JP2006236025A - Person detection method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a person detection method capable of reducing an error when a distance between a person and a stereo camera is large. <P>SOLUTION: In step S1, parallax is measured to each point of the person. In step S2, a stereo distance that is the distance between the stereo camera and the person is calculated about each the point from an obtained parallax image. In step S3, coordinates of all the points on the surface of the person in a world coordinate system are calculated by use of the stereo distance. In step S4, projection in a Z-axis direction, i.e., the number of the points is added. In step S5, largeness of a window is found. In step S6, a characteristic quantity of the number of the points is found inside the window. In step S7, it is decided whether the person is present or not by use of the characteristic quantity. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a person detection method, and more particularly to a technique for detecting a person standing on a floor surface using a stereo camera.

  Conventionally, person detection has been performed by processing an image obtained using a stereo camera or the like.

  For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique for detecting a person on a pedestrian crossing using a stereo camera. Patent Document 2 discloses a method of projecting three-dimensional data onto a specific plane and measuring the degree of congestion from the projected area. Patent Document 3 discloses a method for extracting three-dimensional information from a stereo image, estimating a reference plane such as the ground on which an object such as a person exists, and tracking an object above the reference plane. Yes. Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for performing person detection and person tracking using a plurality of stereo cameras.

JP 2002-24986 A JP 2001-34883 A JP 2000-115810 A Ikeda Ikushi and 1 other, "Real-time real-environment human sensing with ubiquitous stereo vision", [online], June 13, 2003, Image Sensing Technology Study Group, [Search January 9, 2004], Internet <URL: http://www.media.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/~liuxj/bak/pdf/F-19.pdf>

  When an image obtained using a stereo camera is processed, there is a problem in that an error increases as the distance between the person to be measured and the stereo camera increases.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a person detection method capable of reducing an error when a distance between a person and a stereo camera is large.

  A person detection method according to the present invention is a person detection method for detecting a person using a stereo camera, and by processing image information obtained from the stereo camera, a point on the surface of the person standing on the floor surface A step of obtaining a stereo distance that is a distance from the stereo camera, a step of obtaining a sum by adding points in the standing direction of the person, a region setting step of determining a predetermined region having a size based on the stereo distance, and a predetermined step A feature amount calculating step for obtaining a feature amount based on the sum in the region, and a person detecting step for detecting a person based on the feature amount.

  A person detection method according to the present invention is a person detection method for detecting a person using a stereo camera, and by processing image information obtained from the stereo camera, a point on the surface of the person standing on the floor surface A step of obtaining a stereo distance that is a distance from the stereo camera, a step of obtaining a sum by adding points in the standing direction of the person, a region setting step of determining a predetermined region having a size based on the stereo distance, and a predetermined step In this area, a feature amount calculation step for obtaining a feature amount based on the sum and a person detection step for detecting a person based on the feature amount are included, so that errors due to stereo distance can be reduced. Therefore, since a stable peak can be obtained on the histogram, the accuracy can be further increased. Further, since the error due to the stereo distance can be reduced, it is not necessary to consider the distance to the person when installing the stereo camera, so that the restriction on the installation location of the stereo camera can be relaxed.

<Embodiment 1>
In the person detection method according to the first embodiment, attention is paid to the fact that the standing person can be assumed to be a bar-like object that is long in the vertical direction with respect to a reference plane (hereinafter also referred to as a floor surface). Is projected onto the floor and a histogram of the number of points is created. In addition, considering that the error with respect to parallax increases as the distance from the stereo camera increases, the average value or variation of histogram values in a given area (window) given a size based on the distance from the stereo camera. And the like, and a person is detected using this feature quantity.

  In FIG. 1, the stereo camera 10 includes a camera 10 </ b> L and a camera 10 </ b> R separated by a baseline D, and is fixed at a position having a height B higher than the height of the person 40 standing on the floor 30. The stereo camera 10 is connected to a computer 20 that processes image information obtained from the stereo camera 10.

  Next, the person detection method according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S <b> 1, the computer 20 measures the parallax d for points on the surface of the person 40 based on image information obtained from the stereo camera 10. Here, the point is a minimum unit of measurement when the three-dimensional space is divided based on a predetermined resolution. The parallax d is measured at all points on the surface of the person 40 (excluding points that cannot be measured by shadows on the surface of the person 40 and points where no image information such as black portions exist). Thereby, the computer 20 obtains a parallax image having a resolution equal to the resolution, that is, a dense parallax image, for the person 40. This parallax image is a single image obtained by calculation from two images corresponding to the cameras 10L and 10R.

