IMAGE SENSOR SYSTEM, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

• US 20140340513A1
• Filed: 10/15/2012
• Published: 11/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagata, Kazumi, Enohara, Takaaki, Baba, Kenji, Noda, Shuhei, Nishimura, Nobutaka
• Application Number:
  US13/820,407
• Publication Number:
  US 20140340513A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/00 Panoramic or wide-screen photography; Photographing extended surfaces, e.g. for surveying; Photographing internal surfaces, e.g. of pipe
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/36 Indoor scenes
• 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: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

An image capturing unit captures an image of a predetermined space. An image acquiring unit acquires the image captured by the image capturing unit. A mask region deriving unit derives, by using the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, a mask region not to be sensed from the image. A detection region deriving unit derives, by using the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, a detection region of each type as a sensing target from the image. A retaining unit retains the mask region and the detection region as setting information. A sensing unit senses a state of the space from the image acquired by the acquiring unit based on the setting information retained in the retaining unit.

Claims

1-19. -19. (canceled)

20. :

An image sensor system comprising;

an image capturing unit that captures an image of a predetermined space;

an image acquiring unit that acquires the image captured by the image capturing unit;

a mask region deriving unit that derives, by using the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, a mask region not to be sensed from the image;

a detection region deriving unit that derives, by using the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, a detection region of each type as a sensing target from the image;

a retaining unit that retains the mask region and the detection region as setting information; and

a sensing unit that senses a state of the space from the image acquired by the image acquiring unit based on the setting information retained in the retaining unit.

21. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, wherein

the image capturing unit is a fisheye camera, and

the mask region deriving unit detects a lens center of the fisheye camera from the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, and derives a region, which represents a predetermined shape adjusted according to an image capturing condition of the image capturing unit with respect to the lens center, as the mask region.

22. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, further comprising an action acquiring unit that acquires a feature amount of each region of the image, corresponding to a numerical value of an action content of a person in the space, from an image within a predetermined period acquired by the image acquiring unit, wherein

the mask region deriving unit derives the mask region based on the feature amount of each region acquired by the action acquiring unit, and

the detection region deriving unit derives the detection region classified for every predetermined type based on the feature amount of each region acquired by the action acquiring unit.

23. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, further comprising a marker detecting unit that detects a predetermined marker included in the image, wherein

the mask region deriving unit derives the mask region based on a region formed by a mask region setting marker among a plurality of markers detected by the marker detecting unit, and

the detection region deriving unit derives the detection region based on a region formed by a detection region setting marker among the markers detected by the marker detecting unit.

24. :

The image sensor system according to claim 23, wherein

the image capturing unit is a fisheye camera, and

the mask region deriving unit and the detection region deriving unit form a region by connecting the markers by a line segment according to a distortion factor of the fisheye camera.

25. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, further comprising an input unit that receives an input of a region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region on the image acquired by the image acquiring unit, wherein

the retaining unit retains the region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region input on the image as the setting information.

26. :

The image sensor system according to claim 25, further comprising;

an image normalizing unit that performs image processing in which the image captured by the image sensor is normalized; and

an inverse transform unit that performs an inverse transformation of the image processing, wherein

the image capturing unit is a fisheye camera,

the input unit receives an input of the region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region on the normalized image, and

the retaining unit retains the result of the inverse transformation performed by the inverse transform unit on the region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region input on the image as the setting information.

27. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, further comprising a restricting unit that restricts an output of the image acquired by the image acquiring unit according to a terminal type of a terminal or a user type of a user requesting the image.

28. :

The image sensor system according to claim 20, further comprising;

an image capturing direction acquiring unit that acquires an image capturing direction of the image capturing unit;

a calculating unit that compares the image capturing direction acquired by the image capturing direction acquiring unit with a normal image capturing direction, and calculates a difference between both directions as an error angle; and

a correcting unit that corrects the setting information retained in the retaining unit or the image capturing direction of the image capturing unit based on the error angle calculated by the calculating unit.

