IDENTIFYING AND TRACKING VEHICLES IN MOTION

• US 20160307039A1
• Filed: 04/14/2016
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubicquia IQ LLC
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Krishnamoorthy, Lokesh Babu, de Leon, Francisco, Vudumula, Madhavi, Hackett, Aileen Margaret
• Granted Patent: US 9,940,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30264 Parking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• 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: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

A system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a method for identifying and monitoring vehicles in motion is presented. The method may include accessing sets of pixel coordinates defining a location of a vehicle within a first image and a second image. The method may further include translating the sets of pixel coordinates to sets of global coordinates defining a first and second geospatial location of the vehicle. The method further includes determining the vehicle is in motion based on a comparison of the first and second geospatial locations of the vehicle. The method further includes causing presentation of a user interface that includes a geospatial map with visual indicators of the first and second geospatial location of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processor of a machine;

a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

accessing, from a networked data store, a first set of pixel coordinates of a vehicle, the first set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a first image;

accessing, from the networked data store, a second set of pixel coordinates of the vehicle, the second set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a second image;

translating the first set of pixel coordinates to a first set of global coordinates, the first set of global coordinates defining a first geospatial location of the vehicle;

translating the second set of pixel coordinates to a second set of global coordinates, the second set of global coordinates defining a second geospatial location of the vehicle;

determining the vehicle is in motion based on a comparison of the first set of global coordinates to the second set of global coordinates; and

causing presentation of a user interface on a client device communicatively coupled to the machine, the user interface include a geospatial map, the user interface further including a first visual indicator on the geospatial map at the first geospatial location of the vehicle, the user interface further including a second visual indicator on the geospatial map at the second geospatial location of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the vehicle is in motion includes:

comparing the first set of global coordinates with the second set of global coordinates to determine a position change of the vehicle; and

determining the position change in location fails to transgress a threshold position change.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the comparing the first set of global coordinates with the second set of global coordinates includes:

computing a first centroid using the first set of global coordinates;

computing a second centroid using the second set of global coordinates; and

comparing the first centroid with the second centroid to determine the position change of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

computing the first centroid includes calculating an arithmetic mean position of all points in the vehicle defined by the first set of global coordinates; and

computing the second centroid includes calculating an arithmetic mean position of all points in the vehicle defined by the second set of global coordinates.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first set of pixel coordinates correspond to a first timestamp including a first time;

the second set of pixel coordinates correspond to a second timestamp including a second time;

the operations further comprise;

comparing the first timestamp to the second time stamp to determine a time difference; and

determining the time difference is below a threshold time difference.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first image is recorded by a first camera node communicatively coupled to the machine;

the second image is recorded by a second camera node communicatively coupled to the machine;

the first set of global coordinates is included in first metadata generated and provided by the first camera node; and

the second set of global coordinates is included in second metadata generated and provided by the second camera node.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise determining the vehicle is depicted in both the first image and the second image based on a comparison of the first metadata and the second metadata and known information about the physical orientation of the first and second camera.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise updating a data object associated with the vehicle to include location information, the location information including the first geospatial location and the second geospatial location.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising generating presentation data representing the user interface, the generating of the presentation data including accessing the location information from the data object.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the translating of the first set of pixel coordinates to the first set of global coordinates includes using a homography matrix algorithm to perform a direct linear transformation of the first set of pixel coordinates to the first set of global coordinates; and

the translating of the second set of pixel coordinates to the second set of global coordinates includes using the homography matrix algorithm to perform a direct linear transformation of the second set of pixel coordinates to the second set of global coordinates.

11. A method comprising:

accessing, from a networked data store, a first set of pixel coordinates of a vehicle, the first set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a first image;

accessing, from the networked data store, a second set of pixel coordinates of the vehicle, the second set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a second image;

translating the first set of pixel coordinates to a first set of global coordinates, the first set of global coordinates defining a first geospatial location of the vehicle;

translating the second set of pixel coordinates to a second set of global coordinates, the second set of global coordinates defining a second geospatial location of the vehicle;

determining, using one or more processors, the vehicle is in motion based on a comparison of the first set of global coordinates to the second set of global coordinates; and

causing presentation of a user interface on a client device communicatively coupled to the machine, the user interface include a geospatial map, the user interface further including a first visual indicator on the geospatial map at the first geospatial location of the vehicle, the user interface further including a second visual indicator on the geospatial map at the second geospatial location of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining the vehicle is in motion includes:

comparing the first set of global coordinates with the second set of global coordinates to determine a position change of the vehicle; and

determining the position change in location fails to transgress a threshold position change.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the comparing the first set of global coordinates with the second set of global coordinates includes:

computing a first centroid using the first set of global coordinates;

computing a second centroid using the second set of global coordinates; and

comparing the first centroid with the second centroid to determine the position change of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

computing the first centroid includes calculating an arithmetic mean position of all points in the vehicle defined by the first set of global coordinates; and

computing the second centroid includes calculating an arithmetic mean position of all points in the vehicle defined by the second set of global coordinates.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the first set of pixel coordinates correspond to a first timestamp including a first time;

the second set of pixel coordinates correspond to a second timestamp including a second time;

the method further comprises;

comparing the first timestamp to the second time stamp to determine a time difference; and

determining the time difference is below a threshold time difference.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the first image is recorded by a first camera node communicatively coupled to the machine;

the second image is recorded by a second camera node communicatively coupled to the machine;

the first set of global coordinates is included in first metadata generated and provided by the first camera node; and

the second set of global coordinates is included in second metadata generated and provided by the second camera node.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining the vehicle is depicted in both the first image and the second image based on a comparison of the first metadata and the second metadata and known information about the physical orientation of the first and second camera.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating a data object associated with the vehicle to include location information, the location information including the first geospatial location and the second geospatial location.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the translating of the first set of pixel coordinates to the first set of global coordinates includes using a homography matrix algorithm to perform a direct linear transformation of the first set of pixel coordinates to the first set of global coordinates; and

the translating of the second set of pixel coordinates to the second set of global coordinates includes using the homography matrix algorithm to perform a direct linear transformation of the second set of pixel coordinates to the second set of global coordinates.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, and embodying instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing, from a networked data store, a first set of pixel coordinates of a vehicle, the first set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a first image;

accessing, from the networked data store, a second set of pixel coordinates of the vehicle, the second set of pixel coordinates defining a location of the vehicle within a second image;

translating the first set of pixel coordinates to a first set of global coordinates, the first set of global coordinates defining a first geospatial location of the vehicle;

translating the second set of pixel coordinates to a second set of global coordinates, the second set of global coordinates defining a second geospatial location of the vehicle;

determining the vehicle is in motion based on a comparison of the first set of global coordinates to the second set of global coordinates; and

causing presentation of a user interface on a client device communicatively coupled to the machine, the user interface include a geospatial map, the user interface further including a first visual indicator on the geospatial map at the first geospatial location of the vehicle, the user interface further including a second visual indicator on the geospatial map at the second geospatial location of the vehicle.