PRODUCT MONITORING DEVICE, PRODUCT MONITORING SYSTEM, AND PRODUCT MONITORING METHOD

• US 20180122062A1
• Filed: 03/03/2016
• Published: 05/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TAKENAKA, Shinji, TOKUDA, Kenji, TAKEMOTO, Yuichiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,410,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20021 Dividing image into blocks, subimages or windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20068 Projection on vertical or horizontal image axis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20076 Probabilistic image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 Analysis of geometric attributes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/62 of area, perimeter, diameter or volume
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/28 Quantising the image, e.g. histogram thresholding for discrimination between background and foreground patterns
• 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: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability

Abstract

It is possible to present to the user, information by which the user can recognize specific work items of a product management work for improving an inappropriate display state. Included are an image acquisition unit (31) that acquires the captured image of the display area, a state monitoring area setter (32) that sets a state monitoring area on the captured image of the display area, a product detector (33) that acquires product detection information indicating a position of a product in the state monitoring area, based on a captured image of the state monitoring area, a display state evaluator (34) that evaluates a display state of the product in the state monitoring area, using a plurality of evaluation indices relating to display disorder of the product, based on the product detection information, and a display information generator (37) that presents information on an evaluation result by the display state evaluator to a user.

Claims

1. A product monitoring device which monitors a display status of a product, based on a captured image of a display area in a store, comprising:

an image acquirer that acquires the captured image of a display area;

a state monitoring area setter that sets a state monitoring area on the captured image of a display area;

a product detector that acquires product detection information indicating a position of a product in the state monitoring area, based on a captured image of the state monitoring area;

a display state evaluator that evaluates a display state of the product in the state monitoring area, using a plurality of evaluation indices relating to display disorder of the product, based on the product detection information; and

an evaluation information presentator that presents information on an evaluation result by the display state evaluator to a user.

2. The product monitoring device according to claim 1,

wherein the display state evaluator performs evaluation, by using at least two of a volume degree indicating a degree to which a large number of products are collectively displayed, an alignment degree indicating a degree to which products are aligned and displayed in a horizontal direction, and a face-up degree indicating a degree to which products are displayed in line with a front most position of the state monitoring area, as the evaluation indices.

3. The product monitoring device according to claim 1,

wherein the product detector converts the captured image of the state monitoring area into a top view image, and acquires the product detection information from the top view image.

4. The product monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an evaluation result analyzer that generates analysis information representing a attention period, based on an evaluation result by the display state evaluator,

wherein the evaluation information presentator presents the analysis information to the user.

5. The product monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an evaluation result analyzer that performs a statistical process on the evaluation result by the display state evaluator and generates analysis information representing a temporal transition status of the evaluation result,

wherein the evaluation information presentator presents the analysis information to the user.

6. The product monitoring device according to claim 1,

wherein the state monitoring area setter sets the state monitoring area for each section obtained by dividing the display area, based on an operation input by the user, and

wherein the display state evaluator evaluates a display state of a product for each of a plurality of the state monitoring areas.

7. The product monitoring device according to claim 1,

wherein the image acquirer acquires a privacy mask image obtained by deleting an image of a person from an original image obtained by capturing an image of the display area, as the captured image of the display area.

8. A product monitoring system which monitors a display status of a product, based on a captured image of a display area in a store, comprising:

a camera that captures an image of the display area; and

a plurality of information processing devices,

wherein one of the plurality of information processing device includes

an image acquirer that acquires the captured image of the display area;

a state monitoring area setter that sets a state monitoring area on the captured image of the display area;

a product detector that acquires product detection information indicating a position of a product in the state monitoring area, based on a captured image of the state monitoring area;

a display state evaluator that evaluates a display state of the product in the state monitoring area, using a plurality of evaluation indices relating to display disorder of the product, based on the product detection information; and

an evaluation information presentator that presents information on an evaluation result by the display state evaluator to a user.

9. A product monitoring method causing an information processing device to implement a process of monitoring a display status of a product, based on a captured image of a display area in a store, the method comprising:

acquiring the captured image of the display area;

setting a state monitoring area on the captured image of the display area;

acquiring product detection information indicating a position of a product in the state monitoring area, based on a captured image of the state monitoring area;

evaluating a display state of the product in the state monitoring area, using a plurality of evaluation indices relating to display disorder of the product, based on the product detection information; and

presenting information on an evaluation result generated to a user.