Picture processing apparatus for processing infrared pictures obtained with an infrared ray sensor and applied apparatus utilizing the picture processing apparatus

• US 5,555,512 A
• Filed: 07/25/1994
• Issued: 09/10/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/1993
• 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: Uchida, Yoshiaki, Imai, Takayuki, Shimizu, Makoto, Sato, Masaaki, Yoshida, Kunio, Shida, Takehiko, Naka, Motohiko, Akamine, Ikuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Cosimano, Edward R.
• Application Number:
  US08/273,168
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• Field of Search: 250/342, 364/550, 382/103
• US Class Current: 702/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/82 using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/194 using image scanning and comparing systems

Abstract

A picture processing apparatus is composed of an infrared ray sensor for producing an infrared picture in which a heat distribution of a measured area is recorded, a picture processing section for processing the infrared picture to extract pieces of personal characteristic data and environmental characteristic data from the infrared picture, and a picture information detecting section composed of a neural network for detecting pieces of personal information and environmental information according to the characteristic data. To be concrete, one or more human-areas respectively recording one or more persons are picked out from the infrared picture, and representative points of the human-areas, the number of human-areas, the number of pixels in each of the human-areas and shapes of the human-areas are extracted as the personal characteristic data. Also, the number of persons in each of the human-areas, foot positions of the persons, person'"'"'s postures, skin temperatures of the persons and the volume of person'"'"'s clothes are detected as the personal information according to the personal and environmental characteristic data.

Claims

1. A picture processing apparatus, comprising:

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

partitioned block representative temperature calculating means for partitioning the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means into a plurality of picture blocks and calculating average temperatures of the picture blocks as representative temperatures of the picture blocks;

picking-out temperature determining means for determining a temperature range for each of the picture blocks according to each of the representative temperatures calculated by the partitioned block representative temperature calculating means;

human-area picking out means for picking out one or more human-areas from each of the picture blocks partitioned by the partitioned block representative temperature calculating means on condition that temperatures of pixels in each of the picture blocks are within the temperature range determined by the picking-out temperature determining means, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

representative point calculating means for calculating a representative point of each of the human-areas picked out by the human-area picking out means;

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas picked out by the human-area picking out means, the representative points calculated by the representative point calculating means and the environments;

environmental characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means; and

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the environmental characteristic data extracting means.

2. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as mixed values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

differential picture producing means for producing a plurality of differential pictures which each are defined as a difference between a pair of infrared pictures stored in the infrared picture storing means, an area of differential pixels in which absolute differential temperatures are larger than a threshold in each of the differential pictures being defined as a moving body area in which a moving body exists;

moving body picture producing means for setting differential temperatures of the differential pixels in the moving body areas of the differential pictures to temperatures of pixels of the infrared pictures corresponding to the differential pixels to produce a moving body picture from each of the differential pictures produced by the differential picture producing means, temperatures of pixels in each of the moving body pictures being not larger than the threshold at an area other than the moving body area;

frequency distribution producing means for producing a frequency distribution of temperatures of the pixels of the moving body pictures produced by the moving body picture producing means, frequencies of the temperatures being distributed in positions of the pixels;

picking-out temperature determining means for determining a temperature range to pick out one or more human-areas from a moving body picture produced by the moving body picture producing means according to the frequency distribution produced by the frequency distribution producing means, temperatures of pixels in the moving body area of the moving body picture being within the temperature range;

human-area picking out means for picking out one or more human-areas from the moving body picture produced by the moving body picture producing means on condition that temperatures of pixels in the moving body picture are within the temperature range determined by the picking-out temperature determining means, the persons being placed in the human-areas;

representative point calculating means for calculating a representative point of each of the human-areas picked out the human-area picking out means;

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas picked out by the human-area picking out means, the representative points calculated by the representative point calculating means and the environments;

environmental characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means; and

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the environmental characteristic data extracting means.

3. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as mixed values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

pixel number calculating means for calculating the number of pixels of each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means;

human-area shape recognizing means for recognizing a shape of each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means; and

person number detecting means composed of a neural network or a pattern recognizing system for detecting the number of persons in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the number of pixels calculated by the pixel number calculating means, the representative point of each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means and the shape of each of the human-areas recognized by the human-area shape recognizing means, inside conditions of the neural network or the pattern recognizing system being preliminarily adjusted by inputting pieces of tentative data designating the number of pixels of a tentative area, a representative point of the tentative area and a shape of the tentative area and a piece of teaching data designating the number of persons in the tentative area.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, the picture processing apparatus further comprising:

human-area number calculating means for calculating the number of human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means.

5. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

temperature extracting means for selecting a representative longitudinal row, in which a representative pixel placed in a lowest level of each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means is included, from longitudinal rows of each of the human-areas and extracting temperatures of pixels existing in the representative longitudinal row; and

foot position detecting means composed of a neural network or a pattern recognizing system for detecting a foot position of a person in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the temperatures of the pixels extracted by the temperature extracting means, the representative point of each of the human-areas and temperatures of peripheral pixels surrounding the representative pixel of each of the human-areas, inside conditions of the neural network or the pattern recognizing system being preliminarily adjusted by inputting pieces of tentative data designating temperatures of tentative pixels and temperatures of peripheral tentative pixels surrounding a pixel placed at a lowest level in the tentative pixels and a piece of teaching data designating a tentative foot position.

6. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

longitudinal side pixel number detecting means for extracting a rectangular pixel-block, which is set to a minimum size on condition that one of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means is included in the rectangular pixel-block, from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means and detecting the number of pixels at a longitudinal side of the rectangular pixel-block;

lateral side pixel number detecting means for extracting the rectangular pixel-block and detecting the number of pixels at a lateral side of the rectangular pixel-block;

block converting means for converting the rectangular pixel-block extracted by the longitudinal side pixel number detecting means into a standardized square pixel-block composed of a plurality of converted pixels; and

posture estimating means composed of a neural network or a pattern recognizing system for estimating a posture of a person in the human-area according to the number of pixels detected by the longitudinal side pixel number detecting means, the number of pixels detected by the lateral side pixel number detecting means and temperatures of converted pixels placed in the standardized square pixel-block, inside conditions of the neural network or the pattern recognizing system being preliminarily adjusted by inputting pieces of tentative data designating the number of tentative pixels in the longitudinal direction, the number of tentative pixels in the lateral direction and temperatures of tentative converted pixels in a square pixel-block and a piece of teaching data designating a tentative posture.

7. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of first personal characteristic data designating temperatures of pixels in each of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means and pieces of second personal characteristic data designating temperatures of pixels placed in a central longitudinal row of each of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means;

environmental characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means;

posture judging means for detecting a posture of a person in a human-area detected by the human-area detecting means according to the first personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means and outputting a first possibility that the person is in a sitting posture and a second possibility that the person is in a standing posture;

first position judging means for judging a first foot position of the person who is in a sitting posture according to the second personal character data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means;

second position judging means for judging a second foot position of the person who is in a standing posture according to the second personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the environmental characteristic data extracting means; and

foot position estimating means for estimating a foot position of the person according to the first and second possibilities obtained by the posture judging means, the first foot position judged by the first position judging means and the second foot position judged by the second position judging means regardless of whether the person is in a sitting or standing posture.

8. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas picked out by the human-area picking out means, the representative points calculated by the representative point calculating means and the environments;

posture detecting means for detecting a posture of a person in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means;

human-area partitioning means for standardizing a size of each of the human-areas to a standardized size and partitioning each of the human-areas standardized into a plurality of human blocks according to a partitioning standard pattern determined in dependence on the posture of the person detected by the posture detecting means to partition the person into a plurality of body portions;

human block temperature calculating means for calculating an average temperature of each of the human blocks partitioned by the human-area partitioning means; and

temperature comparing means for comparing the average temperatures calculated by the human block temperature calculating means with a threshold temperature to separate a higher temperature part of the human blocks corresponding to uncovered body portions from a lower temperature part of the human blocks corresponding to covered body portions and detecting a highest average temperature of a human block as a skin temperature of the person from among the average temperatures in the higher temperature part of the human blocks.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, the picture processing apparatus further comprising:

