Video analytics for retail business process monitoring

• US 20080018738A1
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cutting, Robert, Lipton, Alan, Chosak, Andrew, Venetianer, Peter, Scanlon, W., Yin, WeiHong, Brewer, Paul, Yu, Li, Haering, Niels, Zhang, Zhong, Hu, Yongtong, Myers, Gary
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7837 using objects detected or recognised in the video content
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• 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 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• 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 13/19613 Recognition of a predetermined image pattern or behaviour pattern indicating theft or intrusion
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19652 Systems using zones in a single scene defined for different treatment, e.g. outer zone gives pre-alarm, inner zone gives alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1968 Interfaces for setting up or customising the system

Abstract

A system for video monitoring a retail business process includes a video analytics engine to process video obtained by a video camera and generate video primitives regarding the video, A user interface is used to define at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, each activity of interest identifying at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed. An activity inference engine processes the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.

Claims

1. A system for video monitoring a retail business process comprising:

a video analytics engine to process video obtained by a video camera and to generate video primitives regarding the video;

a user interface to define at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, wherein each activity of interest identifies at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed; and

an activity inference engine to process the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest and determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video analytics engine and the activity inference engine are resident within a single device.

3. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video analytics engine and the activity inference engine are resident within the video camera.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video analytics engine and the activity inference engine are resident within separate devices.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video analytics engine operates in a real-time mode.

6. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video analytics engine operates in an off-line mode.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein the activity inference engine operates in a real-time mode.

8. The system as in claim 1, wherein the activity inference engine operates in an off-line mode.

9. The system as in claim 1, wherein the video primitives comprise at least one of a time video primitive, a blob video primitive, a target video primitive, an environmental video primitive, a flow-control video primitive, or a special purpose video primitive for a retail business process.

10. The system as in claim 9, wherein the special purpose video primitive for a retail business process comprises at least one of a basket run video primitive, a high-value item stealing video primitive, a tide filter video primitive, an omni-directional video primitive, or a motion histogram video primitive.

11. The system as in claim 1, wherein each defined activity of interest comprises at least one rule element and at least one combinator.

12. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

an alert interface engine coupled to the activity inference engine to generate an alert.

13. The system as in claim 12, further comprising:

a report generation engine coupled to the alert interface engine to generate a report based on one or more alerts received from the alert interface engine.

14. The system as in claim 1, wherein the retail business process comprises at least one of physical security, public safety, loss prevention, or business intelligence data gathering.

15. A method for video monitoring a retail business process comprising:

obtaining video from a video camera;

processing the video obtained from the video camera;

generating video primitives regarding the video;

defining at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, wherein each activity of interest identifies at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed; and

processing the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.

16. A computer-readable medium comprising software for video monitoring a retail business process, which software, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising a method of:

processing video obtained by a video camera;

generating video primitives regarding the video;

defining at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, wherein each activity of interest identifies at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed; and

processing the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.

17. An apparatus for video monitoring a retail business process comprising:

a video camera to obtain video of an area;

a video analytics engine to process the obtained video and generate video primitives regarding the video; and

an activity inference engine to process the generated video primitives based on at least one activity of interest regarding the area being viewed to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video, wherein each activity of interest defines at least one of a rule or a query selectively identified by a user regarding the area being viewed.

18. The apparatus as in claim 17, wherein the video analytics engine is resident within one of a chip, a chip set, or chips.

19. The apparatus as in claim 17, wherein the video analytics engine and the activity inference engine are resident within one of a chip, a chip set, or chips.

20. The apparatus as in claim 17, further including:

a plurality of video cameras which each obtains video of an associated area, wherein the video analytics engine processes the obtained video of each area and generates video primitives regarding the video and wherein the activity inference engine processes the generated video primitives based on at least one activity of interest regarding each area being viewed to determine if an activity of interest occurred in an associated video.