Counting persons in queue system, apparatus, method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10521673-B2
Application number	US-201715687935-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2017
Priority date	Aug 30, 2016
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A system that detects the number of persons waiting in a queue includes an image acquisition unit that acquires a captured image, an analysis unit that detects a person from the captured image, and a decision unit that, when a region in which no person is detected in the captured image has an area greater than or equal to a predetermined area, sets the number of persons detected from the captured image as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system that determines a number of persons waiting in a queue formed between a first position and a second position, the second position corresponding to an exit of the queue, the system comprising a computer executing instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to function as:
an image obtaining unit configured to obtain a captured image of an area corresponding to the second position;
a first detection unit configured to detect a person passing through the first position;
a second detection unit configured to detect a person passing through the second position;
a third detection unit configured to detect a person from the captured image and to determine, in the captured image, a first region including a detected person and a second region including no person; and
a determination unit configured to, if the second region has an area greater than or equal to a predetermined area, determine a number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue and, if the second region has an area less than the predetermined area, determine a number, which is obtained based on a number of persons detected by the first detection unit and a number of persons detected by the second detection unit, as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein,
after time at determining the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue, the determination unit determines a number, which is obtained based on a number of persons detected by the first detection unit after the time, a number of persons detected by the second detection unit after the time, and the number of the detected persons in the first region, as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

3. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising
a time obtaining unit configured to obtain time of passage through the first position, wherein
if the second region has an area greater than or equal to the predetermined area and further a difference between the time of passage through the first position and time at which a person is detected from the captured image by the third detection unit is greater than or equal to a set time, the determination unit determines the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the image obtaining unit obtains the captured image and a queue captured image of the queue,
the third detection unit detects a person from the captured image and the queue captured image,
if the second region is greater than or equal to the predetermined area and there is no difference between the number of detected persons in the first region and a number of persons detected from the queue captured image, the determination unit determines the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein
the queue captured image is an image of the queue as a whole, and wherein the queue captured image is comprised of images captured by a plurality of image capturing apparatuses.

6. An information processing apparatus that determines a number of persons waiting in a queue formed between a first position and a second position, the second position corresponding to an exit of the queue, the information processing apparatus comprising a computer executing instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to function as:
a first obtaining unit configured to obtain a result of first detection for detecting a person passing through the first position;
a second obtaining unit configured to obtain a result of second detection for detecting a person passing through the second position;
a third obtaining unit configured to obtain a result of third detection for detecting a person in a captured image of an area corresponding to the second position and for determining, in the captured image, a first region including a detected person and a second region including no person; and
a determination unit configured to, if the second region has an area greater than or equal to a predetermined area, determine a number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue and, if the second region has an area less than the predetermined area, determine a number, which is obtained based on a number of persons detected by the first detection and a number of persons detected by the second detection, as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 wherein,
after time at determining the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue, the determination unit determines a number, which is obtained based on a number of persons detected in the first detection after the time, a number of persons detected in the second detection after the time, and the number of detected persons in the first region, as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising
a time obtaining unit configured to obtain time of passage through the first position, wherein
if the second region has an area greater than or equal to the predetermined area and further a difference between the time of passage thorough the first position and time at which a person is detected in the captured image by the third detection is greater than or equal to a set time, the determination unit determines the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the third obtaining unit obtains a result of the third detection for detecting a person from the captured image and a queue captured image of the queue, and
if the second region is greater than or equal to the predetermined area and there is no difference between a number of detected persons in the first region and a number of persons detected from the queue captured image, the determination unit determines the number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein
the queue captured image is an image of the queue as a whole, and wherein the queue captured image is comprised of images captured by a plurality of image capturing apparatuses.

11. An information processing method that determines a number of persons waiting in a queue formed between a first position and a second position, the second position corresponding to an exit of the queue, the information processing method comprising:
a first obtaining step for obtaining a result of first detection for detecting a person passing through the first position;
a second obtaining step for obtaining a result of second detection for detecting a person passing through the second position;
a third obtaining step for obtaining a result of third detection for detecting a person in a captured image of an area corresponding to the second position and for determining, in the captured image, a first region including a detected person and a second region including no person; and
a determination step for determining a number of detected persons in the first region as the number of persons waiting in the queue if the second region has an area greater than or equal to a predetermined area and determining a number, which is obtained based on a number of persons detected by the first detection and a number of persons detected by the second

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Takeda Kanako

Classifications

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G06T7/70 Primary

  Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras (camera calibration G06T7/80) · CPC title

• G07C2011/04

  related to queuing systems · CPC title

• G06T2207/30232

  Surveillance · CPC title

• G06T7/74

  involving reference images or patches · CPC title