INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF, AND NON-TRANSITORY STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20110150278A1
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Shimizu, Tomoyuki
• Application Number:
  US12/949,571
• Publication Number:
  US 20110150278A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/768 using context analysis, e.g. recognition aided by known co-occurring patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification

Abstract

An information processing apparatus comprising: a storage unit configured to store image features of multiple targets and mutual relationship information of the multiple targets; an input unit configured to input an image; a detection unit configured to detect a region of a target from the input image; an identification unit configured to, based on the stored image features and image features of the detected region, identify the target of the region; and an estimation unit configured to, in the case where both a first region in which a target was identified and a second region in which a target could not be identified are present in the input image, estimate a candidate for the target in the second region based on the mutual relationship information and the target in the first region.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store image features of multiple targets and mutual relationship information of the multiple targets;

an input unit configured to input an image;

a detection unit configured to detect a region of a target from the input image;

an identification unit configured to, based on the stored image features and image features of the detected region, identify the target of the region; and

an estimation unit configured to, in the case where both a first region in which a target was identified and a second region in which a target could not be identified are present in the input image, estimate a candidate for the target in the second region based on the mutual relationship information and the target in the first region.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores, as the mutual relationship information, a number of appearances in which each of the multiple targets appear together in multiple reference images input in advance.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the estimation unit estimates the target having the highest number of appearances with the target in the first region as a candidate for the target in the second region.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein in the case where the number of targets included in the image is two, the estimation unit estimates the candidate by giving a higher weight to the number of appearances than in the case where the number of targets in the image is three or more.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein metadata corresponding to the same conditions as metadata added to the input image is added to each of the multiple reference images.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein in the case where the second region is present in the input image but the first region is absent from the input image, the estimation unit estimates a target that appears in the multiple reference images as a candidate for the target in the second region.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein metadata indicating that the input image and the multiple reference images were shot in the same period is added to the input image and the multiple reference images.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein metadata indicating that the input image and the multiple reference images were shot in the same area is added to the input image and the multiple reference images.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein metadata indicating that the input image and the multiple reference images were shot by the same device is added to the input image and the multiple reference images.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the capturing date and time when the image was captured is added to the image as metadata;

the storage unit stores a disappearance date and time indicating a date and time at which a target that had been present ceases to be present;

the identification unit determines whether each of the multiple regions corresponds to one of the targets whose stored disappearance date and time is newer than the capturing date and time of the target image; and

the estimation unit estimates the candidate from among the targets whose stored disappearance date and time is newer than the capturing date and time of the target image.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the capturing date and time when the image was captured is added to the image as metadata;

the storage unit stores an appearance date and time indicating a date and time at which a target that had not been present starts to be present;

the identification unit determines whether each of the multiple regions corresponds to one of the targets whose stored appearance date and time is older than the capturing date and time of the target image; and

the estimation unit estimates the candidate from among the targets whose stored appearance date and time is older than the capturing date and time of the target image.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification unit calculates a likelihood by comparing image features extracted from the detected region with the stored image features and determines, based on the calculated likelihood, whether or not the detected region corresponds with a target that has the stored image features.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the estimation unit estimates the candidate based on the mutual relationship information and the likelihood.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target is a person.

15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 14,

wherein the storage unit stores, as the mutual relationship information, family information identifying which family the multiple targets belong to;

and

the estimation unit estimates, from among targets belonging to the same family as a target that corresponds to a region determined to correspond to one of the multiple targets, a candidate for a target that corresponds to a region in which it has been determined that the corresponding target is not present.

16. A processing method for an information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

inputting an image;

detecting a region of a target in the input image;

identifying a target in the region based on image features of multiple targets stored in a storage unit that stores the image features and mutual relationship information of the multiple targets, and based on image features of the detected region; and

estimating, in the case where both a first region in which a target was identified and a second region in which a target could not be identified are present in the input image, a candidate for the target in the second region based on the mutual relationship information and the target in the first region.

17. A non-transitory storage medium in which is stored a program that causes a computer to execute the information processing method according to claim 16.