JP2000148972A - Image recognition device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly detect an object in a system which photographs within a monitoring area with a standard lens while changing photographing directions and performs image recognition of an object to be monitored. SOLUTION: When an object detecting device 2 detects some object, a microcomputer 24 starts an image recognition operation of an object. The microprocessor 24 successively changes the photographing directions of a camera 10 within a monitoring area from an initial direction at the beginning and performs image recognition of the object with an image recognition circuit 18. When the circuit 18 recognizes the object, it calculates the center position of the object in a photographic viewpoint and outputs information showing a direction in the angle of a photographic view to the microcomputer 24. The microcomputer 24 calculates the direction of the object to be monitored in the monitoring area from the information and camera optical axis direction information from an optical axis direction detecting device 20 and stores it in a memory 26. After that, the microcomputer 24 refers to the direction information history of the object to be monitored which is stored in the memory 26 and scans in the monitoring area with the direction having the highest probability that the object to be monitored exists as an initial position, and the circuit 18 performs image recognition of the object to be monitored.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recognition apparatus for detecting an object existing in a monitoring area.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to detect an object existing in a relatively wide monitoring area with a single imaging device, a wide-angle lens covering the monitoring area is used, or a camera having a standard lens is used. It was necessary to provide a photographing direction moving mechanism for moving the photographing field of view of the camera within the monitoring area.

[0003]

However, an image pickup apparatus equipped with a wide-angle lens requires a high-resolution lens and a high-resolution image sensor in order to realize highly accurate image recognition, and is very expensive. There was a drawback that it would be.

Further, in an image pickup apparatus equipped with a relatively inexpensive standard lens and the above-described shooting azimuth moving mechanism, conventionally, the operation of detecting an object present in a monitoring area always starts from the same position. There is a disadvantage that it takes a long time to complete.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recognizing apparatus capable of detecting an object more quickly and accurately by using an inexpensive standard lens and an image pickup apparatus having a photographing direction moving mechanism.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An image recognition apparatus according to the present invention detects a camera capable of changing a shooting direction within a range covering an area to be monitored and detects that an object has entered the monitoring area. Object detecting means, optical axis direction detecting means for detecting the optical axis direction of the camera, azimuth detecting means for detecting the azimuth of a monitoring target in a shooting screen of the camera, and shooting for controlling the shooting azimuth of the camera Azimuth control means, azimuth calculation means for calculating the azimuth in the monitoring area of the monitored object from the information of the optical axis direction detected by the optical axis direction detection means and the azimuth information detected by the azimuth detection means; A storage unit for sequentially storing the calculation results of the azimuth calculation unit; and calculating the optical axis direction of the camera having the highest probability of the existence of the monitoring target from the azimuth information stored in the storage unit. And the optical axis direction calculation means for, characterized in that it comprises a control means for starting the image recognition operation of the monitored object in the optical axis direction calculated in the optical axis direction calculation means as an initial position.

Once the object to be monitored is recognized, the direction of the optical axis with the highest probability of the existence of the object to be monitored is calculated from the movement history of the object to be monitored stored in the storage means.
Since scanning is started with the direction as the initial position, the monitoring target can be detected or recognized in a short time. By providing an illumination device that uniformly illuminates the inside of the camera image field, the monitoring target can be recognized with sufficient accuracy even when installed in a dark place.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 10 denotes a camera having a standard angle of view lens and a shooting direction moving mechanism. Reference numeral 12 denotes an illumination device that illuminates the camera 10 in the same shooting direction. Immediately before the camera 10 and the illumination device 12, an infrared transmission filter 14 is arranged.

A driving circuit 16 changes the illumination direction of the illumination device 12 and the photographing direction of the camera 10.
An image recognition circuit for recognizing an object by an image recognition technique from an image signal output from the camera, 20 is an optical axis direction detecting device for detecting a shooting direction of the camera 10, and 22 is a device for mechanically detecting the presence of an object to be image-recognized. Alternatively, it is an object detection device for physically detecting. The object detection device 22 is installed, for example, at the front of the present embodiment or at the entrance of the room where the present embodiment is installed. The object detection device 22 detects the presence or absence of an object by using, for example, ultrasonic waves, radio waves, or infrared rays.

Reference numeral 24 denotes a microcomputer for controlling the entire system, and reference numeral 26 denotes a memory used by the microcomputer 24.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an arrangement example of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, the device of the present embodiment is arranged at one corner of a room so that the whole room can be used as a monitoring area. The view angle range indicated by W in FIG. 2 is the monitoring area, and θ is the camera 10
The photographing field of view is shown. By panning the camera 10 within the angle of view W of the monitoring area, an object existing in the monitoring area can be detected. For example, the angle of view W is changed to the angle of view θ of the camera 10.
By dividing the area into a plurality of areas and sequentially photographing the inside of the divided area, an object existing in the monitoring area is detected as an image.

