Apparatus and methods for detecting number of people waiting in an elevator hall using plural image processing means with overlapping fields of view
First Claim
1. An apparatus for controlling operation of an elevator, based on detecting people waiting in an elevator hall, said apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of image pickup devices for picking up a plurality of images of the elevator hall, each image pickup device picking up an image of a respective field of view of the elevator hall, the respective fields of view overlapping by a known amounts;
means for processing image signals from the plurality of image pickup devices to detect respective numbers of people waiting in each field of view;
means for generating a set of coefficients based on the amounts of overlap of the fields of view;
means for calculating the number of people waiting in the elevator hall, based on the generated coefficients and the respective detected numbers of people waiting in each field of view; and
means for controlling the operation of the elevator based on the number of people waiting.
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Abstract
An apparatus for detecting people waiting for an elevator. A detecting unit detects the number of people waiting on the basis of an image from an image pickup unit and delivers that number to a corresponding second people waiting detecting unit. The apparatus includes a unit which generates a coefficient depending on a percentage of overlap of the field of view of a reference image pickup unit, which is one of several image pickup units, with the field of view of a different image pickup unit on the basis of data on the allocation of an elevator, and calculates the number of waiting people in the overall hall from the respective numbers of waiting people output from the plurality of image pickup units and those coefficients. The coefficient generating unit generates a maximum coefficient for the reference image pickup unit and a smaller coefficient for any remaining image pickup unit based on the of overlap of the field of view of the respective image pickup units. Thus, even if the fields of view of the plurality of image pickup units overlap, an accurate number of people waiting in the elevator hall, and free from an error in detection, is detected.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. An apparatus for controlling operation of an elevator, based on detecting people waiting in an elevator hall, said apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of image pickup devices for picking up a plurality of images of the elevator hall, each image pickup device picking up an image of a respective field of view of the elevator hall, the respective fields of view overlapping by a known amounts; means for processing image signals from the plurality of image pickup devices to detect respective numbers of people waiting in each field of view; means for generating a set of coefficients based on the amounts of overlap of the fields of view; means for calculating the number of people waiting in the elevator hall, based on the generated coefficients and the respective detected numbers of people waiting in each field of view; and means for controlling the operation of the elevator based on the number of people waiting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10)
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7. A method of controlling an elevator, comprising the steps of:
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(a) detecting respective numbers of people waiting in each of a plurality of fields of view in an elevator hall, the respective fields of view overlapping by known amounts; (b) generating a set of coefficients based on the amounts of overlap of the fields of view; (c) calculating the number of people waiting in the elevator hall, based on the generated coefficients and the respective detected numbers of people waiting in each field of view; and (d) controlling the operation of the elevator, based on the calculated number of people waiting. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 11)
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Specification