JP2003323619A - Reception assisting system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To assist a receptionist to properly receive a visitor by specifying the visitor by a recognition technology using a face image, and preliminarily presenting the registered information of the visitor to the receptionist. <P>SOLUTION: This reception assisting system is provided with a storage part 1 for preliminarily registering face data and individual data, a camera 2 for image picking-up a visitor, a face recognizing part 3 for detecting the face image of the visitor by a face detecting part 3A from an image photographed by the camera 2, and for calculating the face data of the visitor by a face data calculating part 3B from the detected face image, and for collating the registered face data of the storage part 1 with the face data of the visitor by a face data collating part 3C to specify the visitor, and an information presenting part 4 for reading out the registered data of the visitor specified by the face recognizing part 3 from the storage part 1, and for presenting it to a receptionist. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reception assistance system, and more particularly, to a reception assistance system that assists a receptionist by presenting visitor information to the receptionist by using face image recognition technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is desirable for a person in charge of reception at a company or the like to respond appropriately according to the status of the visitor (for example, the person of the company or the person of another company). However, it is impossible for the receptionist to remember the identity of all the visitors, and it is difficult to properly respond to all the visitors.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and presents the information of the visitor to the receptionist by utilizing the face image recognition technology. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a reception assistance system that can assist the reception of visitors.

[0004]

Therefore, in the invention of the reception assistance system according to claim 1, storage means for storing at least registered face data relating to facial features and registered personal data associated with the registered face data, An image pickup means for picking up an image of the visitor, a face image of the visitor detected from an image picked up by the image pickup means, and face data of the visitor generated based on the detected face image and registered face data of the storage means are stored. The face recognition means for collating and recognizing the visitor and the information presenting means for presenting the registration data stored in the storage means of the visitor recognized by the face recognizing means to the receptionist are configured.

In such a structure, when a visitor comes to the reception, the image pickup means images the visitor. The face recognition unit detects a visitor's face from the captured image, generates face data from the detected face image, and compares the face data with registered face data stored in the storage unit to recognize the visitor. The information presenting means reads out registration data corresponding to the visitor recognized by the face recognizing means from the storage means and presents it to the receptionist. This allows
The receptionist can respond appropriately to the visitor based on the presented information.

More specifically, the face recognizing means visits the face detecting section based on the face image detected by the face detecting section and the face detecting section for detecting the face image from the image captured by the image capturing section. A face data generation unit that generates the face data of the visitor, and a face data matching unit that recognizes the visitor by comparing the face data of the visitor generated by the face data generation unit with the registered face data of the storage unit. It is preferable to have a configuration including.

In such a structure, the face detecting section detects the face image of the visitor from the image from the image pickup means. The face data generation unit generates face data for matching with the face data registered in the storage unit, based on the face image detected by the face detection unit. The face data collating unit collates the generated face data with the registered face data in the storage unit and executes the visitor recognition process.

The registered face data stored in the storage means is
It may be face image data as in claim 3 or face feature amount data as in claim 4. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the information presenting means is based on the image picked up by the image pick-up means based on the recognition result of the face recognizing means, the position information of the face detected by the face detecting section, and the registration data of the recognized visitor. It is preferable that a display information creating unit that creates display contents and a display unit that displays the display contents created by the display information creating unit to the receptionist are provided. Further, as in claim 6, a voice conversion unit for converting the registered personal data in the storage unit regarding the visitor recognized based on the recognition result of the face recognition unit into a voice signal, and the voice conversion unit outputs the voice signal. It may be configured to include a voice output unit that emits a voice based on a voice signal and notifies the receptionist.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided data registration means for registering face data relating to a new registrant's facial features and personal data input from the data input means in the storage means in association with the face data. It was configured. In this case, the data registration unit may be configured to register the face data and personal data of the visitor in the storage unit when the face recognition unit cannot recognize the visitor as in claim 8.

