Person counting device, person counting system, and person counting method

• US 9,165,212 B1
• Filed: 04/07/2015
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Takeshi, Fujii, Hirofumi, Yoshida, Kazuma
• Primary Examiner(s): Carter, Aaron W
• Application Number:
  US14/680,464
• Publication Number:
  US 20150294183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 196 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• 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: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A person counting device according to embodiments of the present invention counts the number of persons passing through a doorway based on an imaged image in which the surroundings of the doorway are imaged. The person counting device includes a moving line acquirer that acquires a moving line for each person detected from the imaged image, a person counter that counts the persons that have passed through the doorway based on the moving line, and a display information generator that generates display information which represents the number of persons that have passed through the doorway based on the counting results of the person counter. The person counter detects an interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway, determines a similarity between the background image of the doorway and the person image, and includes a deemed counter that deems that the person has passed through the doorway.

Claims

1. A person counting device that counts the number of persons passing through a doorway based on an imaged image in which the surroundings of the doorway for entering or leaving a predetermined place in a store or the like are imaged, the device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores an instruction,

the device further comprising, as a configuration when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory;

a moving line acquirer that acquires a moving line for each person detected from the imaged image;

a person counter that counts the persons that have passed through the doorway based on the moving line acquired by the moving line acquirer; and

an output information generator that generates output information which represents the number of persons that have passed through the doorway based on the counting result of the person counter,

wherein the person counter includes;

a moving line interruption detector that detects an interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway;

a similarity determinator that determines a similarity between the background image in which the doorway is represented and the person image in which the person is represented in the imaged image; and

a deemed counter that deems that the person has passed through the doorway and includes the person in the counting target, in a case where the interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway is detected by the moving line interruption detector and the similarity determinator determines that the background image and the person image are similar.

2. The person counting device of claim 1,

wherein, in a case where the person moves in a direction of leaving, the similarity determinator acquires the background image from an image area which is a movement destination of the person after the moving line disappears in the imaged image, and in a case where the person moves in a direction of entering, the similarity determinator acquires the background image from an image area which is a movement origin of the person before the moving line appears in the imaged image.

3. The person counting device of claim 1, further comprising:

an area setter that sets a first area in the imaged image by the input operation of the user so as to include the image area in which the person is positioned at the middle of passing through the doorway, and sets a second area in the vicinity of the first area inside of the store so as to include the image area in which the person coming in and going out from the doorway is positioned,

wherein, if the moving line sequentially enters the first area and the second area, the person counter determines that the moving line has passed through the doorway, and then, the person is counted.

4. The person counting device of claim 3,

wherein the moving line interruption detector detects the interruption of the moving line in the second area.

5. The person counting device of claim 3,

wherein the similarity determinator acquires the background image from the image area of the first area in the imaged image, and determines the similarity between the background image and the person image.

6. The person counting device of claim 1,

wherein the similarity determinator extracts feature amounts relating to at least one of brightness information and color information from the background image and the person image respectively, compares each of the feature amounts, and determines the similarity between the background image and the person image.

7. The person counting device of claim 1 further comprising:

an aggregator that aggregates the counting results of the person counter for each predetermined aggregation period and acquires the number of persons for each predetermined aggregation period,

wherein the person counter determines a moving direction of the person passing through the doorway based on the moving line acquired by the moving line acquirer, and separately counts the entering persons and the leaving persons passing through the doorway according to the moving direction,

wherein the aggregator aggregates the counting results of the person counter for each predetermined aggregation period and acquires the number of entering persons and the leaving persons for each predetermined aggregation period, and

wherein the output information generator generates the output information relating to the number of entering persons and the leaving persons for each predetermined aggregation period acquired by the aggregator.

8. A person counting system that counts the number of persons that have passed through a doorway based on an imaged image in which the surroundings of the doorway for entering or leaving a predetermined place in a store or the like are imaged, the system comprising:

a camera that images surroundings of the doorway; and

a plurality of information processing devices,

wherein any one of the plurality of information processing devices includes a processor and a memory that stores an instruction, and the information processing device further includes, as a configuration when the processor executes the instruction stored in the memory;

a person tracker that detects a person from the image imaged by the camera and acquires position information;

a moving line acquirer that acquires a moving line for each person based on the position information acquired by the person tracker;

a person counter that counts the persons passed though the doorway based on the moving line acquired by the moving line acquirer; and

an output information generator that generates output information which represents the number of persons that have passed through the doorway based on the counting results of the person counter, and

wherein the person counter includes;

a moving line interruption detector that detects an interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway;

a similarity determinator that determines a similarity between the background image in which the doorway is represented and the person image in which the person is represented in the imaged image; and

a deemed counter in which the person is deemed to have passed through the doorway and the person is included as the counting target, in a case where the interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway is detected by the moving line interruption detector and the similarity determinator determines that the background image and the person image are similar.

9. A person counting method that causes an information processing device to perform the processing of counting the number of persons passing through a doorway based on an imaged image in which the surroundings of a doorway for entering or leaving a predetermined place in a store or the like are imaged,

the method comprising steps of when the processor of the information processing device executes the instruction stored in the memory:

acquiring a moving line for each person detected from the imaged image;

counting the persons that have passed through the doorway based on the moving line acquired by the step of acquiring; and

generating output information which represents the number of persons that have passed through the doorway based on the counting result by the step of counting,

wherein the step of counting the persons includes steps of;

detecting an interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway;

determining a similarity between the background image in which the doorway is represented and the person image in which the person is represented in the imaged image; and

deeming that the person has passed through the doorway and including the person in the counting target, in a case where the interruption of the moving line in the vicinity of the doorway is detected by the step of detecting the moving line interruption, and the background image and the person image are determined to be similar by the step of determining the similarity.