Method and system for reducing the cost of sampling a moving image

• US 7,489,334 B1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wiloughby, Philip G., Pickering, John B., Blue, George M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Philippe; Gims S
• Application Number:
  US11/955,174
• Time in Patent Office: 426 Days
• Field of Search: 348/155, 375/240.01, 345/422, 342/22, 382/133
• US Class Current: 348/155
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

An energy-efficient and cost-reducing method and system to enable the successful sampling of a moving image are disclosed. The method and system use movement detection and analysis within a feedback loop to control subsequent sensor movement/lighting/radiation for control of future sampling of the image.

Claims

1. A method for minimizing costs associated with use of an image sensor device comprising:

(a) monitoring a visual space using the image sensor device in a low-cost sampling mode of operation and generating monitored frames using the low-cost sampling method;

(b) providing a datastream including the monitored frames to a computer device to be analyzed;

(c) performing a motion estimation technique, said motion estimation technique comprising an edge detection technique and a texture analysis;

(d) based on said edge detection technique and said texture analysis, identifying an object, said edge detection determining which part of the visual space belongs to the object, said texture analysis determining a texture of the object;

(e) based on said identifying said object, determining whether the object is animate or inanimate;

(f) checking for frame-to-frame change within the datastream to determine a movement of said object in the visual space;

(g) based on the object movement and the determination of whether the object is animate or inanimate, establishing object priority and sensitivity to identify an area of interest within the visual space; and

(h) when the area of interest is identified by the low-cost sampling method, replacing the low-cost sampling method by a high-cost sampling method to monitor and analyze the identified area of interest closely and generating monitored frames using the high-cost sampling method on the identified area of interest, the high-cost sampling method comprising one or more of;

zooming in on an identified priority object, increasing an illumination of the identified priority object, and increasing an irradiation of the identified priority object.

2. A system to reduce a cost of sampling a moving image comprising:

an image capturing device for monitoring a datastream to collect digital image frames of a visual space according to a low-cost image sampling mode of operation;

an image buffer for storing a plurality of digital image frames from the datastream;

an image processing device for identifying whether there are moving objects in the plurality of digital image frames within the datastream by performing one or more motion detection techniques, said motion detection technique comprising an edge detection technique and a texture analysis, said image processing device for identifying an object based on the edge detection technique and the texture analysis, said edge detection determining which part of the visual space belongs to the object, said texture analysis determining a texture of the object, and said image processing device for determining whether the object is animate or inanimate based on said identifying said object;

an image processing unit for comparing the digital image frames within the datastream against a threshold value to identify a motion change between the digital image frames, the motion change represents a detection of object movement in the visual space, and establishing object priority and sensitivity to identify an area of interest within the visual space, based on the identified motion change and the determination of whether the object is animate or inanimate; and

a configuration device for configuring the image capturing device to switch dynamically from the low-cost image sampling mode of operation to a high-cost image sampling mode of operation when the area of interest is identified by the low-cost image sampling mode of operation, wherein the high-cost image sampling mode comprising one or more of;

zooming in on an identified priority object, increasing an illumination of the identified priority object, and increasing an irradiation of the identified priority object.