29. :

The image sensor system according to claim 28, comprising a casing that houses the image capturing unit, wherein

a predetermined mark representing the image capturing direction of the image capturing unit is provided on a surface of the casing.

30. :

An information processing apparatus, which is communicatively connected to an image sensor that senses a state of a space from an image of the predetermined space, comprising;

a mask region deriving unit that derives, by using the image, a mask region not to be sensed from the image;

a mask region setting unit that sets the mask region derived by the mask region deriving unit in the image sensor;

a detection region deriving unit that derives, by using the image captured by the image sensor, a detection region of each type as a sensing target from the image; and

a detection region setting unit that sets the detection region of each type derived by the detection region deriving unit in the image sensor.

31. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 30, wherein

the image sensor is a fisheye camera, and

the mask region deriving unit detects a lens center of the fisheye camera from the image captured by the image sensor, and derives a region, which represents a predetermined shape adjusted according to an image capturing condition of the image sensor with respect to the lens center, as the mask region.

32. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 30, further comprising an action acquiring unit that acquires a feature amount of each region of the image, corresponding to a numerical value of an action content of a person in the space, from an image from a predetermined period captured by the image sensor, wherein

the mask region deriving unit derives the mask region based on the feature amount of each region acquired by the action acquiring unit, and

the detection region deriving unit derives the detection region classified for every predetermined type based on the feature amount of each region acquired by the action acquiring unit.

33. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 30, further comprising a marker detecting unit that detects a predetermined marker included in the image, wherein

the mask region deriving unit derives the mask region based on a region formed by a mask region setting marker among a plurality of markers detected by the marker detecting unit, and

the detection region deriving unit derives the detection region based on a region formed by a detection region setting marker among the markers detected by the marker detecting unit.

34. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 33, wherein

the image sensor is a fisheye camera, and

the mask region deriving unit and the detection region deriving unit form a region by connecting the markers by a line segment according to a distortion factor of the fisheye camera.

35. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 30, further comprising an input unit that receives an input of a region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region on the image captured by the image sensor, wherein

the mask region setting unit sets the region corresponding to the mask region input on the image as the mask region in the image sensor by which the image is captured, and

the detection region setting unit sets the region corresponding to the detection region input on the image as the detection region in the image sensor by which the image is captured.

36. :

The information processing apparatus according to claim 35, further comprising;

an image normalizing unit that performs image processing in which the image captured by the image sensor is normalized; and

an inverse transform unit that performs an inverse transformation of the image processing, wherein

the image capturing unit is a fisheye camera,

the input unit receives the input of the region corresponding to the mask region and the detection region on the normalized image,

the mask region setting unit sets the result of the inverse transformation performed by the inverse transform unit on the region corresponding to the mask region input on the image as the mask region in the image sensor by which the image is captured, and

the detection region setting unit sets the result of the inverse transformation performed by the inverse transform unit on the region corresponding to the detection region input on the image as the detection region in the image sensor by which the image is captured.

37. :

An information processing method executed by an information processing apparatus, which is communicatively connected to an image sensor that senses a state of a space from an image of the predetermined space, comprising;

a mask region deriving step that derives, by a mask region deriving unit and by using the image captured by the image sensor, a mask region not to be sensed from the image;

a mask region setting step that sets, by a mask region setting unit, the mask region derived in the mask region deriving step in the image sensor;

a detection region deriving step that derives, by a detection region deriving unit and by using the image captured by the image sensor, a detection region of each type as a sensing target from the image; and

a detection region setting step that sets, by a detection region setting unit, the detection region of each type derived by the detection region deriving unit in the image sensor.

38. :

A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium including programmed instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, which is communicatively connected to an image sensor that senses a state of a state from an image of the predetermined space, cause the computer to perform;

first deriving, by using the image captured by the image sensor, a mask region not to be sensed from the image;

first setting the mask region derived by the mask region deriving unit in the image sensor;

second deriving, by using the image captured by the image sensor, a detection region of each type as a sensing target from the image; and

second setting the detection region of each type derived by the second deriving in the image sensor.