Imaging apparatus, mobile body detecting method, mobile body detecting circuit and program

• US 8,787,617 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2010
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nishino, Katsuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Seth, Manav
• Application Number:
  US12/716,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232648A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,602 Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30201 Face
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/254 involving subtraction of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/60 relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model
• 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 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes: a moving body detecting section that detects if an object in an image is a moving body which makes a motion between frames; and an attribute determining section that determines a similarity indicating whether or not the object detected as the moving body is similar among a plurality of frames, and a change in luminance of the object based on a texture and luminance of the object, and, when determining that the object is a light/shadow-originated change in luminance, adds attribute information indicating the light/shadow-originated change in luminance to the object detected as the moving body.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a moving body detecting section that detects if an object in an image is a moving body which makes a motion between frames; and

an attribute determining section that (1) performs light/shadow detection on the object by determining (a) a similarity indicating whether or not the object, detected as the moving body by the moving body detecting section, is similar among a plurality of frames, and (b) a change in luminance of the object based on a texture and luminance of the object, and, (2) when determining that the object detected as moving is instead detected due to a light/shadow-originated change in luminance rather than due to moving, adds attribute information indicating the light/shadow-originated change in luminance to the object detected as the moving body.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribute dote determining section includes:

a moving body determining section that determines whether the object is temporarily halting or is a moving body;

a texture determining section that determines a texture intensity of the object determined as the moving body in a predetermined frame;

a similarity determining section that determines a similarity of the object among the plurality of frames based on the texture determined by the texture determining section; and

an erroneous-light/shadow-detection determining section that determines whether or not the object determined as being temporarily halting by the moving body determining section or the object whose similarity has been determined by the similarity determining section is erroneously detected as a light/shadow.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the texture determining section determines the texture intensity of the object based on a variation in change in luminance of the object, and

the similarity determining section determines the similarity of the object by setting a similarity-determining threshold value high for a portion whose texture intensity is low and setting the similarity-determining threshold value low for a portion whose texture intensity is high.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the similarity determining section separates the object into a static area commonly included in the plurality of frames and a dynamic area which differs among the plurality of frames, and determines that the object is a light/shadow-originated change in luminance when a similarity of the static area is higher than a predetermined threshold value.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a meta data generating section that generates meta data containing the attribute information indicating that the object is a light/shadow-originated change in luminance, and basic information of the image based on the object to which the attribute information is added; and

a transfer section that transfers the meta data generated by the meta data generating section.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the similarity determining section separates the object into a static area commonly included in the plurality of frames and a dynamic area which differs among the plurality of frames, and determines that the object is a light/shadow-originated change in luminance when a similarity of the static area is higher than a predetermined threshold value.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a meta data generating section that generates meta data containing the attribute information indicating that the object is a light/shadow-originated change in luminance, and basic information of the image based on the object to which the attribute information is added; and

a transfer section that transfers the meta data generated by the meta data generating section.

6. A moving body detecting method comprising the steps of:

detecting if an object in an image, output by an imaging section, is a moving body which makes a motion between frames; and

performing light/shadow detection on the object by determining (a) a similarity indicating whether or not the object, detected as the moving body, is similar among a plurality of frames, and (b) a change in luminance of the object based on a texture and luminance of the object; and

,

when determining that the object detected as moving is instead detected due to a light/shadow-originated change in luminance rather than due to moving, adding attribute information indicating the light/shadow-originated change in luminance to the object detected as the moving body.

7. A moving body detecting circuit comprising:

a moving body detecting section that detects if an object in an image is a moving body which makes a motion between frames; and

an attribute determining section that, (1) performs light/shadow detection on the object by determining (a) a similarity indicating whether or not the object detected as the moving body, by the moving body detecting section, is similar among a plurality of frames, and (b) a change in luminance of the object based on a texture and luminance of the object, and, (2) when determining that the object detected as moving is instead detected due to a light/shadow-originated change in luminance rather than due to moving, adds attribute information indicating the light/shadow-originated change in luminance to the object detected as the moving body.

8. A program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium for allowing a computer to execute:

a step of detecting if an object in an image is a moving body which makes a motion between frames; and

a step of performing light/shadow detection on the object by determining (a) a similarity indicating whether or not the object, detected as the moving body, is similar among a plurality of frames, and (b) a change in luminance of the object based on a texture and luminance of the object; and

when determining that the object detected as moving is instead detected due to a light/shadow originated-change in luminance rather than due to moving, adding attribute information indicating the light/shadow-originated change in luminance to the object detected as the moving body.