Method and system for queue length analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9965684-B2
Application number	US-201414575567-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2014
Priority date	Dec 18, 2014
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

A system and method for analyzing queues in frames of video enables operators to preferably draw three regions of interest overlaid upon the video as short, medium, and long queue regions that form a notional queue area within the video. The regions are drawn with knowledge of, or in anticipation of, foreground objects such as individuals and vehicles waiting for service in a queue. Examples include retail point of sale locations or for automated teller machine (ATM) transactions. In conjunction with a video analytics system that analyzes the movement of the foreground objects relative to the queue regions, the system determines the number of objects occupying each queue region, length of the queue, and other queue-related statistics. The system can then create reports and send messages that include the queue analysis results for directing operators to change their staffing resources as part of a real-time queue servicing and optimization response.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring queues video analysis system, the method comprising:
generating video data of a monitored area;
defining at least a short queue region and a long queue region of a queue area;
analyzing objects relative to the short queue region and the long queue region within the video data to determine if the objects belong to the short queue region or the long queue region forming the queue area, wherein the objects are determined to belong to one of the queue regions by determining areas of intersection of the objects upon the queue regions and marking each object as belonging to one of the queue regions, if the area of intersection between each object and the queue regions, known as a marked area of intersection, is at least equal to the minimum queue region intersection threshold; and
determining a queue length by determining if each of the short queue region or the long queue region is occupied by calculating a union, for each of the queue regions, of the marked areas of intersection and comparing the union of the marked areas of intersection of the objects belonging to each of the queue regions, to a minimum occupancy area for each of the queue regions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining queue length comprise successively determining if each of the queue regions is occupied.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enabling a user to draw the queue regions over the video data.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the queue regions are rectangular.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the queue regions are trapezoidal.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising defining a medium queue region, between the short queue region and the long queue region and determining the queue length by additionally determining if the middle queue region is occupied.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining if the objects have entered the queue area, by determining if the objects intersect with the queue area by a minimum queue area intersection amount.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that each object occupies the queue area by determining that each object intersects with the queue area by a minimum queue area intersection amount for a predetermined period of time.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a number of objects that are within the queue area by counting the objects that belong to the one or more queue regions forming the queue area.

10. A video analysis system for monitoring queues, comprising:
at least one video camera generating video data of a monitored area; and
a video analytics system that:
analyzes objects relative to at least a short queue region and a long queue region of a queue area within the video data to determine if the objects belong to queue regions forming the queue area, and to determine a queue length by determining if each of the queue regions is occupied;
wherein the video analytics system determines whether objects to belong to the one or more queue regions forming the queue area by:
determining areas of intersection of the objects upon the queue regions; and
marking each object as belonging to one or more of the queue regions, if the area of intersection between each object and a queue region, known as a marked area of intersection, is at least equal to the minimum queue region intersection threshold; and

wherein the video analytics system determines the queue length by:
calculating a union, for each of the queue regions, of the marked areas of intersection;
comparing the union of the marked areas of intersection of the objects belonging to each of the queue regions, to a minimum occupancy area for each of the queue regions.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a security system workstation enabling definition of the queue regions forming the queue area.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the queue regions are rectangular.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the queue regions are trapezoidal.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the security system workstation comprises:
a display;
a user interface application that enables access to the video date via the video analytics system;
one or more user input devices; and
a drawing tool for defining the queue regions, wherein the queue regions are drawn over the video data.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the video analytics system additionally determines if the objects belong to a medium queue region between the short queue region and the long queue region and determines the queue length by successively determining if each of the queue regions is occupied.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the video analytics system determines the queue length by successively determining if each of the queue regions is occupied.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the video analytics system determines if the objects have entered the queue area, by determining if the objects intersect with the queue area by a minimum queue area intersection amount.

18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the video analytics system determines that each object occupies the queue area by determining that each object intersects with the queue area by a minimum queue area intersection amount for a predetermined period of time.

19. The system of claim 10 , wherein the video analytics system determines whether objects to belong to the one or more queue regions forming the queue area by:
determining areas of intersection of the objects upon the queue regions; and
marking each object as belonging to one or more of the queue regions, if the area of intersection between each object and a queue region, known as a marked area of intersection, is at least equal to the minimum queue region intersection threshold.

Assignees

• Sensormatic Electronics Llc

Inventors

• Westmacott Ian
• Li Changchun

Classifications

• G07F19/207 Primary

  Surveillance aspects at ATMs · CPC title

• G06T2207/30196

  Human being; Person · CPC title

• G06T2207/20104

  Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI] · CPC title

• G06T7/11

  Region-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06T7/248

  involving reference images or patches · CPC title