Object tracking method and system

• US 8,130,774 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kim, Geon Woo, Han, Jong-Wook
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wong, Blanche
• Application Number:
  US12/433,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20100021006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: 370/401, 370/331, 370/373, 370/377, 370/384, 370/328
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/62 relating to a temporal dimension, e.g. time-based feature extraction; Pattern tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69

Abstract

An object tracking method uses a system having an object identifying device and at least one video tracking device, wherein the object identifying device monitors an area to identify an object entering the area and the video tracking device wired/wirelessly connected to the object identifying device monitors the area monitored by the object identifying device. The method includes: extracting, at the object identifying device, object identification information of the object; providing, at the object identifying device, the object identification information to the video tracking device; tracking, at the video tracking device, the object to extract physical information of the object; mapping, at the video tracking device, the physical information to the object identification information to generate object information of the object; and storing, at the video tracking device, the object information in a memory of the video tracking device.

Claims

1. An object tracking method using a system having an object identifying device and at least two video tracking devices, wherein the object identifying device monitors an area to identify an object entering the area and the video tracking device wired/wirelessly connected to the object identifying device monitors the area monitored by the object identifying device, the method comprising:

generating, at the object identifying device, object identification information from the object;

identifying, at the object identifying device and at one of the video tracking devices, an object entering an area monitored by the one of the at least two video tracking devices;

providing, by the object identifying device, the object identification information to the one video tracking device;

tracking, at the one video tracking device, the object to extract physical information of the object;

mapping, at the one video tracking device, the physical information to the object identification information to generate object information of the object; and

storing, at the one video tracking device, the object information in a memory of the one video tracking device; and

when the object enters an area monitored by a second, adjacent video tracking device, providing, by the one video tracking device, the stored object information to the adjacent video tracking device, wherein the one video tracking device and the adjacent video tracking device are sequentially aligned to monitor adjacent, partially overlapping areas.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, at each adjacent video tracking device, whether the object moves out from an area monitored thereby, and if it is determined that the object moves out from the area, providing the object information of the object to a video tracking device immediately next thereto monitoring an area into which the object moves; and

storing, at the video tracking device, the object information received from the immediately next video tracking device, in a memory thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the areas has at least one overlapped area monitored simultaneously by both adjacent video tracking devices, and, the object is determined to move out from the area if the object moves into the overlapped area.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

tracking, at the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves, the object to extract physical information of the object;

searching, at the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves, for the object information corresponding to the physical information extracted thereby in the memory thereof; and

transmitting, at the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves, to the video tracking device monitoring the area from which the object moves out a request signal to provide the object information corresponding to the physical information extracted thereby, if the object information corresponding to the physical information thereby does not exist in the memory thereof.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the object is determined to move out from the area, if the video tracking device monitoring the area from which the object moves out receives the request signal from the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the object identifying device identifies the object by at least one of receiving a certificate from the object, receiving an identification/password from the object, reading data from a radio-frequency identification tag attached to the object, reading data from a smart card attached to the object and detecting bio-signals of the object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the object identification information is object information selected from a group including a certificate of the object, an identification/password of the object, data read from a radio-frequency identification tag attached to the object, data read from a smart card attached to the object and bio-signals of the object.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the object identification information is the object information onto which surveillance area information is mapped.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical information is combination of visual information and movement information of the object, the visual information including at least one of color, size and appearance of the object and movement information including at least one of location, moving direction and velocity of the object.

10. An object tracking system, comprising:

an object identifying device for identifying an object entering an area monitored by the object identifying device and for generating object identification information of the object; and

at least two video tracking devices wired/wirelessly connected to the object identifying device for monitoring the area monitored by the object identifying device and for extracting physical information of the object,

wherein the object identifying device provides the object identification information to the at least two video tracking devices,

wherein each video tracking device maps the physical information to the object identification information to generate object information of the object and stores the object information in a memory thereof,

wherein the at least two video tracking devices are neighboring video tracking devices, sequentially aligned to monitor adjacent, partially overlapping areas, wherein when the object moves from one area monitored by one video tracking device to an adjacent area monitored by a neighboring video tracking device, the one video tracking device provides the respective stored object information to the neighboring video tracking device.

11. The system of claim 10:

wherein the video tracking device determines whether the object moves out from an area monitored thereby, and if it is determined that the object moves out from the area, provides the object information of the object to the adjacent video tracking device monitoring an area into which the object moves; and

wherein the adjacent video tracking device receives the object information from the video tracking device and stores the object information in a memory of the adjacent video tracking device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the areas has at least one overlapped area monitored simultaneously by both adjacent video tracking devices, and, the object is determined to move out from the area if the object moves into the overlapped area.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves tracks the object to extract physical information of the object, and, if the object information corresponding to the physical information extracted thereby does not exist in the memory thereof, transmits to the video tracking device monitoring the area from which the object moves out a request signal to provide the object information corresponding to the physical information extracted thereby.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the object is determined to move out from the area, if the video tracking device monitoring the area from which the object moves out receives the request signal from the video tracking device monitoring the area into which the object moves.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the object identifying device identifies the object by at least one of receiving a certificate from the object, receiving an identification/password from the object, reading data from a radio-frequency identification tag attached to the object, reading data from a smart card attached to the object and detecting bio-signals of the object.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the object identification information is object information selected from a group including a certificate of the object, an identification/password of the object, data read from a radio-frequency identification tag attached to the object, data read from a smart card attached to the object and bio-signals of the object.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the object identification information is the object information onto which surveillance area information is mapped.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the physical information is combination of visual information and movement information of the object, the visual information including at least one of color, size and appearance of the object and movement information including at least one of location, moving direction and velocity of the object.