  Next, in step S2, the computer 20 calculates a stereo distance that is a distance between the stereo camera 10 and the person 40 at each point from the obtained parallax image.

  Note that a stereoscopic image 45 as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained from the calculated stereo distance and the actual height H of the person 40. Here, the actual height H of the person 40 may be observed by an existing method, or a general average value (about 164 cm for Japanese) may be used. From this stereoscopic image 45, an image height h that is the height of the person 40 on the image is obtained.

  Next, in step S3, the computer 20 calculates the coordinates of all the points on the surface of the person 40 in the world coordinate system using the calculated stereo distance of each point. In FIG. 1, this world coordinate system is shown as an XYZ coordinate system. In FIG. 1, the floor surface 30 corresponds to the XY plane, the base line D is parallel to the Y axis, the depth direction when viewed from the stereo camera 10 coincides with the X axis, and the person 40 stands up in the Z axis direction. Yes.

  Next, in step S4, the computer 20 displays all the points on the surface of the person 40 (hereinafter, these points are represented by arbitrary points P for explanation) on the floor surface 30, that is, on the XY plane. A histogram is created by projecting onto Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the floor surface 30 is divided into bins 50 (rectangles surrounded by dotted lines in FIG. 3) that are regions serving as units for creating a histogram, and all bins 50 are divided. It is checked whether or not the point P exists in all the above Z coordinates (that is, whether or not the surface of the person 40 is measured at any Z coordinate in any bin 50). Then, the number of confirmed points P is added in the Z-axis direction for each bin 50. Thereby, in the bin 50 where the number of added points P is relatively large, it can be determined that the person 40 (the surface thereof) exists. That is, the position of the person 40 can be obtained from the peak of the histogram of the number of projected points P.

  At this time, as described above, the error in the coordinates of the calculated point P increases as the stereo distance increases. FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the stereo distance and the error in the coordinates of the point P. The error of the point P with respect to the error Δd of the parallax d is represented by the length of each side of the rectangle 60, and increases as the stereo distance increases.

  Therefore, in order to reduce the influence of the above error, in the present invention, as described below, the coordinates of the point P are given a spread based on the stereo distance corresponding to the error.

As shown in FIG. 3, the spread 70 of the point P is represented by a rectangle including sides having lengths σ _cx and σ _cy based on the distance from the stereo camera 10. These σ _cx and σ _cy correspond to the length of each side of the rectangle 60 in FIG. That is, the spread 70 is large when the stereo distance is large and small when the stereo distance is small.

In step S5, σ is obtained by using the following equations (1) and (2) derived from the geometric relationship between the stereo camera 10 and the rectangle 60 in FIG. 4 (that is, the geometric relationship between the stereo camera 10 and the spread 70). _cx and σ _cy are calculated.

σ _cx = ξσ _d / d ² (1)
σ _cy = Dσ _d / d (2)

Here, ξ is a constant that satisfies ξ = dz (z is the Z coordinate of the point P), and σ _d is a constant that represents an error standard deviation in general stereo measurement. Moreover, Formula (1) is calculated | required by performing the 1st-order Taylor expansion of d with respect to the formula represented by z = ξ / d. In Expressions (1) and (2), when the stereo distance is large, the parallax d is small, and therefore σ _cx and σ _cy are both large. That is, the spread 70 is obtained by spreading the point P as a plane on a plane parallel to the floor surface 30 based on the stereo distance.

FIG. 5 shows a predetermined rectangular region (window) for _obtaining σ _cx , σ _cy calculated from equations (1) and (2) and the feature quantity (for example, average value) of the number of added points. ) The relationship with the window size (length in the X direction = w _w , length in the Y direction = h _w ) which is a size of 90 is shown. For example, it is assumed that the window 90 is defined at a position where the center thereof overlaps the peak of the histogram.

As shown in FIG. 5, the window size _(w w, h _w), using a MuneAtsu W _D and constant Fq shoulder width W and the person 40 of the person 40, the following equation (3), (4) It is represented by

w _w = F _q σ _CX (3)
F _q σ _cy + W _D ≦ h _w ≦ F _q σ _cy + W (4)

Here, it is assumed that the constant F _q is set to a value (for example, F _q = 6) that allows the window 90 to sufficiently cover the peak of the histogram and its peripheral region in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the person 40 stands upright with respect to the stereo camera 10, h _w = F _q σ _cy + W, but the person 40 stands up sideways with respect to the stereo camera 10. In this case, h _w = F _q σ _cy + W _D. That is, h _w has a predetermined width and is represented by an inequality as shown in Expression (4). Therefore, h _w may be set to any value between them (for example, h _w = F _q σ _cy + (W + W _D ) / 2). On the other hand, w _w depends only on the distance between the stereo camera 10 and the window 90, hardly depends on the orientation of the person 40, and is constant as shown in Expression (3).

