Monitoring apparatus, method, and program

• US 9,092,663 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2011
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Original Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Inventors: Kono, Ryosuke, Kawamoto, Shingo, Sugiura, Mitsunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Koziol, Stephen R
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAINI, AMANDEEP SINGH
• Application Number:
  US13/825,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20130266196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/173 face re-identification, e.g. recognising unknown faces across different face tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

An entrance and in-store matching unit searches a first mismatched face image that is not matched with a face image captured at an entrance from all face images, which are captured in a store and registered in a biological information DB. An entrance and exit matching unit searches a second mismatched face image that is not matched with a face image captured at an entrance from all the face images, which are captured at an exit and registered in the biological information DB. An exit and in-store matching unit searches a matched face image that is matched with the second mismatched face image among the first mismatched face images. An entrance information registration unit registers the searched matched face image in the biological information DB as the face image captured at the entrance. The present invention can be applied to a monitoring system.

Claims

1. A monitoring apparatus comprising:

a plurality of image capturers configured to capture a face image of a matching target person in at least first to third areas;

storage configured to store the face image of the matching target person captured in each of the first to third areas in a database together with information identifying each of the first to third areas;

a first search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the second area, and searching a first mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area for all the face images captured in the second area;

a second search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the third area, and searching a second mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the third area;

a third search unit configured to search a matched face image, which is matched with the second mismatched face image, among the first mismatched face images; and

a registration unit configured to register the matched face image searched by the third search unit in the database as the face image captured in the first area.

2. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the registration unit registers the matched face image searched by the third search unit in the database as the face image captured in the first area instead of the face image, which is not matched with both the face images captured in the second area and the face images captured in the third area, among the face images captured in the first area.

3. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of image capturers captures a face image of a player who visits an amusement shop from an entrance of the amusement shop in the first area,

captures the face image of the player who moves in the amusement shop in the second area, and

captures the face image of the player who leaves the amusement shop from an exit in the third area.

4. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the registration unit registers the matched face image searched by the third search unit in the database as the face image captured at the entrance instead of the face image, which is not matched with both the face images captured in the amusement shop and the face images captured at the exit, among the face images captured at the entrance.

5. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the registration unit registers the matched face image in the database instead of the face image, which is captured at the entrance at a clock time close to a clock time at which the matched face image searched by the third search unit is initially captured, among the face images each of which is not matched with both the face images captured in the amusement shop and the face images captured at the exit among the face images captured at the entrance.

6. A method for monitoring a monitoring apparatus comprising:

a plurality of image capturers configured to capture a face image of a matching target person in at least first to third areas;

storage configured to store the face image of the matching target person captured in each of the first to third areas in a database together with information identifying each of the first to third areas;

a first search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the second area, and searching a first mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the second area;

a second search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the third area, and searching a second mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the third area;

a third search unit configured to search a matched face image, which is matched with the second mismatched face image, in the first mismatched face images; and

a registration unit configured to register the matched face image searched by the third search unit in the database as the face image captured in the first area, the monitoring apparatus monitoring method comprising;

an image capturing step, in the plurality of image capturers, of capturing the face image of the matching target person in at least the first to third areas;

a storage step, in the storage, of storing the face image of the matching target person captured in each of the first to third areas in the database together with the information identifying each of the first to third areas;

a first search step, in the first search unit, of matching the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the second area, and searching the first mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the second area;

a second search step, in the second search unit, of matching the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the third area, and searching the second mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the third area;

a third search step, in the third search unit, of searching the matched face image, which is matched with the second mismatched face image, among the first mismatched face images; and

a registration step, in the registration unit, of registering the matched face image searched by the third search step processing in the database as the face image captured in the first area.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to perform processing, the computer controlling a monitoring apparatus comprising:

a plurality of image capturers unit configured to capture a face image of a matching target person in at least first to third areas;

storage configured to store the face image of the matching target person captured in each of the first to third areas in a database together with information identifying each of the first to third areas;

a first search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the second area, and searching a first mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the second area;

a second search unit configured to match the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the third area, and searching a second mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the third area;

a third search unit configured to search a matched face image, which is matched with the second mismatched face image, among the first mismatched face images; and

a registration unit configured to register the matched face image searched by the third search unit in the database as the face image captured in the first area, the processing including;

an image capturing step, in the plurality of image capturers, of capturing the face image of the matching target person in at least the first to third areas;

a storage step, in the storage, of storing the face image of the matching target person captured in each of the first to third areas in the database together with the information identifying each of the first to third areas;

a first search step, in the first search unit, of matching the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the second area, and searching the first mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the second area;

a second search step, in the second search unit, of matching the face images captured in the first area among the face images registered in the database against the face images captured in the third area, and searching the second mismatched face image that is not matched with the face images captured in the first area from all the face images captured in the third area;

a third search step, in the third search unit, of searching the matched face image, which is matched with the second mismatched face image, in the first mismatched face images; and

a registration step, in the registration unit, of registering the matched face image searched by the third search step processing in the database as the face image captured in the first area.