Method and system for effectively performing event detection using feature streams of image sequences
First Claim
1. Method for performing event detection and object tracking in an image stream, wherein an event is defined as the occurrence of a type of activity in field which requires some type of action in response thereto, said method comprising:
- a) installing in the field, an image acquisition device for acquiring an image stream and comprising a local programmable processor for converting the acquired image stream, consisting of one or more images, to a digital format, and a local encoder, preprogrammed to operate with an image processing server via a data network on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the local encoder and the server, said local encoder being operable to apply low-level feature extraction to the digital format of said image stream, and upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed corresponding threshold, selectively generating, from said image stream, a feature stream including parameters related to attributes of areas in said image stream, for transmitting said feature stream via the data network to the image processing server; and
b) connecting said image acquisition device to the data network through a corresponding data communication channel, to enable the operation of the encoder by the image processing server and transmission of the feature stream from the image acquisition device to the image processing server, thereby actuating high-level processing applications at the image processing server applied to the feature stream to detect the event and obtain an indication about the detected event; and
c) transmitting the indications from the image processing server to an operator.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method and system for performing event detection and object tracking in image streams by installing in field, a set of image acquisition devices, where each device includes a local programmable processor for converting the acquired image stream that consist of one or more images, to a digital format, and a local encoder for generating features from the image stream. These features are parameters that are related to attributes of objects in the image stream. The encoder also transmits a feature stream, whenever the motion features exceed a corresponding threshold. Each image acquisition device is connected to a data network through a corresponding data communication channel. An image processing server that determines the threshold and processes the feature stream is also connected to the data network. Whenever the server receives features from a local encoder through its corresponding data communication channel and the data network, the server provides indications regarding events in the image streams by processing the feature stream and transmitting these indications to an operator.
45 Citations
58 Claims
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1. Method for performing event detection and object tracking in an image stream, wherein an event is defined as the occurrence of a type of activity in field which requires some type of action in response thereto, said method comprising:
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a) installing in the field, an image acquisition device for acquiring an image stream and comprising a local programmable processor for converting the acquired image stream, consisting of one or more images, to a digital format, and a local encoder, preprogrammed to operate with an image processing server via a data network on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the local encoder and the server, said local encoder being operable to apply low-level feature extraction to the digital format of said image stream, and upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed corresponding threshold, selectively generating, from said image stream, a feature stream including parameters related to attributes of areas in said image stream, for transmitting said feature stream via the data network to the image processing server; and b) connecting said image acquisition device to the data network through a corresponding data communication channel, to enable the operation of the encoder by the image processing server and transmission of the feature stream from the image acquisition device to the image processing server, thereby actuating high-level processing applications at the image processing server applied to the feature stream to detect the event and obtain an indication about the detected event; and c) transmitting the indications from the image processing server to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. System for use in performing event detection and object tracking in image streams, wherein an event is defined as the occurrence of a type of activity in field which requires some type of action in response thereto, said system comprising:
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a) an image acquisition device for installation in the field, the image acquisition device comprising; a.
1) a local programmable processor for converting the acquired image stream to a digital format; anda.
2) a local encoder, preprogrammed to operate with an image processing server via a data network on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the image acquisition device and the server, said local encoder being operable for applying a low-level feature extraction to the image stream and, upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed corresponding threshold, selectively generating, from said image stream, a feature stream including parameters related to attributes of areas in said image stream;b) a data communication channel connecting the image acquisition device to the data network and operable for transmitting the feature stream generated by the local encoder to the image processing server, thereby actuating high-level processing applications at the image processing server to detect the event in the field; c) a remote image processing server connected to said data network, said remote image processing server receiving said feature stream transmitted by said local encoder; and d) said remote image processing server applying a high-level processing to the received feature stream and detecting said event from analyzing said feature stream, and transmitting indications regarding said event to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A distributed image processing method for effectively performing event detection in a large number of concurrent image sequences, wherein an event is defined as the occurrence of a type of activity in fields which requires some type of action in response thereto, said method comprising:
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a) performing low level feature extraction by encoders associated with image acquisition devices installed in the fields, said low level feature extraction comprising; i) receiving image streams from the image acquisition devices installed in the fields and generating digital data indicative thereof; ii) processing the digital data indicative of the image stream, said processing comprising feature extraction and, upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed a corresponding threshold, selectively generating a corresponding feature stream having a bandwidth narrower than that of the corresponding image stream, features in said feature stream including parameters related to attributes of areas in the respective image stream; b) transmitting said reduced bandwidth feature stream from the image acquisition devices to a common remote image processing server, thereby actuating the image processing server for applying high level image processing to the feature stream and detecting events in the fields, and transmitting indications regarding said events to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A distributed image processing system for effectively performing event detection in a large number of concurrent image sequences, said distributed image processing system having an in field component and a remote component, wherein an event is defined as the occurrence of a type of activity which requires some type of action in response thereto, said distributed image processing system comprising:
