JP2002049973A - Room monitor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide such a bathroom monitor that the troublesomeness of turning on and off a switch every day is eliminated and a crime-prevention effect is improved. SOLUTION: The bathroom monitor 1 provided with an artificial retina and an infrared sensor is installed on the ceiling of a bathroom 41. When installing the monitor 1, the position of a window 42 and that of a bathroom entrance 43 are stored. Then, a person who is detected in the bathroom 41 by the monitor 1 is judged to be an invader from outside when the detection starting position of the person is at the window 42 and his/her moving direction is the entrance 43 or the final detected position of him/her is the entrance 43.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a room monitoring device. In particular, the present invention relates to a room monitoring device that monitors a room such as a bathroom, a toilet, a living room, and the like using a low-resolution imaging device such as an artificial retina.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art After taking a bath, a window of the bathroom is often opened in order to allow moisture in the bathroom to escape outside. for that reason,
When a burglar or a robber breaks into a house, it often enters through a window in a bathroom where they forget to close and go to bed.

For this reason, various security devices have been conventionally proposed. For example, there is one that detects an intruder from a window using an infrared sensor or a vibration sensor. These are for detecting and alerting a suspicious intruder by detecting a person trying to intrude from a window, or detecting vibration when opening or invading through a window.

[0004]

However, in these security devices, if the switch is turned off at the time of bathing and the switch is not turned on after bathing or before going to bed, there is a possibility that a bather will be detected and malfunction will occur. . Therefore, if the user forgets to turn on the security device before going to bed or the like, the security device does not work, and the security device does not work.

[0005] In the conventional security device, it is troublesome to switch on and off every day as described above, not only in the bathroom, so it is easy to forget to turn on the switch, and the security effect is not sufficient. Was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, and an object of the present invention is to eliminate the trouble of turning on and off a switch every day and to improve the security effect. It is an object of the present invention to provide a room monitoring device capable of performing the following.

[0007]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION A room monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises an image pickup means, a person detection means for detecting movement of a person in a room using the image pickup means, and a room entrance by the person detection means. And an intrusion point detecting means for detecting an intrudable point other than the room entrance from the state of light using the image pickup means.

An intrudable location other than the room entrance (hereinafter referred to as an intrudable location) is, for example, a window. Claim 1
In order to detect the room entrance by the room entrance detecting means in the room monitoring device, the room entrance information can be taken in by, for example, detecting a person entering from the room entrance when the room monitoring device is installed. In addition, in order to detect an invading point other than the room entrance from the state of light by the invading point detecting means using the imaging means, for example, by detecting external light entering from an invading point such as a window, the window can be detected. Position information of such an intrudable portion can be taken in.

If the entrance of the room and the intrudable portion such as the window are detected in this way, the movement of a person in the room is detected by the person detecting means, and thus a house or a window or the like entering the room from the entrance of the room. It is possible to determine whether an intruder has entered from an intrudable location from the outside. Therefore, even if the room monitoring device is always turned on, the risk of erroneously detecting an intruder and a housekeeper can be reduced.

A room monitoring apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is the room monitoring apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the intrudable location detected by the intrusion location detecting means and the room entrance detecting means are detected by the room entrance detecting means. Storage means for storing the room entrance.

In the embodiment of the present invention, since means for storing the detected location of the entrance such as a window and the position of the entrance of the room is provided, for example, when the room monitoring device is installed in the room, It is only necessary to detect each position of the entrance and the intrudable portion once, and the usability of the room monitoring device can be improved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the room monitoring apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the detection start position of the person detected by the human detection means can enter the room other than the room entrance. A moving direction of the person detected by the human detecting means, or an intrusion detecting means for judging an external intrusion operation when the last detected position is a room entrance. Things.