In such a configuration, by storing the data of the new registrant in the storage means by the data registration means,
You will be able to store visitor data. In such a configuration, the reception assistance system according to claim 7, wherein the data of a visitor who is not registered in the storage means is automatically added. The data input means may generate visit history data for automatically generating visit history data of a visitor recognized by the input operation means for inputting the personal data by an operation of a receptionist and the face recognition means, as in claim 9. It is preferable that at least one of the means is provided.

In such a structure, when the input operation means is provided, the receptionist operates the input operation means to input the data of the first visitor. When the visit history data generation means is provided, the visit history data of this time is automatically additionally registered together with the visitor recognition processing. Further, when both the input operation means and the visit history data generation means are provided, the receptionist inputs the contents which cannot be registered by the visit history data generation means by the input operation means.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a reception assistance system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the reception assistance system according to the present embodiment includes, for example, a storage unit 1 as a storage unit, a camera 2 as an imaging unit for capturing an image of a visitor, and a face as a face recognition unit for performing face recognition of the visitor. The recognition unit 3 and the information presenting unit 4 as an information presenting unit for presenting the visitor's face image, registration data, etc. to the receptionist are configured, and these are integrated, for example, as shown in FIG. Installed as a device 5 at the reception.

The storage unit 1 is generally stored with registered face data relating to facial features of the registrant and registered data including registered personal data including the registrant's identity associated with the registered face data. It is an information storage medium. As a specific configuration of the storage unit 1, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the registration data (for example, ID number, name, face data, face image, affiliation) for a plurality of registrants A, B, C ,. Company / organization, department, post, telephone number, facsimile number, e
(-Mail address etc.) may be collectively stored as the memory 10 having a required capacity. In this case, each registration data stored in the memory 10 is read by the face recognition section 3 and the information presentation section 4. The storage means in the present invention is not limited to the above specific example, and a known information storage medium capable of storing personal registration data can be used.

For the registered face data, for example, the face feature amount is calculated based on the face image, and the calculation result is used as the registered face data. The above-mentioned facial feature quantity is a numerical representation of the facial features of the user who can distinguish between the person and the other person. For example, the shape of the facial components (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, etc.) And the characteristics such as the mutual arrangement relationship are represented by numerical values. Further, for example, a face image of the registrant acquired in advance may be digitized and used as face data. For example, the image data is a JPEG image data whose size is specified.

The camera 2 can mainly capture the face of the visitor, and outputs the acquired image to the face recognition section 3. The camera 2 may have a function (for example, auto focus) for appropriately capturing an image inside the image capturing area. The face recognition unit 3 includes a face detection unit 3A and a face data calculation unit 3
B and a face data matching unit 3C are provided. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the face detection unit scans an image forming an image from the camera 2 and executes a process of detecting a visitor's face from the image. When the face of the visitor is detected, the face image is cut out,
The face data calculation unit 3 as the face data generation unit uses the face image.
Send to B. Further, the face position on the cut-out image of the face image is sent to the display control unit 4A of the information presenting unit 4 described later. The face data calculation unit 3B performs face data calculation processing of the visitor based on the face image input from the face detection unit 3A, and generates face data. The face data collating unit 3C collates the face data of the visitor calculated by the face data calculating unit 3B with the registered face data stored in the storage unit 1, and captures an image with the camera 2 based on the scale of the collation result. Face of visited visitor is memory 1
It is determined whether or not it matches the face of the registrant registered in, and the visitor is recognized and specified.

The face recognition processing in the face data collating unit 3C is, concretely, the face feature amount of the visitor calculated by the face data calculating unit 3B and the faces of all the registrants registered in the storage unit 1. The degree of similarity is obtained by collating with the feature amount.
Then, it is determined whether or not the calculated similarity exceeds a preset threshold, and the registrant with the highest similarity among the data exceeding the threshold is recognized as a visitor and specified.

