Multi-mode video event indexing

• US 9,299,162 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2015
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bobbitt, Russell P., Brown, Lisa M., Feris, Rogerio S., Hampapur, Arun, Zhai, Yun
• Primary Examiner(s): Carter, Aaron W
• Application Number:
  US14/814,774
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 242 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20224 Image subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• 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: G06T 7/254 involving subtraction of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches
• 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: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

Multi-mode video event indexing includes determining a quality of object distinctiveness with respect to images from a video stream input. A high-quality analytic mode is selected from multiple modes and applied to video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images if the determined level of detected quality of object distinctiveness meets a threshold level of quality, else a low-quality analytic mode is selected and applied to the video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images, wherein the low-quality analytic mode is different from the high-quality analytic mode.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for multi-mode video event indexing, the method comprising executing on a processor the steps of:

applying background subtraction to video input images from a video stream input to detect foreground object activity as a difference between current frame image information and static information of a contextual background of the video input images from the video stream input;

determining a first level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a first time;

determining a second level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a second time that is subsequent to the first time by a stability time period;

selecting from a plurality of video analytics modes and applying an object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track a foreground object, in response to neither of the first level of density and the second level of density meeting a threshold density value, and in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting the threshold density value; and

selecting from the plurality of video analytics modes and applying a non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting the threshold density value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

integrating computer-readable program code into a computer system comprising the processor, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage medium, wherein the computer readable program code is embodied on the computer readable storage medium and comprises instructions for execution by the processor via the computer readable memory that cause the processor to perform the steps of applying the background subtraction to the video stream input images to detect the foreground object activity as the difference between the current frame image information and the static information of the contextual background of the video input images from the video stream input, determining the first level and the second level of density of foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input, selecting from the plurality of video analytics modes and applying the object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track a foreground object in response to neither of the first level of density and the second level of density meeting a threshold density value or to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and the second level of density not meeting the threshold density value, and selecting from the plurality of video analytics modes and applying the non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object in response to the first level and the second level of density of the detected foreground object activity meeting the threshold density value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

writing results of the tracking the foreground object and the object movement determination from the extracted foreground object appearance attributes to an index.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stability time period is no more than two seconds.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting and applying the object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting a specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value; and

selecting and applying the non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting or exceeding the specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the density of the foreground is an average of a plurality of individual densities over the specified time period.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining the average of the plurality of individual densities over the specified time period by weighting a more recent density higher than an older density.

8. A system for multi-mode video event indexing, the computer system comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable memory in circuit communication with the processor;

a computer-readable storage medium in circuit communication with the processor;

wherein the processor executes program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory and thereby;

applies background subtraction to video input images from a video stream input to detect foreground object activity as a difference between current frame image information and static information of a contextual background of the video input images from the video stream input;

determines a first level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a first time;

determines a second level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a second time that is subsequent to the first time by a stability time period;

selects from a plurality of video analytics modes and applies an object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track a foreground object, in response to neither of the first level of density and the second level of density meeting a threshold density value, and in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting the threshold density value; and

selects from the plurality of video analytics modes and applies a non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting the threshold density value.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor executes the program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory and thereby further:

writes results of tracking the foreground object and object movement determination from the extracted foreground object appearance attributes to an index.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the stability time period is no more than two seconds.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor executes the program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory and thereby further:

selects and applies the object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting a specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value; and

selects and applies the non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting or exceeding the specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor executes the program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory and thereby further determines the density of the foreground as an average of a plurality of individual densities over the specified time period.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor executes the program instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium via the computer readable memory and thereby further determines the average of the plurality of individual densities over the specified time period by weighting a more recent density higher than an older density.

14. A computer program product for multi-mode video event indexing, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising instructions for execution by a computer processor that cause the computer processor to;

apply background subtraction to video input images from a video stream input to detect foreground object activity as a difference between current frame image information and static information of a contextual background of the video input images from the video stream input;

determine a first level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a first time;

determine a second level of density of the foreground object activity detected with respect to the video input images from the video stream input relative to an entirety of the image at a second time that is subsequent to the first time by a stability time period;

select from a plurality of video analytics modes and apply an object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track a foreground object, in response to neither of the first level of density and the second level of density meeting a threshold density value, and in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting the threshold density value; and

select from the plurality of video analytics modes and apply a non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting the threshold density value.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable program code instructions for execution by the computer processor further cause the computer processor to:

write results of the tracking the foreground object and the object movement determination from the extracted foreground object appearance attributes to an index.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the stability time period is no more than two seconds.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable program code instructions for execution by the computer processor further cause the computer processor to:

select and apply the object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density not meeting a specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value; and

select and apply the non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the first level of density meeting the threshold density value and to the second level of density meeting or exceeding the specified reduced value of the minimum threshold density value.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable program code instructions for execution by the computer processor further cause the computer processor to determine the density of the foreground as an average of a plurality of individual densities over the specified time period.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer-readable program code instructions for execution by the computer processor further cause the computer processor to determine the average of the plurality of individual densities over the specified time period by weighting a more recent density higher than an older density.