As described above, since σ _CX and σ _cy increase as the stereo distance increases, the window sizes (w _w , h _w ) expressed by the equations (3) to (4) also increase as the stereo distance increases. As a result, as will be described later in step S7, it is possible to reduce an error due to the stereo distance at the time of determination.

In FIG. 5, for example, if the person 40 is observed side by side with respect to the stereo camera 10 and is observed only near the optical axis of the stereo camera 10 (that is, near the front of the stereo camera 10), Since σ _cy in (4) can be ignored, it may be approximated as h _w = W (about 42.5 cm for Japanese).

  Next, in step S6, an average value (histogram value) actually observed for the number of added points (histogram value) in the window 90 in which the position and size (window size) are determined in steps S4 to S5, respectively. Measured average value) and theoretically estimated (expected) average value (estimated average value) are obtained. In step S7, it is determined whether or not the person 40 exists in the window 90 by comparing the measured average value and the estimated average value. Hereinafter, this determination method will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 6A, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the person 40 is a plane 92 that passes through the peak of the histogram and is parallel to the YZ plane. This plane 92 has a height H and a width w _w . Also, as shown in FIG. 6B, the plane 92 is projected onto the stereo camera 10 to generate an image 94 having a height n [pixel] and a width m [pixel]. FIG. 6 shows a case where n = 6, m = 4, and w _w = 3ξ _y (note that the lengths of the bin 50 in the X direction and Y direction are ξ _x and ξ _y , respectively). .

  If (n × m) points included in the image 94 can be ignored if measurement errors (for example, when the color of the person 40 and the background are the same) and random noise on the screen of the stereo camera 10 can be ignored, All should be projected on the XY plane and reflected in the histogram. That is, the true histogram value k is expressed by the following equation (5).

  k = m × n (5)

In practice, however, the vote value varies due to measurement errors and noise. Therefore, using the probability of successful observation, that is, the measurement accuracy ρ (for example, 0.5) and the voting value variation ν (for example, 1) due to noise, the voting value k ′ = k × ρ + ν = 6 × 4 × 0.5 + 1 = 13. As described above, since the plane 92 has the width w _w = 3ξ _y , if it is considered that the vote value is distributed to the width w _w = 3ξ _y and projected onto the XY plane, one plane in the window 90 is used. The average value of estimated histogram values estimated to be observed per bin 50, that is, the estimated average value μ _k is expressed by the following equation (6).

μ _k = k ′ / (w _w / ξ _y ) = 13 / 3≈4.3 (6)

In step S7, it is determined whether or not the person 40 exists in the window 90 by comparing the estimated average value μ _k obtained in this way with the actually measured average value A _k obtained by actual observation. be able to. Specifically, when the difference between the estimated average value μ _k and the measured average value A _k is smaller than a predetermined threshold (that is, the measured average value A _k is a predetermined value centered on the estimated average value μ _k). If it is within the range, it is determined that the person 40 exists in the window 90.

  Next, in step S8, it is confirmed whether or not steps S5 to S7 have been executed for all points P. If it has not been executed, the process proceeds to step S5, and if it has been executed, a series of processing ends.

  In the above description, the case where it is determined whether or not the person 40 exists in the window 90 using the average value of the histogram values in the window 90 has been described. Not only the value but also, for example, the variation (dispersion or standard deviation) of the histogram value in the window 90 may be used. Hereinafter, a determination method using variation in place of the average value in steps S6 to S7 will be described with reference to FIGS.

A line segment 96 indicated by a thick line in FIG. 5 is expressed by the following equation (7), where the length is F _q L.

Here, it can be assumed that the parallax d is added with a measurement error represented by a normal distribution having a variance σ _d ² around the true parallax. As shown in FIG. 7A, when this observation point is projected on the XY plane as a histogram, the histogram value after projection is (−F _q L L) about the center of gravity P ′ of the person 40 on the line segment 96. / 2) to (F _q L / 2). In FIG. 7A, this distribution is represented by a normal distribution N (0, σ _d ² ) having an average value of 0.