The information presenting unit 4 displays the imaged image of the camera 2 of the visitor and the registration data of the identified visitor to the receptionist, and the display control unit 4A as a display information creating unit.
And a display unit 4B. The display control unit 4A reads out the registration data of the visitor identified based on the recognition result from the face data matching unit 3C from the storage unit 1, and reads out the registration data and the captured image sent from the camera 2 and the face detection unit 3A. Display contents for combining the sent face position information to be displayed to the receptionist, for example, display contents in the format shown in FIG. 4 are created and output to the display unit 4B. The display unit 4B displays the display content output from the display control unit 4A to the receptionist. The circle in FIG. 4 is a display mark indicating the face position based on the cut-out image information of the face image sent from the face detection unit 4A.

Next, a method of using the reception assistance system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the reception auxiliary device 5 of the present embodiment is installed in a reception disk so that visitors can be imaged by the camera 2. In this state, the camera 2 is
Is captured by the face detection unit 3 of the face recognition unit 3.
A and the display control unit 4A of the information presenting unit 4. In the face detection unit 3A, when the face image is detected by scanning the sent image as described above, the face image is cut out and sent to the face data calculation unit 3B, and an image showing the face position where the face image is cut out is displayed. It is sent to the control unit 4A.

The face data calculation unit 3B, to which the face image is sent, calculates the facial feature amount by quantifying the shapes of the predetermined face constituent elements and the mutual positional relationship based on the face image, and the face data matching is performed. Send to section 3C. The face data matching unit 3C to which the face feature amount data of the visitor is sent reads the face feature amount of each registrant registered in the storage unit 1, and the face data calculation unit 3B.
The facial feature amount data of the visitor sent from is collated to obtain the degree of similarity, and it is determined whether the degree of similarity is equal to or greater than a preset threshold value. Further, it recognizes that the registrant of the registered face data having the highest degree of similarity among the registered face data having the threshold value or more matches the visitor, and specifies the visitor. When the visitor is specified, the face data matching unit 3C displays the specified person information on the display control unit 4
Send to A. In the display control unit 4A, the registered personal data of the corresponding registrant is read from the storage unit 1 based on the specific information sent from the face data matching unit 3C, and the image sent from the camera 2 and the visitor as shown in FIG. Display contents relating to the above are created, sent to the display unit 4B, and displayed on the display unit 4B. The receptionist confirms the display contents as shown in FIG. 4 displayed on the display unit 4B and responds to the visitor.

According to the reception assistance system having the above structure,
If you are a pre-registered visitor, the receptionist can know the identity of the visitor before responding to the visitor, and give an appropriate impression to the visitor by responding appropriately to the visitor. Can be given. Next, a second embodiment of the reception assistance system of the present invention will be described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the reception assistance system according to the second embodiment. The same elements as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

The reception assistance system of the second embodiment of FIG. 6 is a data registration unit 21 as a data registration means for registering new data in the storage unit 1, and an input operation unit for inputting and operating personal data. And 22 are added. In the present embodiment, the input operation means 22 corresponds to the data input means. The data registration unit 21 includes a detected face image input from the face recognition unit 3, calculated face data, and an input operation unit 22.
The personal data input in step 3 is stored in the storage unit 1. The data registration unit 21 can register the registration data of a new registrant, and can also register the visitor as a new registrant when the visitor cannot be identified. The input operation unit 22 is used by the receptionist or the like to input personal data of the new registrant, and may be a combination of a display and a keyboard, for example. It may be configured by a scanner that reads the image as an image and a character recognition device that recognizes the read image as data. In the case of an input operation unit that combines a display and a keyboard, the display unit 4B of the information presenting unit 4 may also be used as the display.

The data registration operation of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
And it demonstrates based on the flowchart of FIG. First,
The operation of registering data of a new registrant will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, a new registrant is imaged by the camera 2 in step 1 (indicated by S1 in the figure and the same applies hereinafter).

In step 2, the face detection section 3 of the face recognition section 3
A face image is detected from the image captured in A, and the face data calculation unit 3B calculates a face feature amount to be registered as face data to create face data. Further, in step 3, for example, the receptionist operates the input operation unit 22 to input the personal data of the registrant.

