System and method for capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying data relating to the movements of objects

• US 8,885,047 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2009
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cognyte Technologies Israel Ltd. (Cognyte Software Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Verint Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Golan, Oren, Dudovich, Boaz, Daliyot, Shahar, Horovitz, Itzik, Kiro, Shmuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Golabbakhsh, Ebrahim
• Application Number:
  US12/504,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20100013931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: 348/150, 348/153, 348/155, 348/159, 348/169, 348/39
• US Class Current: 348/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/40 Software arrangements specially adapted for pattern recognition, e.g. user interfaces or toolboxes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/945 User interactive design; Environments; Toolboxes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A system and method for the capture and storage of data relating to the movements of objects, in a specified area and enables this data to be displayed in a graphically meaningful and useful manner. Video data is collected and video metadata is generated relating to objects (persons) appearing in the video data and their movements over time. The movements of the objects are then analyzed to detect the movements within a region of interest. This detection of movement allows a user, such as a manager of a store, to make informed decisions as to the infrastructure and operation of the store. One detection method relates to the number of people that are present in a region of interest for a specified time period. A second detection method relates to the number of people that remain or dwell in a particular area for a particular time period. A third detection method determines the flow of people and the direction they take within a region of interest. A fourth detection method relates to the number of people that enter a certain area by crossing a virtual line, a tripwire.

Claims

1. A method operable on a computer that is coupled to a memory containing video data of a plurality of prescribed physical areas, the method responsive to the movement of objects in the plurality of prescribed physical areas, the method comprising:

identifying objects in each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas by querying a user-selected portion of the video data, wherein the objects that are identified are moving in a user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas, and wherein the user-selected video data is video metadata representing movement of at least one object in the user-selected portions of the plurality of prescribed physical areas, and that video metadata is derived from raw video data with a metadata conversion module;

counting a respective number of the objects in the user-selected portions of each of the prescribed physical areas; and

generating a visually perceptible output which compares the respective number of objects such that a movement path of each of the respective number of objects is superimposed on an image of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of generating the visually perceptible output of the number of objects further comprises:

generating a bar graph illustrating the number of objects.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of generating the visually perceptible output of the number of moving objects further comprises:

generating a line graph illustrating the number of objects.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

specifying a time frame,

wherein the user-selected portion of the video data of the plurality of prescribed physical areas is for the specified time frame.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the objects are people.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of prescribed physical areas is a retail location.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of prescribed physical areas is a warehouse.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the video data is obtained from cameras viewing the plurality of prescribed physical areas.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory resides on a network, the method further comprises accessing the network to receive the video data.

10. A method operable on a computer to detect and analyze movement of objects in a plurality of prescribed physical areas, the method comprising:

examining a user-selected portion of video data to detect objects in a user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas wherein the objects that are detected are moving in the user-selected portion of the plurality of prescribed physical areas;

generating video metadata in response to the detection of the objects, the video metadata representing an object and its movement in the user-selected portion of one of the plurality of prescribed physical areas;

storing the video metadata in a database;

counting a respective number of the objects in the user-selected portions of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas by querying the video metadata; and

generating a visually perceptible output which compares the respective number of objects such that a movement path of each of the respective number of objects is superimposed on an image of the prescribed physical area.

11. A system for detecting and analyzing movement of objects in a plurality of prescribed physical areas, the system comprising:

a video analytics engine generating video metadata from a user-selected set of video data, wherein the user-selected video data is representing objects and movement of objects in a user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas;

an object movement analytics engine coupled to the video analytics engine, the object movement analytics engine counting a number of objects in the user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical area, wherein the objects that are counted are moving in the user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas; and

a display coupled to the object movement analytics engine, the display displaying a visually perceptible output which compares the respective number of objects in the user-selected portion of each of the plurality of prescribed physical areas such that a movement path of each of the respective number of objects is superimposed on an image of the prescribed physical area.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a camera interface that receives video data of the plurality of prescribed physical areas from at least one camera;

a video management system coupled to the camera interface and processing the video data;

a first storage coupled to the video management system and storing the video data; and

a second storage coupled to the video analytics engine and storing the video metadata.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of prescribed physical areas are located in a single facility.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of prescribed physical areas are located in a plurality of geographically distributed facilities.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising at least one camera interface, at least one video management system, at least one video analytics engine, at least one object movement analytics engine and at least one display for each of the geographically distributed facilities.