Method and system for monitoring portal to detect entry and exit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11470285-B2
Application number	US-201213367770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 7, 2012
Priority date	Feb 7, 2012
Publication date	Oct 11, 2022
Grant date	Oct 11, 2022

Abstract

A video monitoring and analysis system detect subjects when they are entering and/or exiting from a room. The system enables a user to define a portal, such as doorway of the room. The system then monitors the movement of foreground objects in the room. Objects that appear only in the portal are classified as passing by the portal, e.g., doorway. Objects that initially appear in the portal and then are detected moving within the room are classified as having entered the room. Objects that are in the room and then disappear within the portal are classified as having exited the room. The system further has provisions for generating real-time alerts and performing forensic searches.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a portal of an area being monitored with a video analysis system, comprising:
enabling definition of a portal area of a background model of a scene as a portal, the portal area being a rectangular or other two dimensional area surrounded and within a remainder of the scene;
monitoring movement of foreground objects against the background model; and
classifying foreground objects in the scene that pass into the portal area and then disappear within the portal area as exiting the area being monitored.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein enabling the definition of the portal comprises using a graphical user interface to identify the portal area within the scene.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein enabling the definition of the portal comprises analyzing video data to identify portals through which foreground objects enter and exit the area being monitored.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein monitoring movement of the foreground objects comprises tracking the foreground objects between frames of the video data and generating vectors indicating movement of the foreground objects.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising classifying the foreground objects that pass into the portal area and then out of the portal area but remain within the scene as moving within the area being monitored.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the foreground objects are classified as having exited the area being monitored when the foreground objects are present in the scene and then pass into the portal area and then disappear within the portal area and from the scene.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein classifying the foreground objects further comprises:
tracking the foreground objects within the scene that then enter the portal area and then disappear within the portal area to classify the foreground objects as having exited the area being monitored;
generating metadata indicating that the foreground objects have exited the area being monitored in response to the classification; and
storing the metadata to a video data and metadata archive.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising generating alerts over a network that are triggered when the foreground objects are classified as having exited the area being monitored.

9. A video monitoring and analysis system comprising:
at least one video camera generating video data of a scene of an area being monitored;
a video data and metadata archive that stores the video data from the at least one video camera; and
a video analysis system that receives video data from the at least one video camera and analyzes the video data, the video analysis system enabling definition of a portal area of a background model of the scene as a portal, the portal area being a rectangular or other two dimensional area surrounded and within a remainder of the scene, and then monitoring movement of foreground objects against the background model, and generating and storing metadata to the video data and metadata archive indicating that the foreground objects have exited the area being monitored when the foreground objects pass into the portal area and then disappear while in the portal area.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system enables the definition of the portal using a graphical user interface to identify the portal area within the area being monitored.

11. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system analyzes video data from the at least one video camera to identify portals through which foreground objects enter and exit the area being monitored.

12. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system tracks the foreground objects between frames of the video data and generates vectors indicating movement of the foreground objects in the scene.

13. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system classifies the foreground objects that first appear within the portal area and then disappear within the portal area as passing by the portal.

14. A system as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the video analysis system generates metadata indicating that the foreground objects have passed by the portal.

15. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system generates metadata indicating that the foreground objects have exited the area being monitored when the foreground objects are present in the scene and then pass into the portal area and then disappear within the portal area and from the scene and the foreground objects are classified as having entered the area being monitored if part of the foreground object is within the portal area and part is outside the portal area.

16. A system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the video analysis system generates alerts over a network that are triggered by the metadata indicating the foreground objects have exited the area being monitored.

17. A method for monitoring a portal of an area being monitored with a video analysis system, comprising:
enabling definition of a portal area of a background model of a scene as a portal, the portal area being a rectangular or other two dimensional area surrounded and within a remainder of the scene;
monitoring movement of foreground objects against the background model;
tracking foreground objects that first appear within the portal area, and then, in response to determining that the foreground objects are located within the scene but have moved outside the portal area, classifying the foreground objects as having entered the area being monitored and generating metadata indicating that the foreground objects have entered the area being monitored in response to the classification;
tracking the foreground objects that are within the scene and that later enter the portal area and then disappear within the portal area and classifying those foreground objects as having exited the area being monitored and generating metadata indicating that the foreground objects have exited the area being monitored in response to the classification; and
storing the metadata to a video data and metadata archive.

Assignees

• Westmacott Ian
• Buehler Christopher J
• Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP

Inventors

• Westmacott Ian
• Buehler Christopher J

Classifications

• G08B13/19602

  Image analysis to detect motion of the intruder, e.g. by frame subtraction · 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