FIG. 7B shows a cumulative probability distribution P (x, σ _d ² ) obtained by accumulating (integrating) the normal distribution N (0, σ _d ² ) shown in FIG. . Note that FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are for showing qualitative characteristics, and therefore the ratio of these vertical axes is changed. By using FIG. 7B, it is possible to obtain the variance of the histogram values in the window 90 (that is, the variance of the histogram values along the line segment 96). The number of bins 50 along the line segment J = w _w / ξ _x , and the length of the line segment 96 per bin 50 (ie, the portion of the line segment 96 included in one bin 50) Length) ξ _L = F _q L / J. At this time, the estimated histogram value k _i in the i-th bin 50 counted from the end point of the line segment 96 is expressed by the following equation (8) using the true histogram value k and the measurement accuracy ρ.

In FIG. 7, the estimated histogram value k _i is shown for J = 6 and i = 2.

The expected value of the estimated histogram value k _i represented by Expression (8) is equal to the estimated average value μ _k obtained from Expression (6). Therefore, the estimated measurement variance value σ _kd ² representing the variation of the estimated histogram value k _i in the window 90 due to the measurement error is expressed by the following equation (9).

In addition to the estimated measurement variance value σ _kd ² described above, the histogram value varies due to random noise on the screen of the stereo camera 10. By assuming this variation as a binomial distribution, the estimated noise standard deviation ζ can be obtained using an existing method. Since the estimated measurement variance value σ _kd ² and the estimated noise standard deviation ζ _k are independent, the estimated standard deviation σ _k = σ _kd + ζ _k representing the total variation of the estimated histogram value is expressed.

By comparing the estimated standard deviation σ _k obtained in this way with the actually measured standard deviation S _k obtained by actual observation, it is determined whether or not the person 40 exists in the window 90 in step S7. be able to. Specifically, when the difference between the estimated standard deviation σ _k and the measured standard deviation S _k is smaller than a predetermined threshold (that is, the measured standard deviation S _k is a predetermined value centered on the estimated standard deviation σ _k). If it is within the range, it is determined that the person 40 exists in the window 90.

  As described above, in the person detection method according to the present embodiment, in a predetermined region (window) given a spread based on the stereo distance, a person can be detected using a feature value including an average value or variation of histogram values. Since it is determined whether or not it exists, errors due to stereo distance can be reduced. Therefore, since a stable peak can be obtained on the histogram, the accuracy can be further increased. Further, since the error due to the stereo distance can be reduced, it is not necessary to consider the distance to the person 40 when installing the stereo camera 10, so that the restriction on the installation location of the stereo camera 10 can be relaxed.

  In addition, it is possible to easily detect a person by using a method in which a difference between an actually measured feature amount actually observed and a theoretically estimated feature amount is compared with a predetermined threshold value.

  In the above description, the average value or variation of the histogram value is used as the feature amount. However, the feature value is not limited to the average value or variation of the histogram value, and is the sum (histogram value) obtained by adding the points. As long as the feature amount is obtained in the window based on the above.

  In the above description, the case where a person is detected using a method of comparing the difference between the measured feature value and the estimated feature value with a predetermined threshold value is not limited to such a method. A person may be detected using only.

3 is a perspective view showing a person detection method according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a person detection method according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a top view showing a person detection method according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a top view showing a person detection method according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a top view showing a person detection method according to the first embodiment. 3 is a perspective view showing a person detection method according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3 is a graph showing a person detection method according to Embodiment 1.

Explanation of symbols

10 stereo cameras, 10L, 10R cameras, 20 computers, 30 floors, 40 people, 45 stereoscopic images, 50 bins, 60 rectangles, 70 spreads, 90 windows, 92 planes, 94 images, 96 lines, B heights, d Parallax, D Baseline, h Image height, H Actual height (height), P point.

Claims (5)

A person detection method for detecting a person using a stereo camera,
Obtaining a stereo distance that is a distance between a point on the surface of a person standing on the floor and the stereo camera by processing image information obtained from the stereo camera;
Obtaining a sum by adding the points to the standing direction of the person;
An area setting step for defining a predetermined area having a size based on the stereo distance;
A feature amount calculating step for obtaining a feature amount based on the sum in the predetermined region;
A person detection method comprising: a person detection step of detecting the person based on the feature amount. The person detection method according to claim 1,
The person detecting method, wherein the predetermined area is rectangular, and the position and size are determined in the area setting step. The person detection method according to claim 1 or 2,
In the feature quantity calculating step, an actually measured feature quantity that is actually observed and an estimated feature quantity that is theoretically estimated are obtained,
In the person detection step, a person detection method in which the person is detected by comparing a difference between the measured feature quantity and the estimated feature quantity with a predetermined threshold. A person detection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The person detection method, wherein the feature amount is an average value of the sum. A person detection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The person detection method, wherein the feature amount is a variation of the sum.

Images