Indoor occupancy estimation, trajectory tracking and event monitoring and tracking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11495111-B2
Application number	US-202017423337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 6, 2020
Priority date	Feb 6, 2019
Publication date	Nov 8, 2022
Grant date	Nov 8, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a monitoring system configured to monitor the activities of individuals without having to keep the surrounding area under the surveillance of a camera thereby maintaining the privacy of the individual. In particular, the monitoring system includes a network of sensitive sensor units that are installed onto indoor flooring to record human footstep induced vibrations. The data collected from the sensors can then be processed to identify individual occupants, determine the number of occupants, estimate the location of footsteps, and track the trajectory of each occupant. The extracted trajectory information can be used to assess an occupant's personal activity and social interaction, which can then be used to analyze the individual's physical and psychological health.

First claim

We claim:

1. A monitoring system for monitoring activity in a predefined area, comprising:
a network of sensor units arranged on a floor of the predefined area, individual sensor units of the network of sensor units comprising:
a vibration sensor configured to obtain horizontal vibrations and vertical vibrations;
an amplifier;
a computing device in data communication with the sensor; and
at least one application executable in the computing device, wherein, when executed, the at least one application causes the computing device to at least:
receive sensor data from the sensor, the sensor data comprising the horizontal vibrations and the vertical vibrations associated with one or more subjects moving on the floor;
isolate footstep vibrations from background noise vibrations included in the sensor data based at least in part on a characterization of waveform properties in the sensor data;
communicate with at least one other sensor unit in the network of sensor units to obtain neighbor sensor data; and
determine at least one of: a number of subjects moving in the predefined area, a trajectory for at least one subject, or a location of the at least one subject based at least in part on the footstep vibrations and the neighbor sensor data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vibration sensor comprises a seismometer.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network of sensor units are in data communication via a wireless network.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein isolating the footstep vibrations further comprises identifying one or more footstep signatures in time domain and frequency domain.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein determining the number of subjects moving in the predefined area further comprises clustering one or more footstep features from the sensor data with one or more footstep features from the neighbor sensor data.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the computing device to at least detect an event based at least in part on the footstep vibrations.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the event comprises a fall of a particular subject.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein, when executed, the application further causes the computing device to at least generate an alert in response to the detected event.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the alert is at least one of an auditory or visual alert.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computing device is in communication with a smart device configured to communicate with a third party, and generating the alert further comprises instructing the smart device to send a communication with the third party.

11. A method for monitoring activity in a predefined area, comprising:
obtaining, via a computing device of a sensor unit positioned on a floor of the predefined area, sensor data from a vibration sensor of the sensor unit, the sensor data being associated with one or more subjects moving on the floor;
isolating, via the computing device, footstep vibrations from background noise vibrations included in the sensor data based at least in part on wavelet denoising;
determining, via the computing device, a location of a subject based at least in part on one or more signature features in the footstep vibrations and data received from at least one other sensor unit; and
determining, via the computing device, a trajectory of the subject based at least in part on the location of the subject.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising estimating, via the computing device, a number of occupants in the predefined area based at least in part on a learned data and an analysis of the sensor data.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the sensor comprises a seismometer.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating, via the computing device, a user interface comprising at least one of: a trajectory tracking, a number of detected footsteps, a number of detected events, a fall down location, a number of detected falls, a time associated with a last detected event, or a time associated with a last detected fall.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
rendering, via the computing device, the user interface on a display associated with the computing device; and
updating, via the computing device, the user interface periodically.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising detecting, via the computing device, an event of the subject.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the event comprises a fall down event.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein detecting the event is based at least in part on the footstep vibrations.

19. The method of any one of claim 16 , further comprising generating, via the computing device, an alert in response to the detected event.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the computing device is in communication with a smart device configured to communicate with a third party, and generating the alert comprises instructing the smart device to send a communication with the third party.

Assignees

• Univ Georgia

Inventors

• Song Wenzhan
• Li Fangyu
• Clemente Jose

Classifications

• A61B5/742

  using visual displays (displays for heart-related electrical signals, e.g. ECG, A61B5/339) · CPC title

• A61B5/746

  Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms · CPC title

• A61B2562/046

  in a matrix array · CPC title

• G08B21/0469

  Presence detectors to detect unsafe condition, e.g. infrared sensor, microphone (G08B21/0476 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B5/1117 Primary

  Fall detection · CPC title