Article position estimating apparatus, method of estimating article position, article search system, and article position estimating program

• US 7,545,278 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Issued: 06/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanigawa, Toru, Yamada, Osamu, Okamoto, Shusaku, Naruoka, Tomonobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yacob; Sisay
• Application Number:
  US11/796,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20070247321A1
• Time in Patent Office: 775 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 340/539.1, 340/539.13, 340/539.15, 340/540, 340/568.1, 340/522, 340/10.1, 340/10.5, 340/825.49, 726/26, 726/35, 700/216, 700/221, 700/224, 705/28, 235375-385, 235/492, 707/2, 707/5, 707/E17.059, 707/E17.061, 707/E17.066, 707/E17.096
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

An article present region estimating means references information on location and time of an article detected in an article detecting device and stored in an article management database and information on location and time of a person detected in a person detecting device and stored in a person management database to estimate a location where the article is most likely to be present. An article position candidate weighting means may be perform weighting based on information such as movement of the person, location where the article is normally placed.

Claims

1. An article position estimating apparatus comprising:

an article detecting device, arranged in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit, for identifying and detecting different articles so as to distinguish the different articles;

an article management database for storing identification information, information on detected locations, and information on detected times of the articles detected in the article detecting device, as article management information;

a person detecting device for distinguishing and detecting positions of the persons in the room for each individual;

a person management database for storing person movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device; and

an article present region estimating means for specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and for estimating, when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, a subsequent movement region of the detected person as an article present region of the article;

further comprising an article position candidate weighting means for performing weighting so that a weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high based on possibility that the article is present with respect to a plurality of estimated article present regions with reference to the information stored in the article management database or the person management database;

wherein the article position candidate weighting means extracts information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which the movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, respectively as stay state, and performs weighting so that the weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high for a region in which an average value of the movement speed of the person is low using the average value of the movement speed of the person obtained with reference to each information configuring the stay state.

3. The article position estimating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article position candidate weighting means performs weighting so that a weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high by also using a time in which the stay state continues when performing weighting of possibility the article is present.

5. The article position estimating apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

an equipment operation detecting device for detecting equipment operations of equipments for accommodating and managing the article; and

an equipment management database for storing the operation information of each equipment detected in the equipment operation detecting device;

wherein

a high weighting is performed on the equipment of an article position candidate so that the weight of the equipment used is high based on presence of the operation of the equipment in the operation information stored in the equipment management database.

6. The article position estimating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article present region estimating means estimates, subsequent to when the person and the article are simultaneously detected at the person detecting device and the article management device, a movement region of the detected person as the article present region of the article, and stops the estimation of the article present region of the article after the detected person exits the room.

2. An article position estimating apparatus comprising:

an article detecting device, arranged in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit, for identifying and detecting different articles so as to distinguish the different articles;

an article management database for storing identification information, information on detected locations, and information on detected times of the articles detected in the article detecting device, as article management information;

a person detecting device for distinguishing and detecting positions of the persons in the room for each individual;

a person management database for storing person movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device; and

an article present region estimating means for specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and for estimating, when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, a subsequent movement region of the detected person as an article present region of the article;

further comprising an article position candidate weighting means for performing weighting so that a weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high based on possibility that the article is present with respect to a plurality of estimated article present regions with reference to the information stored in the article management database or the person management database;

wherein the article position candidate weighting means extracts information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which the movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, respectively as stay state, and performs weighting so that the weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high for a region in which an average value of the movement speed of the person is low using the average value of the movement speed of the person obtained with reference to each information configuring the stay state;

wherein the article position candidate weighting means extracts, as stay state, information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which the movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, and performs weighting so that the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high using change in the movement speed of the person obtained with reference to the information on the detected locations and the information on the detected times before and after the stay time.

