cameras, and to filter the detected presence by

tracking the location of the remote circuit relative to the premises via the location-based information, and

for each detected individual in the images;

identifying a location of the detected individual,

comparing the identified location of the detected individual to the tracked location of the at least one authorized user, and

in response to the comparison indicating that the identified location is not common to the tracked location on the premises, facilitating identification of the detected individual as being an unauthorized individual.