Movement pattern recognizing apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies and number of passed persons

• US 6,081,619 A
• Filed: 07/18/1996
• Issued: 06/27/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1995
• 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: Matsueda, Satoshi, Kawaguchi, Chihiro, Hashimoto, Kazuhiko, Yoshiike, Nobuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Wenpeng
• Application Number:
  US08/683,452
• Time in Patent Office: 1,440 Days
• Field of Search: 382/181, 382/107, 382/194, 250/DIG. 1, 250/340, 250/342, 250/221, 250/338.1, 250/338.3, 250/395, 340/567, 340/522, 364/550, 377/6
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit

Abstract

A movement pattern recognizing apparatus has a movement signal detection device including a sensor for detecting a mobile body in a detection region and for providing a movement signal indicating the position of the mobile body. The signal changes as time elapses. The apparatus further has a movement pattern storage device for storing data about previous movement patterns which were realized when a mobile body moved in the detection region, and a movement pattern selection device for selecting data about the movement pattern from the movement pattern storage device based upon the movement signal detected by the movement signal detection device.

Claims

1. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus comprising:

movement signal detection means including a converging lens for converging infrared rays into a predetermined angle and an infrared ray sensor for detecting a mobile body to detect, in a detection region in which said mobile body which can be detected by said sensor moves, a movement signal indicating the position of said mobile body, said movement signal changing as time elapses, said infrared ray sensor having a plurality of detection portions that detect infrared rays converged by said conveying lens to provide said movement signal;

movement signal normalizing means for generating normalized data corresponding to a movement signal provided by said movement signal detection means; and

reference temperature storage means for storing reference data about a predetermined reference temperature, wherein said movement signal normalizing means uses the reference data stored in said reference temperature storage means to obtain a ratio of or a difference between signals obtainable from said plural detection portions of said infrared array sensor, and compares said ratio or the magnitude of said difference between said detection portions and detection portions adjacent to said detection portions to perform a binary-coding process so as to generate normalized data corresponding to said movement signal;

movement pattern storage means for storing data about previous movement patterns which were realized when said mobile body moved in said detection region; and

movement pattern selection means for selecting data about a movement pattern, corresponding to said movement signal detected by said movement signal detection means, from said movement pattern storage means, wherein

said predetermined reference temperature is a temperature which is detected by said movement signal detection means in a case where the heat generating body does not exist in said detection region, and

said reference data is a mean value and a standard deviation of said reference temperature calculated by using said reference temperature obtained by sampling performed for a predetermined time.

2. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus comprising:

movement signal detection means including a converging lens for converging infrared rays into a predetermined angle and an infrared array sensor having a plurality of detection portions for detecting infrared rays converged by said converging lens to provide a movement signal indicating a position of a heat generating body, said movement signal changing as time elapses as said heat generating body moves in a detection region into which the infrared rays are converged;

movement signal normalizing means for generating normalized data corresponding to a movement signal provided by said movement signal detection means;

movement pattern storage means for storing data about previous movement patterns based upon normalized data generated by said movement signal normalizing means, the previous movement patterns having been realized when a heat generating body moved in said detection region;

movement pattern selection means for selecting, from said movement pattern storage means, selected data about a movement pattern that corresponds to the normalized data generated by said movement signal normalizing means;

movement pattern recognizing means for recognizing a movement pattern of the heat generating body in accordance with the selected data selected by said movement pattern selection means; and

reference temperature storage means for storing reference data about a predetermined reference temperature, wherein

said movement signal normalizing means

uses the reference data stored in said reference temperature storage means to obtain a ratio of or a difference between signals obtainable from said plural detection portions of said infrared array sensor, and

compares said ratio or the magnitude of said difference between said detection portions and detection portions adjacent to said detection portions to perform a binary-coding process so as to generate normalized data corresponding to said movement signal.

3. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said predetermined reference temperature is a temperature which is detected by said movement signal detection means in a case where the heat generating body does not exist in said detection region, and

said reference data is a mean value and a standard deviation of said reference temperature calculated by using said reference temperature obtained by sampling performed for a predetermined time.

4. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

said data about said movement patterns stored in said movement pattern storage means has sub-information about movement directions of said movement patterns and/or the number of passage times in said movement directions, and

said movement pattern recognizing means recognizes the movement direction and/or the number of passage times in said movement direction about said movement pattern of the heat generating body in accordance with the data about said movement pattern selected by said movement pattern selection means.

5. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said movement signal detection means has a plurality of sets each consisting of said converging lens and said infrared array sensor, and a predetermined region, in which said heat generating body moves, is covered by each of said plural sets.

6. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus comprising:

movement signal detection means including a sensor for detecting a mobile body in a detection region in which the mobile body moves, and for providing a movement signal indicating the position of the mobile body, said movement signal changing as time elapses;

movement pattern storage means for storing data about previous movement patterns realized when a mobile body moved in said detection region;

movement pattern selection means for selecting data about a movement pattern, corresponding to said movement signal detected by said movement signal detection means, from said movement pattern storage means; and

reference temperature storage means for storing reference data about a predetermined reference temperature, wherein

said movement signal normalizing means

uses the reference data stored in said reference temperature storage means to obtain a ratio of or a difference between signals obtainable from said plural detection portions of said infrared array sensor, and

compares said ratio or the magnitude of said difference between said detection portions and detection portions adjacent to said detection portions to perform a binary-coding process so as to generate normalized data corresponding to said movement signal.

7. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

said mobile body is a mobile heat generating body,

said sensor is a converging lens for converging infrared rays into a predetermined angle and an infrared array sensor having a plurality of detection portions for detecting the infrared rays converged by said converging lens, and

said detection region is a region into which the infrared rays are converged.

8. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said movement signal detection means has a plurality of sets each consisting of said converging lens and said infrared array sensor, and a predetermined region, in which the heat generating body moves, is covered by each of said plural sets.

9. A movement pattern recognizing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising

refuse data storage means for storing a plurality of refuse data items which are data items that cannot be generated by said movement signal normalizing means, wherein

said movement signal normalizing means generates normalized data of said movement signal detected by said movement signal detection means, and

deletes refuse data from the normalized data if refuse data stored in said refuse data storage means is contained in the normalized data.

10. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies comprising:

an infrared array sensor having a plurality of devices arranged in a direction in which human beings move;

signal change detection means for detecting change in a leading edge and/or trailing edge of output signals from each of said devices of said infrared array sensor which occur in a predetermined period of time;

determining means using a predetermined rule to, in accordance with a detected value obtained from each of said devices of said infrared array sensor, determine movements of human bodies in an area sensed by said infrared array sensor; and

a threshold setting means which causes said infrared array sensor to detect an average of a background temperature over a certain period so as to set a predetermined upper threshold and a predetermined lower threshold with respect to the detected average background temperature, wherein

said signal change detection means detects the change in the leading edge and/or trailing edge of each of said output signals by using said thresholds as references to provide a change value representative of the detected change,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of pairs of the leading edge and the trailing edge detected from each of said devices is the number of persons for each device,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of persons obtained from each device is totally determined to finally determine the number of persons,

said determining means makes a determination of no person even when a change value provided by said signal change detection means is outside of one of the thresholds, if a rate of change of the change value exceeds a predetermined rate, and

said determining means determines that a direction in which detection states adjoin is a direction in which human bodies have been moved, and

in a case where the number of adjoining devices, which are in a non-detecting state, is smaller than a predetermined number and the time from the trailing edge to the leading edge of the device is shorter than a predetermined time, said determining means determines that said non-detecting state is a detecting state.

11. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to claim 10, wherein

said predetermined period of time is a period of time from a moment when detected values obtained from all of said plural devices have been made to be zero to a moment when the detected values are made to be zero.

12. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to claim 10, wherein

said determining means determines that said device in a detecting state is in a non-detecting state in a case where two devices adjacent to said device are in the non-detecting state before or after at least one unit detection period.

13. An apparatus for detecting the number of passed persons comprising:

said apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to claim 10; and

means for counting the number of passed persons for measuring the number of persons who have passed through an area, which is a subject of said infrared array sensor in accordance with a result of detection performed by said apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies.

14. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies comprising:

a plurality of infrared array sensors having a plurality of devices arranged in a direction in which human beings move;

signal change detection means for detecting change in the leading edge and/or trailing edge of output signals from each of said devices of each of said infrared arrays occurring in a predetermined period of time;

determining means using a predetermined rule to, in accordance with a state of appearance of said detected value of each of said devices of each of said infrared arrays between said infrared arrays, determine movements of human bodies in an area which is sensed by said plural infrared arrays; and

a threshold setting means which causes said infrared array sensor to detect an average of a background temperature over a certain period so as to set a predetermined upper threshold and a predetermined lower threshold with respect to the detected average background temperature, wherein

said signal change detection means detects the change in the leading edge and/or trailing edge of each of said output signals by using said thresholds as references to provide a change value representative of the detected change,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of pairs of the leading edge and the trailing edge detected from each of said devices is the number of persons for each device,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of persons obtained from each device is totally determined to finally determine the number of persons,

said determining means makes a determination of one person when a change value provided by said signal change detection means falls below the lower threshold for a predetermined period after the change value exceeded the upper threshold.

said determining means determines that a direction in which detection states adjoin is a direction in which human bodies have been moved, and

in a case where the number of adjoining devices, which are in a non-detecting state, is smaller than a predetermined number and the time from the trailing edge to the leading edge of the device is shorter than a predetermined time, said determining means determines that said non-detecting state is a detecting state.

15. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to claim 14, further comprising.

another infrared array sensor having a plurality of devices arranged in a direction in which human beings move to include the detection area of said plural infrared array sensors, wherein said determining means determines the number of moved persons in accordance with the number of devices in a detecting state in said other infrared array sensor.

16. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to claim 14, wherein:

the distance among detection areas of said plurality infrared array sensors is a distance in which one person can simultaneously be detected,

said infrared array sensor detects the background temperature, a threshold setting means is further provided which sets a predetermined plural thresholds to each sensor in accordance with the detected background temperature, said signal change detection means detects change in the leading edge and/or the trailing edge of said output signal for each determining means determines that number of moved persons is one in a case where the number of said infrared array sensors, in which change of the output signal therefrom at a predeterined threshold has been detected by said signal change detection means, is a predetermined number.

18. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies according to any one of claims 14 to 15, wherein

the distance among detection areas of said plurality infrared array sensors is a distance in which one person can simultaneously be detected,

said infrared array sensor detects the background temperature, a threshold setting means is further provided which sets a predetermined plural thresholds to each sensor in accordance with the detected background temperature, said signal change detection means detects change in the leading edge and/or the trailing edge of said output signal for each threshold by using each threshold as a reference, and said determining means determines that number of moved persons is one in a case where the number of said infrared array sensors, in which change of the output signal therefrom at a predetrmined threshold has been detected by said signal change detection means, is a predetermined number.

17. An apparatus for detecting movements of human bodies comprising:

a plurality of infrared array sensors having a plurality of devices arranged in a direction in which human beings move;

signal change detection means for detecting change in the leading edge and/or trailing edge of output signals from each of said devices of each of said infrared arrays occurring in a predetermined period of time;

determining means which determines an output denoting a result of detection performed by each of said infrared array sensors in terms of time and spatially so as to obtain a state of transition and appearance of said detected values between each of said infrared array sensors and which uses a predetermined rule to, in accordance with the obtained state of transition and appearance, determine movements of human bodies in an area which is sensed by said plural infrared arrays; and

a threshold setting means which causes said infrared array sensor to detect an average of a background temperature over a certain period so as to set a predetermined upper threshold and a predetermined lower threshold with respect to the detected average background temperature, wherein

said signal change detection means detects the change in the leading edge and/or trailing edge of each of said output signals by using said thresholds as references to provide a change value representative of the detected change,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of pairs of the leading edge and the trailing edge detected from each of said devices is the number of persons for each device,

said predetermined rule is a rule in which the number of persons obtained from each device is totally determined to finally determine the number of persons,

said determining means makes a determination of one person when a change value provided by said signal change detection means falls below the lower threshold for a predetermined period after the change value exceeded the upper threshold,

said determining means makes a determination of no person even when a change value provided by said signal change detection means is outside of one of the thresholds, if a rate of change of the change value exceeds a predetermined rate, and

said determining means determines that a direction in which detection states adjoin is a direction in which human bodies have been moved, and

in a case where the number of adjoining devices, which are in a non-detecting state, is smaller than a predetermined number and the time from the trailing edge to the leading edge of the device is shorter than a predetermined time, said determining means determines that said non-detecting state is a detecting state.