4. An article position estimating apparatus comprising:

an article detecting device, arranged in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit, for identifying and detecting different articles so as to distinguish the different articles;

an article management database for storing identification information, information on detected locations, and information on detected times of the articles detected in the article detecting device, as article management information;

a person detecting device for distinguishing and detecting positions of the persons in the room for each individual;

a person management database for storing person movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device; and

an article present region estimating means for specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and for estimating, when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, a subsequent movement region of the detected person as an article present region of the article;

wherein the article present region estimating means estimates the article present region of the article through change in movement speed of the person obtained with reference to the movement history information stored in the person management database;

wherein the article present region estimating means extracts, as stay state, information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which a movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, and estimates the article present region in consideration of a hand-over of the article between a plurality of persons by relationship between stay states with respect to the plurality of persons.

7. An article search system comprising:

an input device for inputting an article to be searched;

the article position estimating apparatus for estimating the article present region of the article by the article present region estimating means and for searching for the article to be searched input by the input device from articles performed with estimating process, arranged in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit, for identifying and detecting different articles so as to distinguish the different articles;

an article management database for storing identification information, information on detected locations, and information on detected times of the articles detected in the article detecting device, as article management information;

a person detecting device for distinguishing and detecting positions of the persons in the room for each individual;

a person management database for storing person movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device; and

an article present region estimating means for specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and for estimating, when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, a subsequent movement region of the detected person as an article present region of the article; and

a display device for displaying the article present region where the article to be searched is present using estimation result in the article present region estimating means or, the article present region estimating means.

8. The article search system according to claim 7, comprising:

an imaging device for imaging an environment where article search is performed;

an image database for accumulating image information imaged in the imaging device; and

an image searching means for estimating a location and a time at where the article to be searched is assumed to have been placed with the article present region estimating means or, the article present region estimating means and the article position candidate weighting means, and extracting the image information imaging the location and including the time from the image database using estimation result;

wherein

the display device displays the image information searched in the image searching means.

9. A method of estimating article position, comprising:

identifying and detecting different articles with an article detecting device so as to distinguish the different articles in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit;

storing identification information, information on detected location and information on detected times of the articles detected in the article detecting device in an article management database as article management information;

distinguishing and detecting positions of the persons in the room for each individual with a person detecting device;

storing movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device in a person management database; and

specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, estimating a subsequent movement region of the detected person as the article present region of the article; and

performing weighting so that a weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high based on possibility that the article is present with respect to a plurality of estimated article present regions with reference to the information stored in the article management database or the person management database;

extracting information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which the movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, respectively as stay state, and performs weighting so that the weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high for a region in which an average value of the movement speed of the person is low using the average value of the movement speed of the person obtained with reference to each information configuring the stay state.

10. The method of estimating article position according to claim 9, further comprising performing weighting so that the article present region where the article is most likely to be present is high based on possibility that the article is present with respect to a plurality of estimated article present regions estimated in estimating the article present region with reference to the information stored in the article management database or the person management database.

11. An article position estimating program stored in a computer readable medium executed by a computer, the program comprising of:

storing identification information, information on detected locations and information on detected times of different articles identified and detected in an article detecting device so as to distinguish the different articles in a vicinity of an entrance of a room through which at least persons enter and exit in an article management database as article management information;

storing movement history information of the persons detected in the person detecting device distinguishing positions of the persons in the room for each individual with a person detective device in a person management database;

specifying the person detected within a predetermined time including the detected time of the article using the information on the detected times of the articles stored in the article management database and the movement history information of the persons stored in the person management database, and when the person and the article are simultaneously detected by the person detecting device and the article detecting device based on the movement history information of the specified person of the person management database, estimating a subsequent movement region of the detected person as the article present region of the article;

performing weighting so that a weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high based on possibility that the article is present with respect to a plurality of estimated article present regions with reference to the information stored in the article management database or the person management database; and

extracting information on a detected location and information on a detected time out of the movement history information in which the movement speed is less than or equal to a predetermined value set in advance in the movement history information of the person, respectively as stay state, and performs weighting so that the weight of the article present region where the article is likely to be present is high for a region in which an average value of the movement speed of the person is low using the average value of the movement speed of the person obtained with reference to each information configuring the stay state.