System for detecting the presence of an observer

• US 5,635,905 A
• Filed: 02/02/1995
• Issued: 06/03/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Barry M. Warmkessel, Ronald E. Blackburn
• Original Assignee: Barry M. Warmkessel, Ronald E. Blackburn
• Inventors: Blackburn, Ronald E., Warmkessel, Barry M.
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLEN, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US08/382,686
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 340/557, 340/556, 340/555, 340/541, 340/511, 340/426, 340/576, 250/221, 128/745, 351/209, 351/210, 351/221, 348/152-155, 356/375, 359/155, 367/93-94, 342/27-28, 364/516-517
• US Class Current: 340/555
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19602 Image analysis to detect motion of the intruder, e.g. by frame subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19626 optical details, e.g. lenses, mirrors or multiple lenses
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1963 Arrangements allowing camera rotation to change view, e.g. pivoting camera, pan-tilt and zoom [PTZ]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19641 Multiple cameras having overlapping views on a single scene
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19695 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors start video recording or forwarding but do not generate an alarm themselves

Abstract

A system is disclosed for detecting the presence of a human who may be observing an artifact which is within his or her line of sight or field of view. The system includes a laser with a lens at the output thereof and which is triggered rapidly in order to produce a pulsed beam having divergent rays of visible or invisible infrared light which irradiates an area to be examined for the presence of an observer. The light reflected from individuals and objects in the area is reflected into a pair of vision devices or pair of vision device assemblies the outputs of which are fed into a computer. The computer has software programs which utilize vision device output data relating to the intensity and location of the light pixels in the image thereof to detect the presence and orientation of the eyes of an individual in the area based on the light pixel intensity and location data.

Claims

1. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device and proportional to intensity of the radiation reflected from the area.

2. The system of claim 1 further including a means for determining location of the reflecting surfaces by utilizing time measurements of signal characteristics of the radiation from said source and received by said vision device.

3. The system of claim 2 further including a means for determining orientation of the eyes of the human observer relative to said source and said vision device, said means for determining orientation utilizing determined parameters of location of reflecting surfaces of the human observer'"'"'s eyes and data relating to intensity measurements of radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces of the human observer'"'"'s eyes.

4. The system of claim 1 further including:

means for determining location of light pixels in an image of said vision device resulting from radiation received from the reflecting surfaces; and

means for correlating location of the light pixels in the image with location of the area irradiated by said source in order to determine azimuth and elevation location parameters of the reflecting surfaces.

5. The system of claim 1 further including:

a driver connected to said source;

a modulator connected to said driver for mixing a modulating signal with the radiation from said source;

a demodulator connected to said vision device for demodulating the radiation from said source;

a phase detector connected to said modulator and to said demodulator for detecting the phase of the modulating signal of the radiation transmitted from said source and of the radiation received by said vision device;

a counter; and

a computer connected to said counter and to said phase detector for starting a count of said counter upon detection of a predetermined point in the phase of the transmitted signal and stopping the count of said counter upon detection of the predetermined point in the phase of the received signal for determining time of irradiation of the reflecting surfaces and time of arrival at said vision device of radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces in order to determine range location parameters of the reflecting surfaces.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for differentiating includes a first interference filter positioned at an output of said source for providing electromagnetic radiation therefrom radiated at a first wavelength and radiated at a second wavelength, the first wavelength selected so that it provides maximal reflection from a human eye, the second wavelength selected so that it provides maximal reflection from a nonhuman eye of a species commonly found in the area.

7. The system of claim 1 further including a means for eliminating reflected radiation received from said source from the combination of reflected radiation from extraneous sources and reflected radiation from said source and received by said vision device utilizing pulsation characteristics of the radiation received by said vision device.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said means for eliminating includes:

a trigger connected to said source for activating and deactivating said source in order to provide pulsed radiation therefrom irradiating the area; and

a pulse filter positioned at input of said camera in order to filter undesired radiation from radiation received by said camera.

9. The system of claim 1 further including a lens positioned at the output of said source in order to provide a beam of the radiation having rays which diverge with respect to each other, the beam produced by said source for irradiating a desired portion of the area, the beam having an even flux distribution.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the radiation from said source is in the invisible infrared portion of electromagnetic radiation spectrum.

11. The system of claim 1 further including:

a mount, said source mounted on said mount;

a mount control, said mount control allowing said mount to be movable in order to allow said source to scan a desired area larger than a field of irradiation of said source, said mount control allowing said mount to be fixed in a desired position in order to view a desired area for a desired period of time.

12. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a camera for receiving radiation emitted from said source and reflected from the area, said camera having an electrical output including intensity data relating to intensity of the radiation received thereby and location data relating to location of pixels in an image produced by said camera from the radiation received thereby;

a computer electrically connected to said camera for receiving the output from said camera, said computer having a first software program which utilizes the intensity data to calculate intensity of the pixels of the radiation received by said camera, said first software program differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object by utilizing the calculated intensity of the pixels of the radiation received by said camera.

13. The system of claim 12 further including a means for monitoring the orientation of said source, said means for monitoring having an electrical output including field of view data for providing said field of view data to said computer in order to enable said computer to determine the location of the area irradiated by said source.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein said computer includes a second software program utilizing the field of view data and utilizing the location data relating to the pixels in said image of said camera resulting from radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces to determine azimuth and elevation location parameters of the reflecting surfaces in the area irradiated by said source.

15. The system of claim 12 further including:

a driver connected to said source;

a modulator connected to said driver for mixing a modulating signal with the radiation from said source;

a demodulator connected to said camera for demodulating the radiation from said source;

a phase detector connected to said modulator and to said demodulator for detecting the phase of the signal transmitted from said source and of the signal received by said camera;

a counter connected to said phase detector, said counter having an electrical output including count data based on the phase of transmitted radiation from said source and received radiation from said camera; and

said computer including a third software program for receiving the output from said counter and receiving data from said camera relating to pixels of radiation received from the area and combining the data from said counter and said camera to calculate transit time of the pixels of radiation at said camera, said third software program utilizing transit time calculations to calculate range location parameters of the reflecting surfaces in the area.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said computer includes a fourth software program utilizing the range location parameters calculations data and the location data to determine separation of light pixels of the reflected radiation and of the reflecting surfaces in order to determine whether the reflecting surfaces include a pair of eyes and to determine orientation of the pair of eyes.

17. The system of claim 12 further including a first interference filter positioned at an output of said source for providing a pair of beams emitted from said source, one of said pair of beams radiated at a first wavelength and the other of said pair of beams radiated at a second wavelength, the first wavelength selected so that it provides maximal intensity of radiation reflection from a human eye, the second wavelength selected so that it provides maximal intensity of radiation reflection from a nonhuman eye of a species commonly found in the area in order to differentiate between radiation reflected from a human observer and a nonhuman observer.

18. The system of claim 17 further including a second interference filter for receiving the radiation reflected from the area and removing undesired radiation therefrom and a separator for receiving the radiation reflected from the area and separating the reflected radiation into first reflected radiation beams having the first wavelength and second reflected radiation beams having the second wavelength, and wherein said camera includes a pair of cameras, one of said cameras receiving the first reflected radiation beams from said separator and the other of said pair of cameras receiving the second reflected radiation beams from said separator, said first software program comparing the intensity data provided by said one of said cameras to the intensity data provided by the other of said cameras in order to differentiate between radiation reflected from reflection surfaces of a human and a nonhuman observer.

19. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a first interference filter positioned at an output of said source for providing electromagnetic radiation emitted from said source radiated at a first wavelength and radiated at a second wavelength, the first wavelength selected so that it provides maximal intensity of radiation reflection from a human eye, the second wavelength selected so that it provides maximal intensity of radiation reflection from a nonhuman eye of a species commonly found in the area;

means for monitoring orientation of said source, said means for monitoring having an electrical output including field of view data;

a pair of cameras for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area, said pair of cameras having an electrical output including intensity data relating to intensity of the radiation received thereby and image location data relating to location of pixels in an image produced by said pair of cameras from the radiation received thereby;

a driver connected to said source;

a modulator connected to said driver for mixing a modulating signal with the radiation from said source;

a demodulator connected to said cameras for demodulating the radiation from said source which is reflected from the area and received by said pair of cameras;

a phase detector connected to said modulator and to said demodulator for detecting the phase of the modulating signal of the radiation transmitted from said source and of the radiation received by said cameras;

a counter connected to said modulator and demodulator and having an electrical output including data representing a count based on phase difference of the radiation from said source and the radiation reflected from the area and received by the pair of cameras;

