Image processing apparatus, method and program for controlling an image processing apparatus based on detected user movement

• US 9,866,798 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2015
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Watanabe, Genki
• Primary Examiner(s): McInnish, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US14/849,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5004 Power supply control, e.g. power-saving mode, automatic power turn-off
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5016 User-machine interface; Display panels; Control console
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00888 Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

There is provided an image processing apparatus comprising: a capturing part configured to sequentially capture a plurality of images; an extracting part configured to extract movement information from the sequentially captured images through an analysis, wherein the movement information relates to movement of a moving object and the sequentially captured images contain images of the moving object; and a first determining part configured to detect an approaching user based on the extracted movement information and approaching movement information, stored in advance, indicating approaching movement of a human.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a memory storing computer-readable instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to,

sequentially capture a plurality of images;

extract movement information from the sequentially captured plurality of images through an analysis, wherein the extracted movement information relates to movement of a moving object and the sequentially captured plurality of images contain images of the moving object;

detect an approaching user based on the extracted movement information and approaching movement information, the approaching movement information being stored in advance and indicating movement of a user approaching the image processing apparatus; and

perform authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling a transition from a user log-out state to a user log-in state in response to detecting the approaching user, performing the authentication control including causing an authentication information input screen to be displayed for prompting the approaching user to input at least one form of authentication information for logging into the image processing apparatus.

2. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

calculate a level of similarity between the extracted movement information and human movement information, the human movement information being stored in advance and indicating movement of a human;

determine that the movement of the moving object indicates movement of a human in response to the calculated level of similarity between the extracted movement information and the human movement information reaching or exceeding a threshold human movement value

calculate a level of similarity between the extracted movement information and the approaching movement information in response to determining that the movement of the moving object indicates the movement of a human; and

determine that the movement of a human indicates movement of a user approaching the image processing apparatus in response to the calculated level of similarity between the extracted movement information and the approaching movement information reaching or exceeding a threshold approaching movement value.

3. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus further includes at least one human body detecting sensor, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

detect coordinate information of two or more moving objects within a certain sensor detection range of the at least one human body detecting sensor;

extract respective movement information of each of the two or more moving objects from the sequentially captured plurality of images on a moving object-by-moving object basis by using the detected coordinate information; and

determine that the respective movement information of at least one of the two or more moving objects indicates the movement of the user approaching the image processing apparatus.

4. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

calculate an approaching speed of the approaching user based on the extracted movement information; and

perform the authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling the transition from the user log-out state to the user log-in state in response to the calculated approaching speed reaching or exceeding a threshold approaching speed value, in addition to detecting the approaching user.

5. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

calculate a level of similarity between the extracted movement information and leaving movement information, the leaving movement information being stored in advance and indicating movement of a user separating from the image processing apparatus;

detect a separating user in response to the calculated level of similarity between the extracted movement information and the leaving movement information reaching or exceeding a threshold leaving movement value; and

perform authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling a transition from the user log-in state to the user log-out state in response to detecting the separating user, performing the authentication control including causing the separating user to be logged out from the image processing apparatus.

6. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the extracted movement information includes vector information indicating respective motions of each of a plurality of small areas included in the sequentially captured plurality of images, the sequentially captured plurality of images having been divided into the plurality of the small areas.

7. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the extracted movement information includes vector information indicating correlation amounts between the sequentially captured plurality of images.

8. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to generate the approaching movement information by analyzing a plurality of types of movement when the user is approaching the image processing apparatus from a certain distant position.

11. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

detect two or more moving objects included in the sequentially captured plurality of images to determine coordinate information of the two or more moving objects;

divide the sequentially captured plurality of images into respective divided areas on a moving object-by-moving object basis by using the determined coordinate information;

extract respective movement information of each of the two or more moving objects from the respective divided areas; and

determine that the respective movement information of at least one of the two or more moving objects indicates the movement of the user approaching the image processing apparatus.

12. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

determine whether a log-out timer value has expired in response to detecting the separating user; and

perform the authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling the transition from the user log-in state to the user log-out state in response to determining that the log-out timer value has expired, in addition to detecting the separating user.

13. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus further includes a plurality of image capturing devices, each of the plurality of image capturing devices being configured with one or more of different locations, different directions, and different capturing ranges as compared to each other, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

calibrate the plurality of image capturing devices by adjusting respective parameters of one or more of the plurality of image capturing devices such that respective coordinate systems of each of the plurality of image capturing devices become coincident with respect to a same object captured by each of the plurality of image capturing devices;

acquire the sequentially captured plurality of images from each of the plurality of image capturing devices;

complement an area included in a blind angle of at least one image capturing device of the plurality of image capturing devices by using images acquired from another image capturing device of the plurality of image capturing devices to obtain complemented single-viewpoint images; and

extract the movement information from the complemented single-viewpoint images, wherein the extracted movement information relates to the movement of the moving object even in the area included in the blind angle of the at least one image capturing device.

14. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

combine the sequentially captured plurality of images acquired from each of the plurality of image capturing devices to generate multi-viewpoint images; and

extract the movement information from the generated multi-viewpoint images.

15. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to generate the leaving movement information by analyzing a plurality of types of movement when the user is separating from the image processing apparatus to a certain distant position.

16. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

perform power control for controlling a transition from a power saving state to an operational state in which the approaching user can use the image processing apparatus in response to detecting the approaching user.

17. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

perform power control for controlling a transition from an operational state to a power saving state in which the separating user cannot use the image processing apparatus in response to detecting the separating user.

18. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to:

determine whether a power saving timer value has expired in response to detecting the separating user; and

perform the power control for controlling the transition from the operational state to the power saving state in response to determining that the power saving timer value has expired, in addition to detecting the separating user.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored therein a program for causing a computer processor controlling an image processing apparatus to:

sequentially capture a plurality of images;

extract movement information from the sequentially captured plurality of images through an analysis, wherein the extracted movement information relates to movement of a moving object and the sequentially captured plurality of images contain images of the moving object;

detect an approaching user based on the extracted movement information and approaching movement information, the approaching movement information being stored in advance and indicating movement of a user approaching the image processing apparatus; and

perform authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling a transition from a user log-out state to a user log-in state in response to detecting the approaching user, performing the authentication control including causing an authentication information input screen to be displayed for prompting the user to input at least one form of authentication information for logging into the image processing apparatus.

10. A method of controlling an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:

sequentially capturing a plurality of images;

extracting movement information from the sequentially captured plurality of images through an analysis, wherein the extracted movement information relates to movement of a moving object and the sequentially captured plurality of images contain images of the moving object;

detecting an approaching user based on the extracted movement information and approaching movement information, the approaching movement information being stored in advance and indicating movement of a user approaching the image processing apparatus; and

performing authentication control of the image processing apparatus for controlling a transition from a user log-out state to a user log-in state in response to detecting the approaching user, performing the authentication control including causing an authentication information input screen to be displayed for prompting the user to input at least one form of authentication information for logging into the image processing apparatus.