covered body area ratio calculating means for calculating an area ratio of the human blocks corresponding to the uncovered body portions to the human blocks corresponding to the covered body portions separated by the temperature comparing means;

cloth thickness estimating means for estimating a thickness of person'"'"'s clothes according to a difference in temperature between a group of human blocks corresponding to the uncovered body portions and a group of human blocks corresponding to the covered body portions separated by the temperature comparing means; and

cloth volume estimating means for estimating a cloth volume of the person according to the area ratio calculated by the covered body area ratio calculating means and the thickness of person'"'"'s clothes estimated by the cloth thickness estimating means.

10. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas, the representative points detected by the human-area detecting means and the environments;

foot position detecting means for detecting a foot position of a person in a human-area detected by the human-area detecting means according to the personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means; and

surrounding temperature detecting means for detecting a surrounding temperature in dependence on temperatures of neighboring pixels placed in the neighborhood of the foot position of the person detected by the foot position detecting means according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means;

environmental temperature detecting means for detecting an average temperature of each of environmental blocks defined by partitioning the measured area according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means; and

heat radiation detecting means for detecting a degree of heat radiation directed from the neighboring pixels and the environmental blocks to the person according to the surrounding temperature detected by the surrounding temperature detecting means and the average temperatures of the environmental blocks detected by the environmental temperature detecting means and outputting the degree of heat radiation.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10 in which the surrounding temperature detecting means comprises:

neighboring pixel specifying means for specifying a plurality of pixels nearest to the foot position of the person as the neighboring pixels; and

surrounding temperature calculating means composed of a neural network for calculating the surrounding temperature according to the temperatures of the neighboring pixels, inside conditions of the neural network being preliminarily adjusted by inputting pieces of tentative data designating tentative temperatures and a piece of teaching data designating a tentative surrounding temperature.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10, the picture processing apparatus further comprising:

auxiliary heater detecting means for detecting an auxiliary heater, of which a temperature is higher than a temperature of the person, according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means; and

floor heater detecting means for detecting a floor heater having a rectangular shape and a size larger than that of the person according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means.

13. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

human-area correcting means for correcting a plurality of human-areas erroneously divided by the human-area detecting means by unifying the human-areas to a unified human-area;

static body detecting means for accumulating the representative points of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means to find out a group of pixels pertaining to a static body erroneously picked out as a human-area and detect representative points of the environments;

environmental block judging means for judging a moving area in which one or more persons move around to recognize the environments relative to the moving area according to the representative points of the environments detected by the static body detecting means and the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means;

personal characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas correctly detected by the human-area detecting means, the unified human-area unified by the human-area correcting means, the representative points detected by the human-area detecting means and the environments;

environmental characteristic data extracting means for extracting pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means according to the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means and the environments recognized by the environmental block judging means; and

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data extracted by the personal characteristic data extracting means and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the environmental characteristic data extracting means.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13 in which the human-area correcting means comprises:

adjacent pixel confirming means for confirming whether or not pixels in the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means are adjacent to each other and outputting a piece of connecting information designating a result of the confirmation for each of the pixels;

isolated pixel detecting means for detecting one or more isolated pixels which each are not adjacent to any pixel of the human-areas according to the connecting information output from the adjacent pixel confirming means and outputting a piece of isolated pixel information designating each of the isolated pixels for each of the isolated pixels; and

human-area unifying means for confirming whether or not each of the isolated pixels detected by the isolated pixel detecting means faces an associated pixel of a human-area at one-pixel space and unifying a human-area of an isolated pixel facing an associated pixel and another human-area of the associated pixel to form a unified human-area.

