Apparatus and method for counting number of objects

• US 8,284,991 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Tojo, Hiroshi, Yashiro, Satoshi, Guo, Muling
• Primary Examiner(s): Fitzpatrick, Atiba O
• Application Number:
  US12/395,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20090220123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: 382100-107, 348169-174, 348154-156, 356 27- 31, 73488-490
• US Class Current: 382/103
• 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 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a first detecting unit configured to detect an object based on an upper body of a person and a second detecting unit configured to detect an object based on a face of a person. The image processing apparatus determines a level of congestion of objects contained in an input image, selects the first detecting unit when the level of congestion is low, and selects the second detecting unit when the level of congestion is high. The image processing apparatus counts the number of objects detected by the selected first or second detecting unit from the image. Thus, the image processing apparatus can detect an object and count the number of objects with high precision even when the level of congestion is high and the objects tend to overlap one another.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first detecting units configured to detect an object based on an upper body of a person;

a second detecting unit configured to detect an object based on a face of a person;

a determining unit configured to determine a level of congestion of objects contained in an input image;

a selecting unit configured to select at the first detecting unit when the determined level of congestion is low and selecting the second detecting unit when the determined level of congestion is high; and

a control unit configured to cause a result of detection of an object from the input image detected by the selected detecting unit to be output.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to cause only the selected detecting unit to detect the objects from the input image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to cause the first and second detecting units to detect the objects contained in the input image and cause the result of detection of the object detected by the detecting unit selected by the selecting unit to be selected and output.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a counting unit configured to count a number of objects detected by the detecting unit selected by the selecting unit.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising an object tracking unit configured to find a trail of the object from the detection within a predetermined period of time, the detection being performed by the detecting unit selected by the selecting unit,

wherein the counting unit is configured to count a number of objects whose trails found by the object tracking unit satisfy a predetermined condition.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a display unit configured to display the number of objects counted by the counting unit.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image pickup unit configured to obtain an image.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit is configured to obtain a difference between the input image and a background image and determine the level of congestion based on the obtained difference.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second detecting unit is configured to detect the object based on the face of the person and a difference between the input image and a background image.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second detecting unit is configured to detect the object based on the face of the person and an oval edge.

11. An image processing method comprising:

determining a level of congestion of objects contained in an image;

selecting a first detection process when the determined level of congestion is low and selecting a second detection process when the determined level of congestion is high, wherein the first detection process detects an object based on an upper body of a person and the second detection process detects the object based on a face of a person; and

detecting the object from the image using the selected detection process.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for instructing a computer to implement the image processing method according to claim 11.