Object tracking and alerts

• US 9,407,878 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2015
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics LLC (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: Buehler, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hossain, Farzana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Findley, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US14/687,358
• Publication Number:
  US 20150244992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 475 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30108 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/41 Higher-level, semantic clustering, classification or understanding of video scenes, e.g. detection, labelling or Markovian modelling of sport events or news items segmenting video sequences G06V20/49
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/48 Matching video sequences
• 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: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19602 Image analysis to detect motion of the intruder, e.g. by frame subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19641 Multiple cameras having overlapping views on a single scene
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1966 Wireless systems, other than telephone systems, used to communicate with a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19671 Addition of non-video data, i.e. metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19691 Signalling events for better perception by user, e.g. indicating alarms by making display brighter, adding text, creating a sound
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/248 EAS system combined with another detection technology, e.g. dual EAS and video or other presence detection system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/002 for television cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

An integrated surveillance system combining video surveillance and data from other sensor-based security networks is used to identify activities that may require attention.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a video surveillance subsystem comprising a plurality of cameras each having a field of view, each field of view comprising a plurality of sub-regions;

a radio-frequency identification subsystem comprising a plurality of radio-frequency stations, each radio-frequency station configured to detect radio-frequency identification tags within a respective operational radius; and

an association module in communication with the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem, the association module for inferring associations among one or more of the sub-regions and one or more of the operational radii, wherein inferring the associations comprises;

determining a first probability that a first one of the sub-regions is associated with a first one of the operational radii based on a detection of a tracked object in both the first sub-region and the first operational radius at a first time; and

determining a second, higher probability that the first sub-region and the first operational radius are associated based on a detection of a tracked object in both the first sub-region and the first operational radius at a second, later time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the video surveillance subsystem is configured to capture visual representations of objects moving among the fields of view of the cameras.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio-frequency identification subsystem is configured to capture spatial information associated with objects moving among the operational radii of the radio-frequency stations.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein, for an association between a particular sub-region and a particular operational radius, at least one of the following is unknown:

(i) a location of the camera having the field of view comprising the particular sub-region, and (ii) a location of the radio-frequency station associated with the particular operational radius.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the associations is inferred based at least in part on repeated detection of tracked objects in both a particular sub-region and a particular operational radius at substantially the same time.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tracking module for chronologically representing physical locations of track objects based on data received from the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem operate within a region, the region comprising at least one ineffective area outside the fields of view of the cameras and the operational radii of the radio-frequency stations.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the tracking module infers a location of a tracked object as the tracked object passes through at least one ineffective area.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the tracking module infers a next camera location for a tracked object as the tracked object passes through an ineffective area, the next camera location being inferred based on a previously known location of the tracked object.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem are calibrated independently of each other.

11. A method comprising:

receiving data from a video surveillance subsystem comprising a plurality of cameras each having a field of view, each field of view comprising a plurality of sub-regions;

receiving data from a radio-frequency identification subsystem comprising a plurality of radio-frequency stations, each radio-frequency station configured to detect radio-frequency identification tags within a respective operational radius; and

inferring associations among one or more of the sub-regions and one or more of the operational radii based on the data received from the video surveillance system and the data received from the radio-frequency identification subsystem, wherein inferring the associations comprises;

determining a first probability that a first one of the sub-regions is associated with a first one of the operational radii based on a detection of a tracked object in both the first sub-region and the first operational radius at a first time; and

determining a second, higher probability that the first sub-region and the first operational radius are associated based on a detection of a tracked object in both the first sub-region and the first operational radius at a second, later time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data from the video surveillance subsystem comprises visual representations of objects moving among the fields of view of the cameras.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the data from the radio-frequency identification subsystem comprises spatial information associated with objects moving among the operational radii of the radio-frequency stations.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein, for an association between a particular sub-region and a particular operational radius, at least one of the following is unknown:

(i) a location of the camera having the field of view comprising the particular sub-region, and (ii) a location of the radio-frequency station associated with the particular operational radius.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the associations is inferred based at least in part on repeated detection of tracked objects in both a particular sub-region and a particular operational radius at substantially the same time.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising chronologically representing physical locations of tracked objects based on data received from the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem operate within a region, the region comprising at least one ineffective area outside the fields of view of the cameras and the operational radii of the radio-frequency stations.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising inferring a location of a tracked object as the tracked object passes through at least one ineffective area.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising inferring a next camera location for a tracked object as the tracked object passes through an ineffective area, the next camera location being inferred based on a previously known location of the tracked object.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising calibrating the video surveillance subsystem and the radio-frequency identification subsystem independently of each other.