Preserving privacy in surveillance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11032491-B2
Application number	US-202017007486-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2020
Priority date	Aug 22, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for preserving privacy in surveillance. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of obtaining images of a scene captured by a camera, identifying an object in the images through object recognition, determining that the object that is identified in the images is of a particular type that has a privacy restriction, and in response to determining that the object in the images is of the particular type that has the privacy restriction, obfuscating an appearance of the object in the images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining an image of a scene captured by a camera;
identifying a person in the image through object recognition;
determining locations of feet of the person;
determining that neither locations of feet of the person are within a room;
based on determining that neither locations of the feet are within the room, determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room; and
in response to determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room, obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the person is in front of the room and not inside the room comprises:
determining that the person is in front of a doorway to the room and outside the room.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein, as shown in the image, the person is passing in front of the doorway.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person comprises:
obfuscating portions of a doorway to the room that are shown in the image and not obfuscating portions of the person that are shown blocking a view of other portions of the doorway.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the room comprises a bathroom.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining that a second person is at least partially inside the room as shown in a second image; and
in response to determining that the second person is at least partially inside the room as shown in the second image, obfuscating an entirety of the second person inclusive of a portion of the second person that is shown in the second image as not inside the room.

7. A system comprising:
one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
obtaining an image of a scene captured by a camera;
identifying a person in the image through object recognition;
determining locations of feet of the person;
determining that neither locations of feet of the person are within a room;
based on determining that neither locations of the feet are within the room, determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room; and
in response to determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room, obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein determining that the person is in front of the room and not inside the room comprises:
determining that the person is in front of a doorway to the room and outside the room.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein, as shown in the image, the person is passing in front of the doorway.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person comprises:
obfuscating portions of a doorway to the room that are shown in the image and not obfuscating portions of the person that are shown blocking a view of other portions of the doorway.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the room comprises a bathroom.

12. The system of claim 7 , the operations comprising:
determining that a second person is at least partially inside the room as shown in a second image; and
in response to determining that the second person is at least partially inside the room as shown in the second image, obfuscating an entirety of the second person inclusive of a portion of the second person that is shown in the second image as not inside the room.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
obtaining an image of a scene captured by a camera;
identifying a person in the image through object recognition;
determining locations of feet of the person;
determining that neither locations of feet of the person are within a room;
based on determining that neither locations of the feet are within the room, determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room; and
in response to determining that the person is in front of the room but not inside the room, obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person.

14. The medium of claim 13 wherein determining that the person is in front of the room and not inside the room comprises:
determining that the person is in front of a doorway to the room and outside the room.

15. The medium of claim 14 , wherein, as shown in the image, the object is a person is passing in front of the doorway.

16. The medium of claim 13 , wherein obfuscating, in the image, the room and not the person comprises:
obfuscating portions of a doorway to the room that are shown in the image and not obfuscating portions of the person that are shown blocking a view of other portions of the doorway.

17. The medium of claim 13 , wherein the room comprises a bathroom.

Assignees

• Alarm Com Inc

Inventors

• Hutz David James
• Beach Allison
• Ramanathan Narayanan
• Berg Benjamin Asher
• Silverman Christopher
• Madden Donald

Classifications

• H04N5/2621 Primary

  Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability · CPC title

• G06V10/82

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06V40/107

  Static hand or arm · CPC title

• H04N7/188 Primary

  Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position (signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253) · CPC title

• G06F18/2414

  Smoothing the distance, e.g. radial basis function networks [RBFN] · CPC title