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a) a low level feature extraction component located in field, said low level feature extraction component comprising; a plurality of image acquisition devices installed in field, each producing an image stream; a processor and an encoder associated with each of said plurality of image acquisition devices; said processor converting said image stream to a digital format; said encoder applying a low-level feature extraction to the image stream and upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed corresponding threshold selectively generating from the image stream a reduced bandwidth feature stream including parameters related to attributes of areas in said image stream; b) a remote high level image processing component comprising a remote image processing server; c) a data network with which said low level feature extraction component communicates with said remote image processing server, each of said plurality of image acquisition devices and associated encoders communicating with said data network through a corresponding data communication channel; d) said encoder transmitting said reduced bandwidth feature stream to said remote image processing server; e) said remote image processing server analyzing said reduced bandwidth feature stream and detecting said events associated with said image stream; and f) wherein, upon detecting said event from the feature stream, said remote image processing server causes at least a portion of the corresponding image stream associated with said events to be transmitted to said remote image processing server. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. Method for use in performing event detection and object tracking in image streams using a system formed by a set of image acquisition devices, each installed in field where an event is to be detected and connected to a central station through a data network, the method comprising:
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processing a digital format of an image stream, consisting of one or more images, to detect features, being parameters related to attributes of objects in said image stream, and, based on these features, performing the event detection and object tracking, wherein providing an image processing server remote from the field, said image processing server being preprogrammed to operate with each of the image acquisition devices on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the image acquisition device and the server, said image processing server being preprogrammed for performing said distribution of image processing algorithms by carrying out the following; dynamically determining a threshold value for each feature, which is associated with the event to be detected and which is to be extracted by the set of image acquisition devices from image data acquired thereby in the field, and updating each of the image acquisition devices with the corresponding threshold, thereby enabling the image acquisition device to apply low-level feature extraction to the image stream and selectively generate a features stream upon identifying that a number and type of features in the image stream exceed the corresponding threshold, in response to a feature stream, received from each of the image acquisition devices via the network, applying a high-level processing to the received feature stream to identify events in an image stream to which said feature stream corresponds, and controlling an operational mode of the respective image acquisition device, to thereby enable transmission of output data to an operator.
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55. A non-transitory computer readable medium for use in performing event detection and extraction and object tracking, the computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to operate with each of multiple remote image acquisition devices via a communication network on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the image acquisition device and said processor, by selectively carrying out the following:
dynamically determining a threshold value for each of a plurality of predetermined features, which are parameters related to attributes of objects in an image stream to be captured by at least one of the remote image acquisition devices, and are associated with the event to be detected and extracted by the respective image acquisition device from image data acquired thereby in the field, and updating each of the image acquisition devices with the corresponding threshold, thereby enabling the image acquisition device to apply low-level feature extraction to the image stream and selectively generate a features stream upon identifying that a number and type of the features in the image stream exceed the corresponding threshold, in response to a feature stream, received from at least one of the image acquisition devices via the network, processing the feature stream by applying a high-level processing to the received feature stream to identify events in an image stream to which said feature stream corresponds, and controlling an operational mode of the respective image acquisition device, to thereby enable transmission of output data to an operator.
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56. System for use in performing event detection and object tracking in image streams, the system comprising an image processing server configured for connecting via a data network to a set of image acquisition devices each located in field where the event detection is to be performed, said image processing server being preprogrammed to operate with each of the image acquisition devices on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the image acquisition devices and the image processing server, by determining and providing to each of the image acquisition devices a corresponding threshold for each feature that is associated with the event to be detected and is to be extracted by the image acquisition devices from image data acquired thereby and enabling the image acquisition device to apply low-level feature extraction to at least one of the image streams and selectively generate a feature stream corresponding to the image stream upon identifying that a number and type of the features in the image stream exceed the corresponding threshold, the image processing server being responsive to a feature stream, received from each of the image acquisition devices for applying high-level processing to the received feature stream, to control an operational mode of the respective image acquisition device and to identify event in the image stream corresponding to the feature stream, to thereby enable transmission of output data to an operator.
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57. A non-transitory computer program, embodied on a computer readable medium, for use in performing event detection and object tracking in image streams, comprising computer program code means which, when run on a computer causes the computer to:
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connect, via a data network, an image processing server to a set of image acquisition devices, each located in field where the event detection is to be performed; and cause the image processing server to operate with each of the image acquisition devices on the basis of distribution of image processing algorithms between the image acquisition devices and the image processing server by determining and providing to each of the image acquisition devices a corresponding threshold for each feature that is associated with the event to be detected and is to be extracted by the image acquisition devices from at least one of the image streams acquired thereby and enabling the image acquisition device to apply low-level feature extraction to the image stream and selectively generate a feature stream corresponding to one of the image streams upon identifying that a number and type of the features in the image stream exceed the corresponding threshold, the image processing server being responsive to a feature stream, received from each of the image acquisition devices for applying high-level processing to the received feature stream, to control an operational mode of the respective image acquisition device and to identify the event in the image stream corresponding to the feature stream, to thereby enable transmission of output data to an operator. - View Dependent Claims (58)
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Specification