When an intruder enters from an intrudable location, the detection start position by the human detection means is an intrudable location. However, if it is determined that there is an intruder alone, the room windows and the like are cleaned from outside. In this case, it is determined that there is an intruder. Therefore, in an embodiment according to claim 3,
If the detection by the human detection means starts from the intrudable location and the direction of movement is the direction of the room entrance, or if the detection of the person ends at the room entrance, the detection from the intrudable position such as a window It is determined that the user is heading indoors, and that this is an intrusion operation by an intruder from outside. Therefore, according to this embodiment, the detection accuracy of the intruder can be further increased, and the risk of erroneous detection is further reduced.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the room monitoring apparatus according to the first or second aspect, wherein at least the room entrance and the presence or absence of a person at an intrudable location other than the room entrance are detected. The infrared sensor and the detection start position of the person detected by the infrared sensor are intrudable places other than the room entrance, and the moving direction of the person detected by the infrared sensor or the last detection position thereof is the room entrance. In the case of, there is provided an intrusion detecting means for determining that the operation is an intrusion operation from the outside.

According to the room monitoring apparatus of the present invention, it is determined that there is an intruder when the infrared sensor detects the movement of a person starting from an intrudable location and heading toward the room entrance or ending at the room entrance. Therefore, the detection accuracy of the intruder can be further increased, and the risk of erroneous detection can be further reduced. Note that a plurality of infrared sensors may be used, or thermography may be used to detect the direction of movement of a person by the infrared sensor.

A room monitoring apparatus according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the room monitoring apparatus according to the first, second, third or fourth aspect, wherein the infrared sensor and a person are detected by the infrared sensor. Lighting control means for turning on the lighting in the room. According to this embodiment,
Since the lighting can be automatically turned on when a person enters the room, the trouble of turning on the lighting of the room each time the room is entered can be saved. In addition, even when there is an intruder, the crime prevention effect can be enhanced by turning on the illumination.

[0017]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a bathroom monitoring device 1 as an embodiment of a room monitoring device according to the present invention. This bathroom monitoring device 1 monitors the presence or absence of a person in the bathroom and the direction in which the person moves by using both or one of the artificial retina 21 and the infrared sensor 11, and when the bathroom monitoring device 1 is installed, The window position and bathroom entrance are detected by the window position setting unit 3 and the bathroom entrance setting unit 4, and E is detected.
The storage unit 5 including a memory such as an EPROM or a RAM stores a window position of a bathroom and a bathroom entrance. The intrusion detection unit 2
Based on the movement of a person detected by the artificial retina 21 or the infrared sensor 11 and the memory information of the window position and the bathroom entrance, it is determined whether or not there has been an intrusion from outside, and it is determined that an intruder from outside has been detected. , A notification unit 6 such as a buzzer is operated. Further, the infrared sensor 11 detects the presence or absence of a person in the bathroom, and when it is determined that there is a person in the bathroom, activates the lighting control unit 12 to turn on the lighting fixture 13 in the bathroom.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show a state where the bathroom monitoring device 1 is installed on the ceiling of the bathroom 41. The bathroom monitoring device 1 includes the entire bathroom, that is, the entire bathroom including the window 42 and the bathroom entrance 43. Is installed so that it can be detected. In addition, 1
3 is a lighting device in the bathroom 41, and 44 is a remote controller.

Next, the configuration of the artificial retina 21 used in the bathroom monitoring device 1 is shown in FIG. The imaging unit 22 of the artificial retina 21 is 32 × 32 pixels (= 1024 pixels)
, An image sensing unit 25 comprising a C-MOS array, an imaging lens 26, a scanner 27, a multiplexer 28, and a scanner drive control unit 29. Each pixel of the image detection unit 25 is a pixel core circuit 30 as shown in FIG.
It is constituted by. The pixel core circuit 30 includes a light receiving element 31, a charge storage circuit 32, and a sensitivity variable circuit 33. The sensitivity variable terminal 34 and the reset terminal 35 are connected to the scanner 27, and the photocurrent output terminal 36 is connected to the multiplexer 28. ing.

In the image pickup section 22, the image in the bathroom 41 is formed on the image detecting section 25 by the image forming lens. The scanner 27 is driven and controlled by a scanner drive control unit 29, and controls each pixel row of the image detection unit 25 to be in a light receiving state (on state) sequentially at regular intervals. The photocurrents simultaneously output from the pixels in one column in the light receiving state are converted into serial data by the multiplexer 28 and output to the image processing unit 23, and the determination unit 24 monitors the movement of the bather in the bathroom 41. You.

