Number-of-people information acquisition system, number-of-people information acquisition method, and elevator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12365564-B2
Application number	US-201817297625-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2018
Priority date	Nov 30, 2018
Publication date	Jul 22, 2025
Grant date	Jul 22, 2025

Abstract

In the present invention, a process of receiving an image obtained by capturing a measurement target place with a camera, calculating a number of people in the measurement target place based on the image received, and allocating a car according to the calculated number of people is performed. Here, when an abnormality that an image from the camera cannot be received is determined, a process of referring to a detection value of a sensor or the like installed in a car or in the measurement target place to calculate the number of people in the car or the measurement target place is performed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A number-of-people information acquisition system, comprising:
a camera that captures a measurement target place;
a reception unit that receives an image captured by the camera;
a number-of-people setting unit that calculates a number of people in the measurement target place based on an image received by the receiving unit;
an allocation command unit that allocates a car according to the number of people in the measurement target place calculated by the number-of-people setting unit; and
an abnormality determination unit that determines an abnormality of the camera or a transmission path based on a reception status of an image in the reception unit, wherein
when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality, the number-of-people setting unit refers to a detection value of a sensor installed in the car or the measurement target place to calculate the number of people.

2. The number-of-people information acquisition system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a learning unit that learns a number of people in an operation status of the car from an image received by the reception unit or a number of people calculated based on the image; and
a number-of-people prediction unit that refers to a learning result of the learning unit to predict a number of people in the measurement target place, wherein
when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality, the number-of-people setting unit refers to the number of people predicted by the number-of-people prediction unit to calculate the number of people in the measurement target place.

3. The number-of-people information acquisition system according to claim 2 , wherein
a camera that captures inside of a car and a camera that captures a landing of the car are prepared as a camera that captures the measurement target place,
when an abnormality of the camera that captures the inside of the car is determined based on a reception status of an image in the reception unit, the number-of-people setting unit refers to a detection value of a load sensor installed in the car to calculate a number of people in the car, and
when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality of the camera that captures the landing, the number-of-people setting unit refers to a number of people predicted by the number-of-people prediction unit to calculate a number of people at the landing.

4. The number-of-people information acquisition system according to claim 1 , wherein
a camera that captures the measurement target place is a camera that captures inside of a car,
the sensor is a load sensor installed in a car,
the reception unit receives information regarding opening and closing of a door installed in a car, and
when the abnormality determination unit determines that the camera that captures the inside of the car is normal, the reception unit detects that the door is open based on the information regarding opening and closing of the door installed in the car, and when a number of people calculated by the number-of-people setting unit based on an image captured by the camera that captures the inside of the car changes and a detection value of the load sensor changes, the number of people calculated by the number-of-people setting unit based on the image captured by the camera that captures the inside of the car is set as a number of people in the car.

5. The number-of-people information acquisition system according to claim 1 , wherein
in a case where the reception unit cannot receive an image captured by the camera for a specified time and in a case where the reception unit cannot receive an image captured by the camera continuously a plurality of times, the abnormality determination unit determines that an abnormality occurs in the camera or a transmission path.

6. The number-of-people information acquisition system according to claim 1 , further comprising
an abnormality issuing unit that issues a camera abnormality signal to a predetermined terminal device when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality of the camera.

7. A number-of-people information acquisition method, comprising:
a capturing process of capturing a measurement target place using a camera;
a reception process of receiving an image captured by the camera;
a number-of-people determination process of calculating a number of people in the measurement target place based on an image received in the reception process;
an allocation process of allocating a car according to the number of people in the measurement target place calculated in the number-of-people determination process; and
an abnormality determination process of determining an abnormality of the camera or a transmission path based on a reception status of an image in the reception process, wherein
when an abnormality is determined in the abnormality determination process, the number-of-people determination process refers to a detection value of a sensor installed in the car or the measurement target place to calculate the number of people.

8. The number-of-people information acquisition method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a learning process of learning calculation of a number of people in an operation status of the car from an image received in the reception process or a number of people calculated based on the image; and
a number-of-people prediction process of referring to a learning result of the learning process to predict a number of people in the measurement target place, wherein
when an abnormality is determined in the abnormality determination process, the number-of-people determination process refers to the number of people predicted in the number-of-people prediction process to calculate the number of people in the measurement target place.

9. An elevator comprising:
an in-car camera that is installed in a car and captures inside of the car;
a reception unit that receives an image captured by the in-car camera;
a number-of-people setting unit that calculates a number of people in a car based on an image received by the receiving unit;
an allocation command unit that allocates a car according to the number of people determined by the number-of-people determination unit; and
an abnormality determination unit that determines an abnormality of the in-car camera or a transmission path based on a reception status of an image captured by the in-car camera in the reception unit, wherein
when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality, the number-of-people setting unit refers to a detection value of a load sensor installed in the car to calculate the number of people in the car.

10. The elevator according to claim 9 , further comprising:
a landing camera that captures a landing;
a learning unit that learns a number of people in an operation status of the car from an image received by the reception unit or a number of people calculated based on the image; and
a number-of-people prediction unit that refers to a learning result of the learning unit to predict a number of people at the landing, wherein
when the abnormality determination unit determines an abnormality, the number-of-people setting unit refers to the number of people predicted by the number-of-people prediction unit to calculate the number of people at the landing.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Sukegawa Yuta
• HATORI Takahiro
• Maehara Tomoaki
• Okada Takahiro

Classifications

• H04N7/18

  Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast · CPC title

• B66B2201/23

  Other aspects of the evaluation method · CPC title

• B66B2201/222

  Taking into account the number of passengers present in the elevator car to be allocated · CPC title

• B66B1/3484

  using load cells · CPC title

• B66B1/2408

  where the allocation of a call to an elevator car is of importance, i.e. by means of a supervisory or group controller · CPC title