Apparatus and a method for sensing events from a remote location
First Claim
1. A remote sensing system for detecting the occurrence of at least first and second contemporaneous events, comprising:
- imaging means for capturing electronic signals representing an image of an area including at least first and second predetermined sub-areas in which the first and second events may occur;
address memory means for holding data values defining the first and second predetermined sub-areas of the image;
means for extracting a number of data values from the electronic signals the extracted data values representing only the first and second predetermined sub-areas of the image, the number of extracted data values being a less than a number of data values representing the entire image of the area; and
analyzing means for comparing the extracting data values to reference image data values, representing the first and second predetermined sub-areas before the occurrence of the first and second events, to determine if the first and second events have occurred in the respective first and second sub-areas.
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Abstract
A remote sensing system suitable for use in businesses which include queues and/or servers has a camera which captures successive images of the area to be monitored. The sensing system includes one or more video cameras which generate an array of pixel samples representing an image of the area. Sub-areas of interest in the image are defined by selectively illuminating each of the sub-areas during an initialization phase. During operation, the system analyzes pixel data from only the defined sub-areas. A combination of blob analysis and motion analysis is used to determine if a server is on-duty and present at his station, and if he is serving a customer. The system also maintains a count of the number of people waiting in the queue to be served. This information is used to generate displays directing waiting customers to the next available server and to inform newly arriving customers of their expected waiting time. The remote sensing system may also be used in an office environment to detect changes initiated by a worker or inherent in his work to gather performance statistics on the worker.
278 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A remote sensing system for detecting the occurrence of at least first and second contemporaneous events, comprising:
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imaging means for capturing electronic signals representing an image of an area including at least first and second predetermined sub-areas in which the first and second events may occur; address memory means for holding data values defining the first and second predetermined sub-areas of the image; means for extracting a number of data values from the electronic signals the extracted data values representing only the first and second predetermined sub-areas of the image, the number of extracted data values being a less than a number of data values representing the entire image of the area; and analyzing means for comparing the extracting data values to reference image data values, representing the first and second predetermined sub-areas before the occurrence of the first and second events, to determine if the first and second events have occurred in the respective first and second sub-areas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for detecting the occurrence of first and second contemporaneous events in respective predetermined first and second sub-areas of a remote area, comprising the steps of:
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capturing electronic signals representing an image of the remote area including the predetermined first and second sub-areas; extracting a number of data values, representing only the predetermined first and second sub-areas of the image, from the electronic signals, wherein the number of extracted data values is a less than a number of data values representing the entire image of the remote area; and automatically comparing the extracted data values to reference image data values representing the first and second sub-areas before the respective first and second events have occurred to determine if the respective first and second events have occurred. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A method of monitoring a queue of people comprising the steps of:
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generating electronic signals representing successive images of the queue as seen from a remote location; extracting, from said electronic signals, first and second sets of successive data values representing a time sequence of images of respective areas surrounding an entrance into the queue and an exit from the queue, respectively; analyzing the data values representing each of the time sequences of images to detect motion into the queue and motion out of the queue; increasing a count of people in the queue when motion into the queue is detected; and decreasing the count of people in the queue when motion out of the queue is detected. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. In a system for processing a group of items, a method of automatically determining an expected waiting time for an item entering a queue which feeds a set of servers, each of which process one item at a time, the method comprising the steps of:
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generating electronic signals representing successive images of the queue and the servers as seen from a remote location; extracting, from said electronic signals, data values representing sub-areas of the image including the queue and each of the servers; analyzing the image data obtained from each of the sub-areas for each of the servers to determine an expected service time for each server; averaging the expected service time for all servers to obtain an average expected service time; analyzing the image data obtained from the sub-area for the queue to determine the approximate number of people in the queue; and multiplying the determined approximate number of people in the queue by the average expected service time to obtain the expected waiting time in the queue for the item entering the queue.
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Specification