Next, an image processing method for extracting a motion of a person from an image captured by the artificial retina 21 will be described. The image processing unit 23 receives image information from all pixels constituting the image detection unit 25 at regular intervals. The image processing unit 23
When image information is received at regular intervals, the movement of the bather is analyzed from the image information according to a predetermined analysis algorithm, and the movement of the bather is monitored. Specifically, it is assumed that the image (bright image) 37 of the square object has moved from the position P1 to the position P2 as shown in FIG. Therefore, if a bright pixel is represented by a symbol B and a dark pixel is represented by a symbol D, the previous image is represented by FIG. 4B and the current image is represented by FIG. 4C. The image processing unit 23 calculates, for each pixel (x, y), the light reception amount Pp (x, y) of the previous image p and the light reception amount Pn of the current image n.
D (x, y) = Pn (x, y) −Pp (x, y) (1) is obtained to obtain a difference image as shown in FIG. In the difference image of FIG. 5, a pixel having a positive difference D (x, y) is represented by a + symbol, a negative pixel is represented by a-symbol, and a pixel having zero D (x, y) is represented by a 0 symbol. I have.

First, consider the movement of an image in a simple one-dimensional case. The movement of the object can be determined by the boundaries of the image, and the movement of the boundaries of the image is expressed as a non-zero value (positive or negative value) of the difference there. For example, if the left boundary of the image moves rightward as shown in FIG. 6A, the difference D (x, y) at the pixels at this boundary is negative, and the difference D ( x, y) = 0.
If the left boundary of the image moves to the left as shown in FIG. 6B, the difference D
(X, y) is positive, and the difference D
(X, y) = 0. Similarly, if the right boundary of the image moves rightward as shown in FIG. 6C, the difference D (x, y) at the pixels at this boundary is positive, and the difference D (X, y) = 0. If the right boundary of the image moves to the left as shown in FIG.
The difference D (x, y) at the pixel at this boundary is negative, and the difference D (x, y) = 0 at the pixels on both sides.

As can be seen from FIG. 6, when a difference image is obtained from the previous image p and the current image n, the difference becomes a non-zero value [D (x, y) ≠ 0] at the boundary of the moving image. ,
It is determined that the image boundary represented by the pixel is moving in the following direction. When D (x, y) <0: Direction where a bright pixel (B) is present among adjacent pixels D (x, y)> 0: Direction where a dark pixel (D) is present among adjacent pixels (2)

Next, it is necessary to apply the one-dimensional moving direction analysis method to a two-dimensional image. For that purpose, the motion of the image is considered by dividing the direction on the pixel into a total of four directions of a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, and a diagonal direction (a diagonal direction rising rightward and a diagonal direction falling rightward). FIG. 7A shows the difference (scalar) between the current image n and the previous image p by applying the above equation (1) for each of the four directions. The direction of movement in each direction is determined from the previous image and the difference image of FIG. 4 by the above equation (2), and each difference D (x, y) is represented by a vector. When the difference in each direction is obtained in this way, the difference of each pixel can be represented as a vector as shown in FIG. The vector group shown in FIG. 7C is called an optical flow, which is an average of the difference vectors of the pixel concerned and its surrounding 3 × 3 pixels.
Can detect the presence of a person and the movement (activity) of the person.

The retinal prosthesis 21 has a sensitivity adjustment circuit (not shown) for automatically adjusting the sensitivity.
When the inside of the bathroom 1 is dark, the sensitivity is increased, and when the interior of the bathroom 41 is bright, the sensitivity is lowered to increase the detection accuracy.

The infrared sensor 11 can also detect the area where the person is in the bathroom 41 and the direction in which the person is moving. For this purpose, thermography may be used as the infrared sensor 11. Alternatively, a plurality of infrared sensors 11 may be used.