15. An apparatus according to claim 13 in which the static body detecting means:

representative point accumulating means for accumulating a plurality of representative points of the human-areas detected from a series of infrared pictures in the human-area detecting means to store a frequency of the representative points for each of pixels and outputting the frequencies and pieces of positional information designating positions of the representative points;

static body detecting means for detecting a static body distinguished from a moving body according to the frequencies output from the representative point accumulating means;

pixel position storing means for storing a pixel position of the static body detected in the static body detecting means according to a piece of positional information relating to the moving body;

processed data accumulating means for accumulating pieces of processed data obtained by processing the representative points accumulated in the representative point accumulating means; and

environment position detecting means for detecting positions of the environments according to the processed data accumulated in the processed data accumulating means.

16. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture storing means for storing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means;

human-area detecting means for detecting one or more human-areas and representative points of the human-areas from the infrared picture stored by the infrared picture storing means, temperatures of pixels in the human-areas being within a temperature range which depends on a temperature distribution of the measured area, and the persons being placed in the human-areas;

person number detecting means for detecting the number of persons in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means and the representative points of the human-areas obtained by the human-area detecting means;

foot position detecting means for detecting a position of person'"'"'s feet for each of the persons in the human-areas according to the number of persons detected by the person number detecting means and the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means;

posture detecting means for detecting a posture of each of the persons in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means, the positions of the person'"'"'s feet detected by the foot position detecting means and the number of persons detected by the person number detecting means;

skin temperature detecting means for detecting a skin temperature of each of the persons in each of the human-areas detected by the human-area detecting means according to the infrared picture stored in the infrared picture storing means, the postures of the persons detected by the posture detecting means and the number of persons detected by the person number detecting means; and

cloth volume detecting means for detecting a volume of person'"'"'s clothes for each of the persons in the human-areas according to the skin temperature detected by the skin temperature detecting means.

17. A picture processing apparatus, comprising

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means; and

console means for inputting pieces of environmental information which are not detected from the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to correct the personal information detected by the picture information detecting means.

18. A picture processing apparatus, comprising:

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

visible picture producing means for producing a visible picture of the measured area;

visible picture processing means for processing the visible picture produced by the visible picture producing means to extract pieces of visible personal characteristic data designating visible characters of the persons and pieces of visible environmental characteristic data designating visible characters of the environments from the visible picture; and

visible picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of visible personal information pertaining to the persons according to the visible personal characteristic data and the visible environmental characteristic data processed by the visible picture processing means and the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means and correcting the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the infrared picture processing means and the personal or environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means according to the visible personal information.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18, further including

console means for inputting pieces of environmental information which are not detected from the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to correct the personal information detected by the picture information detecting means.

20. An apparatus according to claim 18 in which pieces of moving information designating movements of the persons are extracted by the visible picture information detecting means.

21. A monitoring system, comprising:

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

visible picture producing means for producing a visible picture of the measured area;

visible picture processing means for processing the visible picture produced by the visible picture producing means to extract pieces of visible personal characteristic data designating visible characters of the persons and pieces of visible environmental characteristic data designating visible characters of the environments from the visible picture;

visible picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of visible personal information pertaining to the persons according to the visible personal characteristic data and the visible environmental characteristic data processed by the visible picture processing means and the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means and correcting the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the infrared picture processing means and the personal or environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means according to the visible personal information; and

monitored information detecting means for detecting an uninvited person intruded into the measured area according to the visible personal information detected by the visible picture information detecting means.

22. A monitoring system according to claim 21, further including

console means for inputting pieces of environmental information which are not detected from the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to correct the personal information detected by the picture information detecting means.

23. A personal identification performing apparatus comprises:

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

visible picture producing means for producing a visible picture of the measured area;

visible picture processing means for processing the visible picture produced by the visible picture producing means to extract pieces of visible personal characteristic data designating visible characters of the persons and pieces of visible environmental characteristic data designating visible characters of the environments from the visible picture;

visible picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of visible personal information pertaining to the persons according to the visible personal characteristic data and the visible environmental characteristic data processed by the visible picture processing means and the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means and correcting the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the infrared picture processing means and the personal or environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means according to the visible personal information;

adaptation learning performing means for performing adaptation learning according to the personal information detected by the picture information detecting means and the visible personal information detected by the visible picture information detecting means; and

personal identification performing means for recognizing the persons recorded on the visible picture according to the adaptation learning performed by the adaptation learning performing means and identifying the persons.

