Method for determining the change in position of an item of luggage in order to examine a suspect region in this item of luggage

• US 7,406,192 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2004
• Issued: 07/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Morpho Detection (Safran SA)
• Original Assignee: GE Homeland Protection Incorporated (Safran SA)
• Inventors: Strecker, Helmut, Schmiegel, Armin
• Primary Examiner(s): Mariam; Daniel G
• Application Number:
  US10/960,348
• Publication Number:
  US 20050123217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,392 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/143, 382151-152, 382/195, 382/209, 382/218, 382/298, 348/82, 378/57
• US Class Current: 382/152
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/22 Active interrogation, i.e. by irradiating objects or goods using external radiation sources, e.g. using gamma rays or cosmic rays

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determining the change in position of an item of luggage in order to examine a suspect region in this item of luggage.

Claims

1. A method for determining the change in position of an item of luggage in order to examine a suspect region in this item of luggage, the method comprising:

taking a first picture of the item of luggage by a first examination system;

conveying the item of luggage from the first examination system to a second examination system which is physically separated from the first examination system;

transferring the first picture of the item of luggage and of coordinates of a first suspect region in the item of luggage from the first examination system to the second examination system;

taking a second picture of the item of luggage (4) by the second examination system;

comparing the two pictures of the item of luggage of the first and second examination systems;

determining the change in position of the item of luggage giving a first angle of rotation about the vertical axis, a second angle of rotation about the horizontal axis and a translation;

determining the coordinates of the second suspect region which corresponds to the first suspect region in the first examination system in the second examination system; and

performing targeted examination of the item of luggage only in the area of the coordinates of the second suspect region in the second examination system.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a picture of a first transmission image is taken in the first examination system and a first suspect region in the item of luggage is determined by a first transmission apparatus.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein an optical or geometrical pre-processing of the first or second transmission image takes place before the determination of the change in position.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein several sets of first or second angles of rotation are issued in the case of ambiguities.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein a probability value is given in each case for the first or second angles of rotation.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change in position of the item of luggage is determined using global features, in particular correlation, mutual information or radial dimensional variables.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining the change in position of the item of luggage and/or determining the coordinates includes a scale analysis.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein various comparison values are used.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change in position of the item of luggage is determined using local features, including RANSAC, robust estimation methods, Hough transformations or least-square methods.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein determining the change in position of the item of luggage and/or determining the coordinates includes a scale analysis.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the determination of the change in position using local features takes place on different linear scales.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the local features are chosen according to the linear scale.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein a comparison takes place of the results of the analysis using the global features with the results of the analysis using the local features.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein only the local features are used which do not contradict the analysis using the global features.