In such a bathroom monitoring device 1, the window 42 and the bathroom entrance 43 can be detected at the time of installation. That is, since the installation work of the bathroom monitoring device 1 is performed in the daytime, when the installation of the bathroom monitoring device 1 is completed, the interior is still bright and the window of the bathroom 41 as shown in FIGS. Light is shining from. In such a situation, the lighting equipment 13 of the bathroom 41 is turned off, and a personal computer (the bathroom monitoring apparatus 1 is connected to the remote controller 44) is connected to the bathroom monitoring apparatus 1.
A remote controller 44 may be used. ) To switch the bathroom monitoring device 1 to the window position setting mode.
If you try to switch to window position setting mode, a message such as "Switch to window position setting mode. Are you sure?" Is displayed on the display of the personal computer. Enter "Y" or the Enter key. Bathroom monitoring device 1 switches to window position setting mode,
The window position setting unit 3 recognizes a brightest position (for example, a position or a pixel having the highest light receiving intensity) as a window position detected by the infrared sensor 11 and the artificial retina 21, and displays the recognized window position on a display. To display the message "I recognized this as a window. Are you sure?" If you want to start over, press the "N" key to make it recognized again. If the correct window position is recognized, pressing the “Y” key or the Enter key stores the window position in the storage unit 5.

Subsequently, the bathroom monitoring device 1 is switched to the bathroom entrance setting mode. If you try to switch to bathroom entrance setting mode, a message such as "Switch to bathroom entrance setting mode. Are you sure?" Is displayed on the display of the personal computer.
When the user inputs "Y" or the Enter key, the bathroom monitoring device 1 switches to the bathroom entrance setting mode. As shown in FIG. 8, when someone enters the room through the door in this mode, the person is detected by the infrared sensor 11 and the artificial retina 21. The detected position is recognized as the bathroom entrance 43 by the bathroom entrance setting unit 4, and the recognized bathroom entrance 43 is displayed on the display, and a message “This is recognized as a bathroom entrance. Are you sure?” Is displayed. If you want to start over, press the "N" key to make it recognized again. If the correct bathroom entrance 43 is recognized, pressing the “Y” key or the Enter key causes the storage unit 5 to store the bathroom entrance 43.

When thermography is used as the infrared sensor 11, similarly to the case of the artificial retina 21, the window position and the bathroom entrance 43 can be stored simultaneously with the artificial retina 21. Alternatively, when a plurality of sensors are used, one of them may be installed at the window position, and one may be installed at the bathroom entrance 43.

When the positions of the bathroom entrance 43 and the window 42 are stored as described above when the bathroom monitoring device 1 is installed, the bathroom monitoring device 1 monitors the presence or absence of an intruder in accordance with the flowchart of FIG. That is, the infrared sensor 11
Is always on and constantly monitors the interior of the bathroom 41 (step S1). When the infrared sensor 11 detects something in the bathroom 41, the artificial retina 21 is turned on and the interior of the bathroom 41 is monitored by the artificial retina 21 (step S).
2). As described above, normally, only the infrared sensor 11 is turned on, so that power consumption can be reduced.

Next, the darkness in the bathroom 41 is determined from the sensitivity level of the artificial retina 21 adjusted by the sensitivity adjustment circuit (step S3), and the brightness in the bathroom 41 is kept at a certain level (that is, as in daytime). If not, the lighting equipment is turned on (step S4). That is, when taking a bath at night, the lighting equipment 13 in the bathroom 41 is automatically turned on, so that the trouble of turning on the lighting equipment 13 can be omitted. Since the lighting device 13 is turned on, a security effect can be provided.

It is determined that the interior of the bathroom 41 is dark, and
Is turned on, it is checked whether or not the sensitivity of the artificial retina 21 is sufficient (step S5). At this time, if the sensitivity of the artificial retina 21 is sufficient, the person in the bathroom 41 is continuously monitored by the artificial retina 21 as it is. dark,
If the sensitivity adjustment of the retinal prosthesis 21 exceeds the proper sensitivity adjustment range, the monitoring means in the bathroom 41 is switched from the retinal prosthesis 21 to the infrared sensor 11 (step S).
6). According to the infrared sensor 11, even when the interior of the bathroom 41 is dark, the interior of the bathroom 41 can be detected with high sensitivity.

In this way, the presence or absence of a person in the bathroom 41 is monitored by the detection means according to the situation of the artificial retina 21 or the infrared sensor 11 (step S7), and the detection start position of the person in the bathroom 41 is the window 42. Is determined (step S
8). If the detection start position is the window 42, the movement direction of the person is monitored, and whether or not the person is moving toward the bathroom entrance is monitored (step S9). When it is determined that the user is about to move in the entrance direction, a preliminary notification is performed (step S10). As the preliminary notification, for example, the remote controller 4 installed in the bathroom 41 or the kitchen
It is conceivable to display a message such as "intrusion" or "abnormal" on the display unit 4 or to turn on an alarm lamp. Next, it is monitored whether or not the final detection position of the person trying to move toward the bathroom entrance is the bathroom entrance 43 (step S11).
In case of disappearing to 3, the notification is made by the notification unit 6 such as a buzzer (step S12).

