Occupant condition determining apparatus

• US 5,384,716 A
• Filed: 09/22/1993
• Issued: 01/24/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Imanaka, Takeshi, Araki, Shoichi, Nomura, Hiroyoshi, Wakami, Noboru
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEESO, THOMAS R
• Application Number:
  US08/125,423
• Time in Patent Office: 489 Days
• Field of Search: 364/557, 165/11.1, 236/47, 340/567, 374/112
• US Class Current: 702/134
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/00 Control inputs relating to users or occupants
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/12 Position of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means

Abstract

The apparatus of the present invention for determining existential conditions of objects on a certain detecting region, includes: a temperature distribution detecting section for obtaining a thermal image including a plurality of elements each having temperature data by detecting the temperature distribution on the detecting region; an element classifying section for classifying the plurality of elements in the thermal image into at least two groups, all elements belonging to one of the groups being in a certain temperature range, the temperature range of the one group being distinct from a temperature range of another one of the groups; a group selecting section for selecting at least one group of a relatively higher temperature range in the thermal image from the at least two groups; an element selecting section for selecting, among elements included in the selected group, elements having temperature data indicative of local temperature peaks in the thermal image; and an output section for outputting the number of the selected elements by the element selecting means as the number of objects on the detecting region.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining existential conditions of objects on a certain detecting region, said apparatus comprising:

temperature distribution detecting means for obtaining a thermal image including a plurality of elements each representing temperature data by detecting the temperature distribution on said detecting region;

element classifying means for classifying said plurality of elements in said thermal image into at least two groups, all elements belonging to one of said groups being in a certain temperature range, said temperature range of said one group being distinct from a temperature range of another one of said groups;

group selecting means for selecting at least one group of a relatively higher temperature range in said thermal image from said at least two groups;

element selecting means for selecting, among elements included in said at least one group selected by said group selecting means, elements representing temperature data indicative of local temperature peaks in said thermal image; and

output means for outputting the number of said elements selected by said element selecting means as the number of objects on said detecting region.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

object region specifying means for specifying a region composed of elements selected by said element selecting means, and elements depending on said selected elements among the elements in said group selected by said group selecting means, as a region representing an object.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said group selecting means selects a group of a higher temperature range than a predetermined threshold value as a group of a relatively higher temperature range in a thermal image.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said group selecting means selects a group of a highest temperature range as a group of a higher temperature range in a thermal image.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said element classifying means includes means for determining the number of said groups, based on prescribed criteria.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said criteria are rules of If-then form based on the variance, the range and the maximum value of temperature data of respective elements included in said thermal image.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

temperature detecting means for detecting a room temperature; and

room temperature classifying means for determining into which of said at least two groups said detected room temperature is classified,

wherein said group selecting means selects a group of a higher temperature range than the temperature range of said group determined by said room temperature classifying means, as a group of a relatively higher temperature range in said thermal image.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

histogram producing means for producing a histogram of temperature data for all elements included in said thermal image;

temperature selecting means for selecting temperature data of the largest frequency in said histogram as the room temperature; and

room temperature classifying means for determining into which of said at least two groups said temperature data selected as the room temperature is classified,

wherein said group selecting means selects a group of a higher temperature range than the temperature range of said group determined by said room temperature classifying means, as a group of a relatively higher temperature range in said thermal image.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

frequency counting means for counting, for each of said plurality of elements included in said thermal image, the frequency that the element belongs to the group selected by said group selecting means; and

template producing means for producing a template for specifying elements having relatively larger frequencies in said thermal image as elements representing at least a portion of a heating device,

wherein said element selecting means selects, among elements obtained by removing the elements specified by said template producing means from elements belonging to said selected group, elements having temperature data indicative of local temperature peaks in said thermal image as elements representing at least a portion of said object.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising template updating means for updating said template every predetermined time.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

frequency counting means for counting, for each of said plurality of elements included in said thermal image, the frequency that the element belongs to the group selected by said group selecting means; and

template producing means for producing a template for specifying elements having relatively larger frequencies in said thermal image as elements indicative of at least a portion of a heating device,

wherein said element classifying means classifies elements obtained by removing the elements specified by said template producing means from said plurality of elements included in said thermal image into at least two groups.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising template updating means for updating said template every predetermined time.

13. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said detecting region is divided into a plurality of blocks, and wherein said apparatus further comprises:

block selecting means for selecting one of said plurality of blocks as a function of the elements selected by said element selecting means; and

position output means for outputting the position of the block selected by the block selecting means as the position of an object which exists on said detecting region.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said block selecting means includes:

storing means for storing the relationships between said plurality of blocks and said plurality of elements included in said thermal image; and

block specifying means for specifying blocks corresponding to the elements selected by said element selecting means, by referring said storing means.

15. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

object region specifying means for specifying a region composed of elements selected by said element selecting means, and elements depending on said selected elements among the elements in said group selected by said group selecting means, as a region representing an object,

wherein said block selecting means includes;

storing means for storing the relationships between said plurality of blocks and said plurality of elements included in said thermal image;

block specifying means for specifying, for each element included in one region specified by said object region specifying means, a block corresponding to the element by referring said storing means; and

largest frequency block selecting means for selecting, for the region specified by said object region specifying means, a block which is most frequently specified by said block specifying means.

16. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

storing means for storing positions of first blocks in said detecting region selected for a first thermal image by said block selecting means and positions of second blocks in said detecting region selected for a second thermal image by said block selecting means;

object tracing means for calculating all distances between the positions of said first blocks and the positions of said second blocks and for combining said first blocks with said second blocks so that the sum of said distances is minimized, as the positional change of an object;

movement calculating means for calculating the amount of movement of said object, based on the distance between one of said first blocks and one of said second blocks which are combined by said object tracing means; and

movement condition determining means for determining the movement condition of said object by accumulating the amount of movement of said object for each thermal image.

17. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

frequency counting means for counting, for each element of a thermal image, the frequency that a local temperature peak is located at the element, based on the output from said element selecting means, every time when a thermal image is obtained by said temperature distribution detecting means;

probability calculating means for calculating, for each element of said thermal image, the probability that a local temperature peak is located at the element, based on the frequency counted by said frequency counting means;

entropy calculating means for calculating an entropy regarding the probability calculated by said probability calculating means; and

movement condition determining means for determining the movement condition of an object based on the value of said entropy calculated by said entropy calculating means.