The object detecting device 22 detects an object, for example, a person, entering the room shown in FIG. 2 and outputs a detection signal to the microcomputer 24. The microcomputer 24 includes the object detection device 22
The image recognition operation of the object is started in response to the detection signal from.

Initially, the microcomputer 24
Is located in the initial direction, usually near the entrance to the room.
The drive circuit 16 is controlled so that The image recognition circuit 18 searches for an object from the output image of the camera 10 using an image recognition technique. The image recognition circuit 18 outputs an object detection signal indicating whether or not the object has been detected to the microcomputer 2.
4, and when the target is detected, further outputs information indicating the orientation of the detected target in the shooting screen to the microcomputer 24. Microcomputer 24
Is based on an object detection signal from the image recognition circuit 18,
If the target object has not been detected, the drive circuit 16 is controlled to move the shooting direction of the camera 10 and the illumination direction of the illumination device 12 to the next direction in the monitoring area. This series of operations is repeated until the image recognition circuit 18 recognizes the target.

When the object is detected, the image recognition circuit 18 further calculates the center position of the object within the field of view and outputs information indicating the azimuth within the field of view to the microcomputer 24. . When the target orientation information is input from the image recognition circuit 18, the microcomputer 24 refers to the camera optical axis direction information from the optical axis direction detection device 20 and calculates the direction of the monitoring target in the monitoring area,
It is stored in the memory 26. If the camera 10 can automatically adjust the focus, the distance between the camera 10 and the object can also be detected. In that case, an accurate position of the monitoring target can be detected.

Once the object can be recognized by the image recognition circuit 18, the microcomputer 24 thereafter refers to the history of the azimuth information of the monitored object stored in the memory 26 to determine the probability that the monitored object exists. Is calculated, and the driving circuit 16 is controlled so that the azimuth is included in the angle of view of the camera 10. As a result, the driving circuit 16 calculates the probability of the existence of the monitoring target calculated by the microcomputer 24. Camera 10 and lighting device 12 in the highest direction of
And temporarily stop it. This stop position is the starting point of the next object detection operation.

As a method of calculating the azimuth with the highest probability of the presence of the monitoring target from the history of the azimuth information in the monitoring area of the monitoring target, for example, as shown in FIG. What is necessary is to plot the numbers 1 to # 10 on the two-dimensional coordinates of the monitoring area W and obtain the most photographic points when the angle of view θ of the camera 10 is moved, in this example, the imaging directions including # 1 to # 6. Alternatively, the destination may be estimated from a plurality of nearest points.

In this embodiment, in order to facilitate understanding,
Although the case where the monitoring area is divided in a plane and scanning is performed only in the horizontal direction has been described, it is apparent that the present invention is also applicable to a case where the monitoring area is divided in a three-dimensional manner and scanning is performed in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. is there.

By using an LED as a lighting element of the lighting device 12, the infrared transmission filter 14 disposed in front of the lighting device 12 can be omitted.

[0020]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, the azimuth having the highest probability of the existence of the monitored object calculated from a series of azimuth information of the monitored object is started. Since the orientation is set, the monitoring target can be detected in a short time. Furthermore, since an illumination device that moves in conjunction with the camera and illuminates the inside of the camera field is provided, the monitoring target can be detected with sufficient accuracy even when installed in a dark place.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an example of an arrangement place according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a method of determining a monitoring object detection operation start point.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10: Camera 12: Illumination device 14: Infrared transmission filter 16: Drive circuit 18: Image recognition circuit 20: Optical axis direction detection device 22: Object detection device 24: Microcomputer 26: Memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A camera capable of changing a shooting direction within a range covering an area to be monitored, an object detecting means for detecting that an object has entered the monitoring area, and detecting an optical axis direction of the camera. Optical axis direction detecting means, azimuth detecting means for detecting the azimuth of an object to be monitored in a photographic screen of the camera, photographic azimuth control means for controlling the photographic azimuth of the camera, and detection by the optical axis direction detecting means Azimuth calculating means for calculating the azimuth of the object to be monitored in the monitoring area from the obtained information on the optical axis direction and the azimuth information detected by the azimuth detecting means; and sequentially storing the calculation results of the azimuth calculating means. An optical axis direction calculating means for calculating, from the azimuth information stored in the storage means, the optical axis direction of the camera having the highest probability of the existence of the monitoring target; and the optical axis direction Image recognition apparatus characterized by a control means for starting the image recognition operation of the monitored object in the optical axis direction calculated in calculation means as an initial position. 2. The image recognition device according to claim 1, further comprising an illumination device that moves in synchronization with the imaging direction of the camera and illuminates the inside of the imaging field of view.