As described above, if it is confirmed that the path of the person in the bathroom 41 starts from the window 42 and passes through the bathroom entrance 43 and disappears, it is determined that the intruder is from outside. Even when the bathroom monitoring device 1 is turned on, there is no possibility of erroneously detecting a bather as an intruder or malfunctioning when opening a window and wiping the window glass of the bathroom 41, and detecting an intruder. Accuracy can be improved. Further, since the bathroom monitoring device 1 can be kept on, there is no danger of forgetting to turn on the bathroom monitoring device 1.

Step S3 in FIG. 9 is omitted, and when a person is detected by the infrared sensor 11, the artificial retina 2 is always
1 and the lighting equipment 13 may be turned on.

In the above embodiment, when a person is detected by the infrared sensor at night, the lighting equipment is automatically turned on. However, even if a person is detected, the lighting equipment is not automatically turned on. If a person is detected before the lighting equipment is turned on, it may be determined that there is an intruder.

In the above embodiment, the case where the room monitoring device of the present invention is used in a bathroom has been described. However, the room monitoring device of the present invention can also be used in living rooms, kitchens, toilets, entrance halls and the like. Is what you can do.

[0038]

According to the present invention, even if the room monitoring device is kept on, there is no risk of falsely detecting an intruder or a person who is cleaning a window glass as an intruder. Since the accuracy is high, the room monitoring device can be always turned on. Therefore, the user does not forget to turn on the room monitoring device, and the security effect is high.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a bathroom monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an artificial retina used in the bathroom monitoring device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of a pixel core circuit forming one pixel of an image detection unit of the human detection device of the above.

4A is a diagram showing a current image and a previous image of an object moved to the lower right, FIG. 4B is a diagram showing the brightness of the previous image for each pixel, and FIG. Is a diagram showing for each pixel.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a difference image showing a change in brightness at a pixel corresponding to a boundary of an image.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a change in brightness of each pixel and a moving direction of an image.

7A is a diagram illustrating a difference vector represented by being decomposed in each direction, FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating a combined difference vector, and FIG. 7C is a diagram illustrating an averaged difference vector; It is.

8A and 8B are a schematic vertical sectional view and a schematic horizontal sectional view showing a state in a bathroom.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a flow for intruder detection by the bathroom monitoring device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bathroom monitoring apparatus 2 Intrusion detection part 3 Window position setting part 4 Bathroom entrance setting part 5 Storage part 6 Notification part 11 Infrared sensor 12 Lighting control part 13 Lighting equipment 21 Artificial retina 41 Bathroom 42 Window 43 Bathroom entrance

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) AA03 BA02 CA04 DA03 GA08 HA04

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup unit, a person detection unit that detects movement of a person in a room by using the image pickup unit, a room entrance detection unit that detects a room entrance by the person detection unit, and using the image pickup unit A room monitoring device comprising: an intrusion point detecting means for detecting an intrudable point other than a room entrance from a state of light. 2. The storage device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit configured to store a position of an intrudable point detected by the intrusion point detection unit and a position of a room entrance detected by the room entrance detection unit. Room monitoring device. 3. A detection start position of a person detected by the human detection means is a place where the person can enter other than the room entrance,
The moving direction of the person detected by the human detecting means, or when the last detection position thereof is a room entrance, provided with an intrusion detecting means for judging an intrusion operation from outside, or 3. The room monitoring device according to 2. 4. An infrared sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a person at least at a room entrance and at an intrudable place other than the room entrance, and a detection start position of a person detected by the infrared sensor is at a place where the invasion other than the room entrance is possible. And an intrusion detection means for judging an intrusion operation from the outside when the moving direction of the person detected by the infrared sensor or the last detection position thereof is a room entrance. apparatus. 5. The room monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an infrared sensor; and lighting control means for turning on a light in the room when a person is detected by the infrared sensor. .