Systems and methods for detecting inbound and outbound traffic at a facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11983751-B2
Application number	US-202217862075-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 11, 2022
Priority date	May 29, 2019
Publication date	May 14, 2024
Grant date	May 14, 2024

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to detecting inbound and outbound traffic. In some embodiments, there is provided a system for detecting inbound and outbound traffic at a facility including a video camera and a control circuit configured to detect a human and estimate a location of the human; determine whether the detected human is inbound or outbound the facility based on a relative movement of the detected human within a first region, a second region, and a third region; and transmit data based on the determination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for use in detecting inbound and outbound traffic at a facility, the system comprising:
a video camera configured to capture video footage of an access area to the facility; and
a control circuit coupled to the video camera via a network, the control circuit configured to:
detect, for each of a plurality of frames of the video footage, a human;
estimate a location of the detected human within at least one of a first region, a second region and a third region of the access area, wherein the first region corresponds to a region inside of the access area, wherein the second region corresponds to a region proximate the access area, and wherein the third region corresponds to a region outside of the access area and further out the access area than the second region, wherein the first region, the second region and the third region of the access area are formed from at least two preset horizontal thresholds applied across each of the plurality of frames;
determine whether the detected human is inbound or outbound at the facility based on a relative movement of the detected human within the first region, the second region and the third region; and
transmit data based on the determination.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to detect the human and estimate the location of the human using a human detection module comprising a neural network model.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the access area comprises an unguarded entrance.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a tracking database coupled to the control circuit and configured to store a plurality of identifiers each associated with one of detected human or tracked human on each current frame that is currently being processed by the control circuit for each of a plurality of facilities.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the access area comprises an entrance area, wherein the data comprises an alert message that indicates that the human has exited the facility through the entrance area, and wherein the alert message further comprises a camera identifier, a store identifier and an image capture of the detected human.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
store the alert message over a period of time;
determine a total count of alert messages over the period of time;
determine whether the total count has reached a threshold value; and
in response to the total count reaching the threshold value, provide a notification message to an electronic device indicating an assignment of an associate at the entrance area.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
store occurrences of the alert message over a period of time;
determine occurrences of shrinkage at the facility over the period of time; and
correlate the occurrences of the alert message with the occurrences of shrinkage over the period of time.

8. The system of claim 5 , further comprising an electronic device configured to receive the alert message, wherein the electronic device is worn by an associate at the facility.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the alert message further comprises a timestamp corresponding to a time the human exited the facility through the entrance area.

10. A method for use in counting humans at an area of a facility over a period of time, the method comprising:
capturing, by a video camera, video footage of an access area of a facility;
detecting, by a control circuit coupled to the video camera, for each of a plurality of frames of the video footage, a human;
estimating, by the control circuit, a location of the detected human within at least one of a first region, a second region and a third region of the access area, wherein the first region corresponds to a region inside of the access area, wherein the second region corresponds to a region proximate the access area, and wherein the third region corresponds to a region outside of the access area and further out the access area than the second region, wherein the first region, the second region and the third region of the access area are formed from at least two preset horizontal thresholds applied across each of the plurality of frames;
determining, by the control circuit, whether the detected human is inbound or outbound at the facility based on a relative movement of the detected human within the first region, the second region, and the third region; and
transmitting, by the control circuit, data based on the determination.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the access area comprises an unguarded entrance.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising storing, by a tracking database coupled to the control circuit, a plurality of identifiers each associated with one of detected human or tracked human on each current frame that is currently being processed by the control circuit for each of a plurality of facilities.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the access area comprises an entrance area, wherein the data comprises an alert message that indicates that the human has exited the facility through the entrance area, and wherein the alert message further comprises a camera identifier, a store identifier and an image capture of the detected human.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
storing, by the control circuit, the alert message over the period of time;
determining, by the control circuit, a total count of alert messages over the period of time;
determining, by the control circuit, whether the total count has reached a threshold value; and
in response to the total count reaching the threshold value, providing, by the control circuit, a notification message to an electronic device indicating an assignment of an associate at the entrance area.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
storing, by the control circuit, occurrences of the alert message over the period of time;
determining, by the control circuit, occurrences of shrinkage at the retail facility over the period of time; and
correlating, by the control circuit, the occurrences of the alert message with the occurrences of shrinkage over the period of time.

16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising receiving, by an electronic device, the alert message, wherein the electronic device is worn by an associate at the facility, wherein the alert message further comprises a timestamp corresponding to a time the human exited the facility through the access area.

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Ding Yi
• Duffy Joseph
• Liu Jiankun
• Mao Tianyi
• Reagan Ryan B
• Xiao Zhichun
• Zhang Jinhan
• Zhang Shouyi

Classifications

• G06Q30/0609 Primary

  Qualifying participants for shopping transactions (payment transaction verification G06Q20/401) · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• G06T7/20

  Analysis of motion (motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51) · CPC title

• G06V10/761

  Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures · CPC title

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title