Monitoring apparatus, method, and program

• US 9,141,849 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2011
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• 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): Park, Chan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kholdebarin, Iman K
• Application Number:
  US13/825,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20130272584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 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 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/173 face re-identification, e.g. recognising unknown faces across different face tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3206 Player sensing means, e.g. presence detection, biometrics
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00

Abstract

A suspicious person determination unit determines whether the face image of a matching target person is registered in a biological information DB by a matching result of a matching unit. When the face image of the matching target person is registered, area storage stores a specified area while correlating the specified area with a personal ID. A provisional registration unit makes a provisional registration of a suspicious person flag while correlating the suspicious person flag with the personal ID when a pattern of the specified area is a behavioral pattern of a suspicious person. A definitive registration unit makes a definitive registration of the suspicious person flag while correlating with the personal ID, when the provisional registration of the suspicious person flag is made for the face image of the matching target person, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured at a premium exchange counter.

Claims

1. A monitoring apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cameras configured to capture a face image of a matching target person;

a face image storage configured to accumulate the face image of an accumulator in an accumulator database;

area storage configured to store an area where the face image is captured with respect to each of the plurality of cameras; and

a processing unit configured to operate as;

an area specifying unit configured to specify the area where the face image of the matching target person is captured by the plurality of cameras based on information stored in the area storage;

a matcher configured to perform matching by calculating a degree of similarity between the face image of the matching target person and the face image of the accumulator stored in the accumulator database; and

a matching determination unit configured to determine whether the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database by comparing the degree of similarity, which is of a matching result of the matcher, to a predetermined threshold;

the monitoring apparatus further comprising;

area history storage configured to store the area specified by the area specifying unit in an area history database while correlating the area with identification information identifying the face image of the accumulator when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to operate as;

a provisional registration unit configured to make a provisional registration of a predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image corresponding to the identification information in the accumulator database when a pattern of the area, which is stored in the area history database while correlated with the identification information of the face image, is a predetermined area pattern; and

a definitive registration unit configured to make a definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured in a predetermined area.

2. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined flag is a flag indicating a suspicious person who takes an illegal action among the accumulators.

3. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined pattern is a pattern of an area where the matching target person possibly takes an illegal action.

4. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined area is an area, where the matching target person emerges with a high probability when taking an illegal action.

5. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined area is an area near a premium exchange counter, at which the matching target person emerges with a high probability when taking an illegal action in an amusement shop.

6. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an alarm activator configured to activate an alarm that the matching target person is a suspicious person who takes an illegal action when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the predetermined flag is registered in the accumulator database.

7. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the definitive registration unit makes the definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is captured in a predetermined area, and when the matching target person takes a predetermined behavioral pattern taken by a suspicious person.

8. A method for monitoring a monitoring apparatus comprising:

a plurality of cameras configured to capture a face image of a matching target person;

a face image storage configured to accumulate the face image of an accumulator in an accumulator database;

area storage configured to store an area where the face image is captured with respect to each of the plurality of cameras; and

a processing unit configured to operate as;

an area specifying unit configured to specify the area where the face image of the matching target person is captured by the plurality of cameras based on information stored in the area storage;

a matcher configured to perform matching by calculating a degree of similarity between the face image of the matching target person and the face image of the accumulator stored in the accumulator database; and

a matching determination unit configured to determine whether the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database by comparing the degree of similarity, which is of a matching result of the matcher, to a predetermined threshold;

the monitoring apparatus further comprising;

area history storage configured to store the area specified by the area specifying unit in an area history database while correlating the area with identification information identifying the face image of the accumulator when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to operate as;

a provisional registration unit configured to make a provisional registration of a predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image corresponding to the identification information in the accumulator database when a pattern of the area, which is stored in the area history database while correlated with the identification information of the face image, is a predetermined area pattern; and

a definitive registration unit configured to make a definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured in a predetermined area,

the monitoring method comprising;

an image capturing step, in the plurality of cameras, of capturing the face image of the matching target person;

an area specifying step, in the area specifying unit, of specifying the area where the face image of the matching target person is captured through the image capturing step based on the information stored in the area storage;

a matching step, in the matcher, of performing matching by calculating the degree of similarity between the face image of the matching target person and the face image of the accumulator stored in the accumulator database;

a matching determination step, in the matching determination unit, of determining whether the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database by comparing the degree of similarity, which is of the matching result in the matching step, to the predetermined threshold;

an area history storage step, in the area history storage, of storing the area specified through the area specifying step in the area history database while correlating the area with the identification information identifying the face image of the accumulator when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database;

a provisional registration step, in the provisional registration unit, of making the provisional registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image corresponding to the identification information in the accumulator database when the pattern of the area, which is stored the area history database while correlated with the identification information of the face image, is the predetermined area pattern; and

a definitive registration step, in the definitive registration unit, of making the definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured in the predetermined area.

9. 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 cameras configured to capture a face image of a matching target person;

a face image storage configured to accumulate the face image of an accumulator in an accumulator database;

area storage configured to store an area where the face image is captured with respect to each of the plurality of cameras; and

a processing unit configured to operate as;

an area specifying unit configured to specify the area where the face image of the matching target person is captured by the plurality of cameras based on information stored in the area storage;

a matcher configured to perform for performing matching by calculating a degree of similarity between the face image of the matching target person and the face image of the accumulator stored in the accumulator database;

a matching determination unit configured to determine whether the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database by comparing the degree of similarity, which is of a matching result of the matcher, to a predetermined threshold;

the monitoring apparatus further comprising;

area history storage configured to store the area specified by the area specifying unit in an area history database while correlating the area with identification information identifying the face image of the accumulator when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to operate as;

a provisional registration unit configured to make a provisional registration of a predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image corresponding to the identification information in the accumulator database when a pattern of the area, which is stored in the area history database while correlated with the identification information of the face image, is a predetermined area pattern; and

a definitive registration unit configured to make a definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured in a predetermined area,

the processing comprising;

an image capturing step, in the plurality of cameras, of capturing the face image of the matching target person;

an area specifying step, in the area specifying unit, of specifying the area where the face image of the matching target person is captured through the image capturing step based on the information stored in the area storage;

a matching step, in the matcher, of performing matching by calculating the degree of similarity between the face image of the matching target person and the face image of the accumulator stored in the accumulator database;

a matching determination step, in the matching determination unit, of determining whether the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database by comparing the degree of similarity, which is of the matching result in the matching step, to the predetermined threshold;

an area history storage step, in the area history storage, of storing the area specified through the area specifying step in the area history database while correlating the area with the identification information identifying the face image of the accumulator when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image registered in the accumulator database;

a provisional registration step, in the provisional registration unit, of making the provisional registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image corresponding to the identification information in the accumulator database when the pattern of the area, which is stored in the area history database while correlated with the identification information of the face image, is the predetermined area pattern; and

a definitive registration step, in the definitive registration unit, of making the definitive registration of the predetermined flag while correlating the predetermined flag with the face image of the matching target person in the accumulator database, when the face image of the matching target person is matched with the face image of the accumulator in which the provisional registration of the predetermined flag is made in the accumulator database, and when the face image of the matching target person is captured in the predetermined area.