SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING CROWD TRAFFIC BY DETECTING DEBRIS IN FLOOR MATS

• US 20180053323A1
• Filed: 08/08/2017
• Published: 02/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Jones, Nicholaus Adam, Taylor, Robert James, Vasgaard, Aaron James, Jones, Matthew Allen
• Granted Patent: US 10,489,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/59 Transmissivity G01N21/25 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/90 in a container or its contents G01N21/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/94 Investigating contamination, e.g. dust G01N21/85 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2201/12 Circuits of general importance; Signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10148 Varying focus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20012 Locally adaptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20076 Probabilistic image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30242 Counting objects in image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85
• 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 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

Described in detail herein are methods and systems for determining crowd traffic in a facility by detecting debris on floor mats. The system can include floor mats disposed in a facility to collect debris from objects passing over the floor mats. A computing system can detect and estimate the amount of objects causing the debris on the floor mat. The computing system can estimate the amount of objects entering and exiting the facility based on the quantity of objects passing over the floor mats.

Claims

1. A system for detecting crowd traffic, the system comprising:

a first floor mat disposed at a first location, the first floor mat configured to receive debris from objects passing over the first floor mat;

a container including two sidewalls and a bottom wall, wherein the two sidewalls and the bottom wall create a volume configured to receive the first floor mat with the debris and a liquid, wherein the debris from the first floor mat is transferred to the liquid in the container;

a light source configured to illuminate the volume of the container;

a light sensor configured to sense a first opaqueness of the liquid in the container before first floor mat is received by the container and to sense a second opaqueness of the liquid subsequent to the first floor mat being received by the container; and

a computing system operatively coupled to the light sensor, the computing system being programmed to determine estimate a first quantity of objects that passed over the first floor mat based on the first opaqueness and the second opaqueness of the liquid.

2. The system in claim 1, further comprising:

a second floor mat disposed at a second location of the facility,

wherein the computing system is programmed to determine a second quantity of objects passing over the second floor mat.

4. The system in claim 1, wherein the objects can be one or more of a user, a cart or a physical object.

6. The system in claim 1, wherein a database stores a table associating a difference between the first opaqueness and the second opaqueness of the liquid with an expected estimated quantity of objects required to cause the difference.

7. The system in claim 6, wherein the computing system queries the database to retrieve the expected estimated quantity of objects using the difference.

8. The system in claim 1, wherein the first floor mat is placed in the container after a time period elapses.

9. A system for detecting crowd traffic, the system comprising:

a first floor mat disposed at a first location, the first floor mat configured to receive debris from objects passing over the first floor mat;

a first image capturing device positioned to include the first floor mat in a field of view of the first image capturing device, the first image capturing device being configured to capture a first image of the first floor mat including the debris from the objects passing over the first floor mat; and

a computing system operatively coupled to the first image capturing device, the computing system being programmed to analyze the first image to detect the amount debris on the first floor mat and to estimate a first quantity of objects that passed over the first floor mat based on the amount of the debris on the first floor mat.

10. The system in claim 9, further comprising a database storing a table associating the amount of debris in the first floor mat and the first quantity of objects expected to cause the amount of debris on the first floor mat.

11. The system in claim 10, wherein the computing system queries the database using the amount of debris on the first floor mat to determine the first quantity of object that passed over the first floor mat.

12. The system in claim 9, further comprising, a second floor mat configured to receive debris from objects passing over the second floor mat.

13. The system in claim 12, wherein the first image capturing device is positioned to include the first floor mat and the second floor mat in the field of view of the first image capturing device and is configured to capture, in the first image, the first floor mat and second floor mat.

14. The system in claim 13, wherein the computing system is programmed to analyze the first image and detect the first amount of debris on the first floor mat and a second amount of debris on the second floor mat and estimate the first quantity of objects passing over the first floor mat based on the first amount of debris and a second quantity of object passing over the second floor mat based on the second amount of debris.

15. A method for detecting crowd traffic, the method comprising:

receiving, on a first floor mat at a first location, debris from objects passing over the first floor mat;

capturing, via a first image capturing device positioned to include the first floor mat in a field of view of the first image capturing device, a first image of the first floor mat including the debris from the objects passing over the first floor mat;

analyzing, via a computing system operatively coupled to the first image capturing device, the first image to detect amount of debris on the first floor mat and estimate a first quantity of objects that passed over the first floor mat based on the amount of the debris on the first floor mat.

16. The method in claim 15, further comprising, storing, via a database coupled to the computing system, a table associating the amount of debris in the first floor mat and the first quantity of objects expected to cause the amount of debris on the first floor mat.

17. The method in claim 16, further comprising, querying the database, via the computing system, using the amount of debris on the first floor mat to determine the first quantity of object that passed over the first floor mat.

18. The method in claim 15, further comprising, receiving on a second floor mat debris from objects passing over the second floor mat.

19. The method in claim 18, wherein the first image capturing device positioned to include the first floor mat and the second floor mat in the field of view of the first image capturing device, and capturing the first image includes capturing the first floor mat and second floor mat in the first image.

20. The method in claim 19, further comprising:

analyzing, via the computing system, the first image to detect the first amount of debris on the first floor mat and a second amount of debris on the second floor mat and estimate a first quantity of objects passing over the first floor mat based on the first amount of debris and a second quantity of object passing over the second floor mat based on the second amount of debris.