In step 4, the face data created in step 2, the detected face image and the personal data input in step 3 are registered in the storage unit 1 in association with each other by the data registration unit 21. Further, the registration operation when the visitor cannot be specified is as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step 11, the face recognition unit 3 collates the face data of the visitor as described above. In step 12, it is determined whether the visitor has been identified. When it is possible to specify, display content creation processing of the registration data of the visitor and display of the display content are performed as described above. On the other hand, if it is determined that the person cannot be specified, the process proceeds to step 13 to notify the receptionist that the visitor is newly registered, for example, by displaying a new registration display on the display unit 4B.

Thereafter, similarly to steps 3 and 4 of FIG. 7, in step 14, the receptionist operates the input operation section 22 to input the personal data of the registrant according to the notification of step 13, and in step 15 Then, the face data of the visitor used for collating the face data, the detected face image, and the personal data input in step 14 are registered in the storage unit 1 in association with each other by the data registration unit 21.

Next, a third embodiment of the reception assistance system of the present invention will be described. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the reception assistance system according to the third embodiment. The same elements as those in the second embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. In FIG. 9, the present embodiment has a configuration including a visit history data generation unit 23 that generates a visit history of a visitor as data input means.

The visit history data generation unit 23 includes a face recognition unit 3
When the visitor is identified by, the visit history data is created and sent to the data registration unit 21. The data registration unit 21 writes the generated visit history data of the specific visitor in the storage unit 1. In this case, examples of the visit history data generated by the visit history data generation unit 23 include the latest visit date and time. still,
The face recognition unit 3 outputs the visitor's face image to the data registration unit 21, and when the data registration unit 21 stores the visit history data in the storage unit 1, the input face image is used as the visit face image. The visit history data may be stored as one of the visit history data together with the visit history data created by the visit history data generation unit 23.

Further, as in the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the second person in FIG. 6 for a receptionist or the like to input data.
The input operation unit 22 described in the embodiment may be provided so that the visit history data can be input from the input operation unit 22 in addition to the visit history data generation unit 23. Here, the visit history data generation unit 23 and the input operation unit 22 correspond to data input means.

In this case, examples of the visit history data input from the input operation unit 22 include the number of visits, purpose of visit, visiting department / visitor, visiting department / visitor extension telephone number, and the like. Such visit history data may be stored in the storage unit 1 as one of the personal data as shown in FIG. In this way, if the visitor's visit history is stored in addition to personal data, the receptionist can say, for example, "Welcome XX, Mr. Today is ×
× Is it good for the manager? It becomes possible to give a better impression to the visitor by responding more appropriately according to the visitor.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the information is displayed as a visitor's information presenting means, but the information may be presented by voice as in the fifth embodiment as shown in FIG. The same elements as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. In FIG. 12, the reception assistance system according to the present exemplary embodiment is provided with an information presenting unit 30 that presents information to a receptionist by voice instead of display.

The information presenting unit 30 includes a voice synthesizing unit 30A as a voice converting unit for converting the registered personal data stored in the storage unit 1 regarding the visitor recognized based on the recognition result of the face recognizing unit 3 into a voice signal. And a voice output unit 30B that emits a voice based on a voice signal output from the voice synthesis unit 30A and notifies the receptionist. The voice output unit 30B may be an earphone or the like.

With such a configuration, when the visitor is specified by the face recognition section 3, the voice synthesizing section 30A reads the personal data of the specified visitor and converts it into a voice signal, and the voice output section 30B.
Output to. As a result, as shown in FIG. 13, for example, the earphone 40 (voice output unit 30
The personal data of the visitor can be presented by voice via B), and the visitor can be appropriately addressed.