a computer electrically connected to said pair of cameras for receiving the output from said pair of cameras, said computer having a first software program which utilizes the intensity data to provide an intensity calculation of the pixels of the radiation received by said cameras and reflected from the area and comparing intensity calculation data combined with range location data pertaining to one of said pair of cameras to intensity calculation data combined with range location data pertaining to the other of said pair of cameras and comparing the results to reference data in a second databank to differentiate between radiation reflected from reflection surfaces of a human and a nonhuman observer, said first software program comparing the intensity calculation data of said pair of cameras combined with range location data of said pair of cameras to reference data relating to predetermined intensities of pixels of radiation reflected from inanimate objects in the area in the second databank to differentiate between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of an observer and of an inanimate object, said computer including a second software program utilizing the field of view data relating to location of the area irradiated by said source and utilizing the image location data relating to the radiation pixels in said image of said cameras resulting from radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces to determine azimuth and elevation location parameters of the reflecting surfaces in the area irradiated by said source, said computer including a third software program for receiving the output from said counter and receiving data from said pair of cameras relating to pixels of radiation received from the area and combining said data from said counter and said pair of cameras to calculate transit time of the pixels of radiation from said source to said pair of cameras, said third software program utilizing transit time calculations to calculate range location parameters of the reflecting surfaces in the area, said computer including a fourth software program utilizing the range location parameters calculations data and the location parameters data to determine separation of light pixels of the reflected radiation in order to determine whether the reflecting surfaces include a pair of eyes and in order to determine orientation of the pair of eyes, said computer including a fifth software program utilizing the intensity data of pixels of the images of the cameras to calculate the frequency of alteration of intensity of pixels of the images of the cameras, the fifth software program comparing the frequency of alteration of the intensity of the pixels to blink data in a fifth databank to provide a determination as to whether the pixels'"'"' alteration of intensity represent blinking human eyes in the area.

20. The system of claim 19 further including:

a trigger connected to said source for activating and deactivating said source in order to produce pulsed electromagnetic radiation emitted from said source; and

a pulse filter fox eliminating radiation from extraneous sources from the combination of the radiation from extraneous sources and the radiation emitted from said source and received by said pair of cameras.

21. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined fox the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for determining location of light pixels in an image of said vision device resulting from radiation received from the reflecting surfaces; and

means for correlating location of the light pixels in the image with location of the area irradiated by said source in order to determine azimuth and elevation location parameters of the reflecting surfaces.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein said means for determining location and said means for correlating location include:

a driver connected to said source;

a modulator connected to said driver for mixing a modulating signal with the radiation from said source;

a demodulator connected to said vision device for demodulating the radiation from said source;

a phase detector connected to said modulator and to said demodulator for detecting the phase of the modulating signal of the radiation transmitted from said source and of the radiation received by said vision device;

a counter; and

a computer connected to said counter and to said phase detector for starting a count of said counter upon detection of a predetermined point in the phase of the transmitted signal and stopping the count of said counter upon detection of the predetermined point in the phase of the received signal for determining time of irradiation of the reflecting surfaces and time of arrival at said vision device of radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces in order to determine range location parameters of the reflecting surfaces.

23. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for determining orientation of the eyes of the human observer relative to said source and said vision device, said means for determining orientation utilizing determined parameters of location of reflecting surfaces of the human observer'"'"'s eyes and data relating to intensity measurements of radiation reflected from the reflecting surfaces of the human observer'"'"'s eyes.

24. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device, said means for differentiating including a first interference filter positioned at an output of said source for providing electromagnetic radiation therefrom radiated at a first wavelength and radiated at a second wavelength, the first wavelength selected so that it provides maximal reflection from a human eye, the second wavelength selected so that it provides maximal reflection from a nonhuman eye of a species commonly found in the area.

25. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device;

a trigger connected to said source for activating and deactivating said source in order to provide pulsed radiation therefrom irradiating the area; and

a pulse filter positioned at input of said vision device in order to filter undesired radiation from radiation received by said vision device and thereby eliminate reflected radiation from extraneous sources from the combination of reflected radiation from extraneous sources and reflected radiation from said source and received by said vision device.

26. A system for detecting the presence of an observer in an area, comprising:

a source of electromagnetic radiation for irradiating the area to be examined for the presence of an observer;

a vision device for receiving radiation from said source reflected from the area;

means for measuring intensity of the radiation received by said vision device;

means for differentiating between radiation reflected from reflecting surfaces of a human observer, of a nonhuman observer and of an inanimate object, said means for differentiating utilizing data related to intensity measurements of the radiation received by said vision device;

a mount, said source mounted on said mount;

a mount control, said mount control allowing said mount to be movable in order to allow said source to scan a desired area larger than a field of irradiation of said source, said mount control allowing said mount to be fixed in a desired position in order to view a desired area for a desired period of time.