24. An integrated picture processing system, comprises:

a plurality of picture processing apparatuses arranged in parallel, each of the apparatuses comprising;

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means, and

integration processing means for processing the personal information or the environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means of the picture processing apparatuses to integrate in points of time and space the personal information or the environmental information.

25. An integrated picture processing system, comprises:

a plurality of picture processing apparatuses arranged in parallel, each of the apparatuses comprising;

infrared picture producing means for producing an infrared picture designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, the infrared picture being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for processing the infrared picture produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared picture;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of personal information pertaining to the persons or pieces of environmental information pertaining to the environments according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

visible picture producing means for producing a visible picture of the measured area;

visible picture processing means for processing the visible picture produced by the visible picture producing means to extract pieces of visible personal characteristic data designating visible characters of the persons and pieces of visible environmental characteristic data designating visible characters of the environments from the visible picture;

visible picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of visible personal information pertaining to the persons according to the visible personal characteristic data and the visible environmental characteristic data processed by the visible picture processing means and the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means and correcting the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the infrared picture processing means and the personal or environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means according to the visible personal information, and

integration processing means for processing the personal information or the environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means and the visible picture information detecting means of the picture processing apparatuses to integrate in points of time and space the personal information or the environmental information.

26. A traffic flow control apparatus, comprises:

infrared picture producing means for sequentially producing a plurality of infrared pictures respectively designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, each of the infrared pictures being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for sequentially processing the infrared pictures produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared pictures;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of time series data respectively designating the number of persons according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

traffic flow classifying means for extracting pieces of character data pertaining to the variation of the number of persons recorded on the infrared pictures according to the time series data detected by the picture information detecting means and classifying a traffic flow of the persons as a traffic flow pattern;

traffic flow predicting means for predicting the traffic flow of the persons according to the time series data detected by the picture information detecting means and the traffic flow pattern classified by the traffic flow classifying means; and

traffic flow controlling means for controlling the traffic flow of the persons according to the traffic flow predicted by the traffic flow predicting means.

27. A traffic flow control apparatus, comprises:

infrared picture producing means for sequentially producing a plurality of infrared pictures respectively designating a heat distribution of a measured area in which one or more persons surrounded by environments stay, each of the infrared pictures being composed of a plurality of pixels having temperatures of the measured area as pixel values;

infrared picture processing means for sequentially processing the infrared pictures produced by the infrared picture producing means to extract pieces of personal characteristic data designating characters of the persons and pieces of environmental characteristic data designating characters of the environments from the infrared pictures;

picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of time series data respectively designating the number of persons according to the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means;

visible picture producing means for sequentially producing a plurality of visible pictures of the measured area;

visible picture processing means for sequentially processing the visible pictures produced by the visible picture producing means to extract pieces of visible personal characteristic data designating visible characters of the persons and pieces of visible environmental characteristic data designating visible characters of the environments from the visible pictures;

visible picture information detecting means for detecting pieces of visible time series data respectively designating the number of persons according to the visible personal characteristic data and the visible environmental characteristic data processed by the visible picture processing means and the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data processed by the infrared picture processing means and correcting the personal characteristic data and the environmental characteristic data extracted by the infrared picture processing means and the personal or environmental information detected by the picture information detecting means according to the visible personal information;

traffic flow classifying means for extracting pieces of character data pertaining to the variation of the number of persons recorded on the infrared pictures according to the time series data detected by the picture information detecting means and the visible time series data detected by the visible picture information detecting means and classifying a traffic flow of the persons as a traffic flow pattern;

traffic flow predicting means for predicting the traffic flow of the persons according to the time series data detected by the picture information detecting means, the visible time series data detected by the visible picture information detecting means and the traffic flow pattern classified in the traffic flow classifying means; and

traffic flow controlling means for controlling the traffic flow of the persons according to the traffic flow predicted by the traffic flow predicting means.