In each of the above-described embodiments, a plurality of thresholds to be used for the threshold determination of the similarity in the visitor recognition processing of the face recognition unit 3 are set stepwise to satisfy the first threshold (the similarity is the first If there is no registered face data (equal to or more than the threshold of 1), the second threshold lower than the first threshold is used to perform the threshold determination of the similarity, and if not, the third lower than the second threshold is performed.
The visitor recognition process may be performed by using the threshold value of 1. In this case, at the set threshold, the registered face data satisfying the threshold may be presented with the registrant having the highest similarity as a visitor candidate and the personal information of the registrant may be presented. At a set threshold value equal to or lower than the second threshold value excluding the high first threshold value,
When there is registered face data that satisfies the threshold value, all the registrants may be set as visitor candidates and the personal data of these candidates may be presented.

[0035]

As described above, according to the reception assistance system of the present invention, the personal information of the visitor can be presented to the receptionist in advance by using the face recognition technology based on the captured image. Appropriate assistance for visitors can be provided, and visitors can be impressed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a reception assistance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration example of a storage unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining specific processing in a face detection unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of display contents presented.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of reception by a receptionist when the reception assistance system of the first embodiment is used.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a second embodiment of the reception assistance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a registration operation of a new registrant.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a registration operation when a new visitor is registered when the visitor cannot be identified.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a third embodiment of the reception assistance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fourth embodiment of the reception assistance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of storing visit history data.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a reception assistance system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of reception by a receptionist when the reception assistance system of the fifth embodiment is used.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 memory 2 camera 3 Face recognition section 3A Face detector 3B Face data calculation unit 3C Face data matching unit 4, 30 Information presentation section 5 Reception assistance device 21 Data registration section 22 Input operation section 23 Visit History Data Generator

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Yanagisawa             1836 Otani, Omiya, Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture             This signal Kuki office F term (reference) 5B057 AA19 BA02 DA11 DA16 DB02                       DC09 DC33 DC36 DC39                 5D045 AB30                 5L096 CA02 DA04 EA35 FA69 GA51                       HA09 JA03 JA11 KA15

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing at least registered face data relating to facial features and registered personal data associated with the registered face data, an image pickup unit for picking up an image of a visitor, and a visitor from an image picked up by the image pickup unit. A face recognition unit that detects a face image of a visitor and compares the face data of the visitor generated based on the detected face image with the registered face data of the storage unit to recognize the visitor; and the face recognition unit. An information reception means for presenting the registration data stored in the storage means of the recognized visitor to a receptionist, the reception assistance system. 2. The face recognition means detects a face image from an image picked up by the image pickup means, and a face which generates the face data of the visitor based on the face image detected by the face detection part. The data generating unit, and a face data collating unit that collates the face data of the visitor generated by the face data generating unit with the registered face data of the storage unit to recognize the visitor.
Reception assistance system described in. 3. The registered face data stored in the storage means is
The reception assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the reception assistance system is face image data. 4. The registered face data stored in the storage means is
The reception assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the reception assistance system is facial feature amount data. 5. The information presenting means displays contents from an image picked up by the image pick-up means based on the recognition result of the face recognizing means, position information of the face detected by the face detecting section and registration data of the recognized visitor. The reception assistance system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: a display information creating unit that creates the display information; and a display unit that displays the display content created by the display information creating unit to the reception staff. 6. The information presenting means includes a voice converting section for converting registered personal data in the storage means regarding a visitor recognized based on the recognition result of the face recognizing means into a voice signal.
The reception assistance system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: a voice output unit that emits a voice based on a voice signal output from the voice conversion unit to notify a receptionist. 7. A data registration means for registering face data relating to a new registrant's facial features and personal data input from a data input means in the storage means in association with the face data. The reception assistance system according to any one of 1. 8. The reception assistance system according to claim 7, wherein the data registration unit registers the face data and personal data of the visitor in the storage unit when the face recognition unit cannot recognize the visitor. 9. The data input means is an input operation means for inputting the personal data by an operation of a receptionist and a visit history data generation means for automatically generating visit history data of a visitor recognized by the face recognition means. The reception assistance system according to claim 7, further comprising at least one means.