Tracking assistance device, tracking assistance system and tracking assistance method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9191633-B2
Application number	US-201414326510-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2014
Priority date	Jul 11, 2013
Publication date	Nov 17, 2015
Grant date	Nov 17, 2015

Abstract

A tracking assistance device for assisting a monitoring person in tracking a moving object by displaying on a display device a monitoring screen in which display views for displaying in real time captured images taken by respective cameras are arranged on a map image representing a monitored area in accordance with an actual arrangement of the cameras, includes: a target-to-be-tracked setting unit that, in response to an input operation performed by the monitoring person on one of the display views to designate a moving object to be tracked, sets the designated moving object as a target to be tracked; a prediction unit that predicts a next display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked will appear next based on tracing information obtained by processing the captured images; and a display view indicating unit that indicates the next display view on the monitoring screen.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A tracking assistance device for assisting a monitoring person in performing a task of tracking a moving object to be tracked by displaying a monitoring screen on a display device, the monitoring screen including a plurality of display views displaying in real time captured images taken by respective cameras, the plurality of display views arranged on a map image representing a monitored area in accordance with an actual arrangement of the cameras, the tracking assistance device comprising:
a target-to-be-tracked setter that, in response to an input operation performed by the monitoring person on one of the plurality of display views to designate a moving object to be tracked, sets the designated moving object as a target to be tracked;
a target-to-be-tracked indicator that, based on tracing information obtained by processing the captured images, indicates the moving object set as the target to be tracked in each of the plurality of display views in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked appears;
a predictor that predicts a next display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked will next appear based on the tracing information; and
a display view indicator that indicates the next display view predicted by the predictor on the monitoring screen,
wherein the target-to-be-tracked indicator provides first highlighting to highlight a moving object frame associated with the moving object set as the target to be tracked and the display view indicator provides second highlighting to highlight a display frame associated with the next display view predicted by the predictor.

2. The tracking assistance device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller that, when the moving object is set as the target to be tracked and when an indication of the target to be tracked by the target-to-be-tracked indicator is noted as being incorrect by an input operation performed by the monitoring person, causes the target-to-be-tracked setter to perform a process of changing the moving object set as the target to be tracked.

3. The tracking assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein, when the moving object is set anew by the target-to-be-tracked setter as the target to be tracked, the display view indicator provides third highlighting to a display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked currently appears, such that the display view is distinguished from others of the plurality of display views.

4. A tracking assistance system for assisting a monitoring person in performing a task of tracking a moving object to be tracked by displaying a monitoring screen on a display device, the monitoring screen including a plurality of display views displaying in real time captured images taken by respective cameras, the plurality of display views arranged on a map image representing a monitored area in accordance with an actual arrangement of the cameras, the tracking assistance system comprising:
the cameras that take the captured images of the monitored area;
the display device that displays the monitoring screen; and
a plurality of information processing devices,
wherein the plurality of information processing devices jointly include:
a tracing processor that traces a moving object detected from the captured images and generates tracing information of the moving object;
a target-to-be-tracked setter that, in response to an input operation performed by the monitoring person on one of the plurality of display views to designate a moving object to be tracked, sets the designated moving object as a target to be tracked;
a target-to-be-tracked indicator that, based on the tracing information obtained from the tracing processor, indicates the moving object set as the target to be tracked in each of the plurality of display views in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked appears;
a predictor that predicts a next display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked will next appear based on the tracing information; and
a display view indicator that indicates the next display view predicted by the predictor on the monitoring screen,

wherein the target-to-be-tracked indicator provides first highlighting to highlight a moving object frame associated with the moving object set as the target to be tracked and the display view indicator provides second highlighting to highlight a display frame associated with the next display view predicted by the predictor.

5. A tracking assistance method for assisting a monitoring person in performing a task of tracking a moving object to be tracked by displaying a monitoring screen on a display device, the monitoring screen including a plurality of display views for displaying in real time captured images taken by respective cameras, the plurality of display views arranged on a map image representing a monitored area in accordance with an actual arrangement of the cameras, the tracking assistance method comprising:
setting, in response to an input operation performed by the monitoring person on one of the plurality of display views to designate a moving object to be tracked, the designated moving object as a target to be tracked;
indicating, based on tracing information obtained by processing the captured images, the moving object set as the target to be tracked in each of the plurality of display views in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked appears;
predicting a next display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked will next appear based on the tracing information; and
indicating the next display view predicted by the predicting on the monitoring screen,
wherein the indicating of the moving object set as the target to be tracked provides first highlighting to highlight a moving object frame associated with the moving object set as the target to be tracked and the indicating of the next display view provides second highlighting to highlight a display frame associated with the next display view predicted by the predicting.

6. The tracking assistance device according to claim 2 , wherein, when the moving object is set anew by the target-to-be-tracked setter as the target to be tracked, the display view indicator provides third highlighting to a display view in which the moving object set as the target to be tracked currently appears, such that the display view is distinguished from others of the plurality of display views.

Assignees

• Panasonic Corp
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fujimatsu Takeshi
• Hirasawa Sonoko
• Yamamoto Hiroyuki

Classifications

• H04N7/181 Primary

  for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources · CPC title

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G08B13/19645

  Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over · CPC title

• G08B13/19641

  Multiple cameras having overlapping views on a single scene · CPC title

• G06T7/292

  Multi-camera tracking · CPC title