Person recognizing apparatus which can reduce time and year changing effects and method therefor

• US 6,697,505 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2003
• Issued: 02/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Osamu, Fukui, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Bali, Vikkram
• Application Number:
  US10/454,476
• Publication Number:
  US 20030194113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 264 Days
• Field of Search: 382/115-119, 382/124, 382/181, 382/190, 382/191, 382/192, 382/209, 382/219, 382/220, 235/380, 235/382, 235/382.5, 713/182, 713/186, 902/3-6, 340/5.52, 340/5.53, 340/5.8, 340/5.83
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions

Abstract

Configuration is made by a feature pattern extracting section 12 for extracting a feature obtainable from a person, a subspace calculating section 14 for calculating a subspace from the feature pattern, a recognition section 16 for effecting recognition using the subspace, a registered information holding section 18 for holding a plurality of the subspaces, and a registered information updating section 20 for updating the registered information using the subspaces. When identifying a person, the effect of aging change is reduced by suppressing time and year changes and keeping the recognition rate high.

Claims

1. A person recognizing apparatus, comprising:

a feature pattern extracting device which extracts a feature pattern obtainable from at least one person to be recognized;

a recognition information calculating device which calculates recognition information containing at least one subspace corresponding to each of said at least one person to be recognized, from a calculation amount extracted by said feature pattern extracting device;

a registered information holding device which holds recognition information corresponding to each of said at least one person to be recognized by said recognition information calculating device, as registered recognition information, or holds updating recognition information;

a recognizing device which recognizes the person by using recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or a feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extracting device and the registered recognition information held in said registered information holding device; and

a registered information updating device which updates the registered recognition information held in said registered information holding device by using at least one of first, second, and third updating methods, said first updating method being to update the subspace included in said registered recognition information corresponding to each of said at least one person to be recognized by use of the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or the feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extracting device, said second updating method being to combine a new subspace with the subspace by use of the recognition information and the feature pattern, and said third updating method being to add a subspace having been used in the recognition.

2. A person recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said registered information updating device includes:

an update determining device which determines a predetermined method as to update of the registered recognition information by said registered information holding device; and

an update information creating device which creates new registered recognition information based on the update method determined by said update determining device by using the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or the feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extracting device.

3. A person recognizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said registered information holding device holds the registered recognition information in multiple manner concerning one objective person or one group; and

said recognizing device recognizes with use of registered recognition information in multiple manner concerning the one objective person or the one group in said registered information holding device.

4. A person recognizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

said update determining device selects recognition information to be updated among the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device based on a predetermined rule; and

said update information creating device includes an update information creating device which creates new registered recognition information by using the selected recognition information by said update determining device.

5. A person recognizing device according to claim 2, wherein:

said update determining device determines an update condition based on a time of registering or updating the registered recognition information used by said recognizing device; and

said update information creating device including an update information creating device which creates new registered recognition information based on the update condition determined by said update determining device.

6. A person recognizing apparatus, comprising:

a feature pattern extracting device which extracts a feature pattern obtainable from a person to be recognized;

a recognition information calculating device which calculates recognition information containing at least a subspace from a calculation amount extracted by said feature pattern extracting device;

a registered information holding device which holds multiple recognition information by said recognition information calculating device, as registered recognition information, or holds updating recognition information;

a recognizing device which recognizes the person by using recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or a feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extraction device and the registered recognition information held in said registered information holding device, wherein said recognizing device makes recognition using a method of calculating a similarity value;

a registered information updating device which updates the registered recognition information concerning the person held in said registered information holding device by using the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or the feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extracting device;

wherein said registered information updating device includes;

an update determining device which determines a predetermined method as to update of the registered recognition information by said registered information holding device wherein said update determining device selects recognition information to be updated among the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device based on a predetermined rule, and said update determining device uses another method of calculating a similarity value different from the method of calculating a similarity value by said recognizing device; and

an update information creating device which creates new registered recognition information based on the update method determined by said update determining device by using the recognition information calculated by said recognition information calculating device or the feature pattern extracted by said feature pattern extracting device wherein said update information creating device includes a device which creates new registered recognition information by using the recognition information selected by said update determining device.