Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program for determining a vehicle boarding state

• US 9,378,457 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2013
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Fukumoto, Yasutaka, Murata, Makoto, Kurata, Masatomo, Katsu, Masanori
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Lut
• Application Number:
  US14/045,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1038 Measuring plantar pressure during gait
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus including: a sensor data generator sensing a user behavior and generating sensor data corresponding to the user behavior; a behavior recognizing unit performing a predetermined threshold value process on the sensor data to recognize the behavior exhibited by the user and generating behavior information that is information indicating the behavior exhibited by the user; a behavior manager managing the behavior information generated by the behavior recognizing unit in correspondence with the time point at which the behavior corresponding to the behavior information is exhibited; and a behavior information post-processing unit performing a predetermined post-process on the behavior information managed by the behavior manager, wherein the behavior recognizing unit further includes a plurality of behavior determination units specified to specific behaviors exhibited by the user and generates the behavior information based on the determination results of the plurality of behavior determination units.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to

execute a recognition of a behavior of a user based on a processing of sensor data, wherein the processing of sensor data includes determining horizontal acceleration of the user and vertical acceleration of the user, determining a horizontal direction variance value of the horizontal acceleration of the user over a predetermined period of time and a vertical direction variance value of the vertical acceleration of the user over the predetermined period of time, comparing the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value to determine a smaller variance value, and comparing an integration value representing integration over the predetermined period of time of the smaller variance value resulting from the comparison between the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value with a minimum determination threshold for the behavior; and

obtain, based on the recognized behavior, a behavior information of a vehicle boarding state indicating whether or not the user has boarded a vehicle, wherein the behavior information indicates that the user has boarded the vehicle when the integration value is greater than the minimum determination threshold; and

a storage unit configured to store the obtained behavior information.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing of sensor data further includes comparing the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value to determine which is smaller, integrating the smaller of the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value over a period of time, and determining whether the integrated variance value is above a minimum vehicle boarding recognition value, and further wherein the obtained behavior information indicates that the user has boarded the vehicle when the integrated variance value is above the minimum vehicle boarding recognition value.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the vehicle is determined to be a car, a bus, a train, or a bicycle based on a unique combination of thresholds and minimum boarding recognition values associated with each type of vehicle.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the obtained behavior information indicates that the user has boarded the vehicle, the processor further determines whether the user is in a stop state, a walking state, a running state, a standing state, or a sitting state in the vehicle.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information corresponding to the obtained behavior information is provided to the user.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information corresponding to the obtained behavior information is shared to another user.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to correlate the behavior information to at least one corresponding time point.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing of sensor data includes comparing the vertical direction variance value with a low vertical variance value threshold and a high vertical variance value threshold, and the obtained behavior information indicates that the user has not boarded the vehicle when the vertical direction variance value is below the low vertical variance value threshold or above the high vertical variance value threshold for the vehicle.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining of the horizontal acceleration of the user and the vertical acceleration of the user is performed on a predetermined amount of sensor data corresponding to the predetermined period of time, and the predetermined amount of sensor data is processed in a first in first out (FIFO) manner.

10. An information processing method comprising:

recognizing a behavior of a user based on a processing of sensor data, wherein the processing of sensor data includes determining horizontal acceleration of the user and vertical acceleration of the user, determining a horizontal direction variance value of the horizontal acceleration of the user over a predetermined period of time and a vertical direction variance value of the vertical acceleration of the user over the predetermined period of time, and comparing an integration value representing integration over the predetermined period of time of the smaller variance value resulting from the comparison between the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value with a minimum determination threshold for the behavior;

obtaining, based on the recognized behavior, a behavior information of a vehicle boarding state indicating whether or not the user has boarded a vehicle, wherein the behavior information indicates that the user has boarded the vehicle when the integration value is greater than the minimum determination threshold; and

storing the obtained behavior information in a memory,

wherein the recognizing of the behavior of the user, the obtaining of the behavior information of the vehicle boarding state, and the storing of the obtained behavior information are performed by at least one processor.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to perform an information processing method, the method comprising:

recognizing a behavior of a user based on a processing of sensor data, wherein the processing of sensor data includes determining horizontal acceleration of the user and vertical acceleration of the user, determining a horizontal direction variance value of the horizontal acceleration of the user over a predetermined period of time and a vertical direction variance value of the vertical acceleration of the user over the predetermined period of time, comparing the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value to determine a smaller variance value, and comparing an integration value representing integration over the predetermined period of time of the smaller variance value resulting from the comparison between the horizontal direction variance value and the vertical direction variance value with a minimum determination threshold for the behavior;

obtaining, based on the recognized behavior, a behavior information of a vehicle boarding state indicating whether or not the user has boarded a vehicle, wherein the behavior information indicates that the user has boarded the vehicle when the integration value is greater than the minimum determination threshold; and

storing the obtained behavior information in a memory.