JP2009088709A - Height estimation device, and photographing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a height estimation device capable of estimating the height of a photographed person without incurring new expenditure nor limiting a photographing viewing angle, and to provide a photographing device. <P>SOLUTION: A CCD area sensor 22 images a subject and acquires image information indicating the subject. An HDD 56 prestores height information indicating relationship between the largeness of a prescribed region to be imaged by the CCD area sensor 22 in a human body and the height of the person. The prescribed region is detected from the subject which is indicated by the image information acquired by the CCD area sensor 22. The largeness of the detected prescribed region is derived. The height information is read from the HDD 56. The height of the photographed person is estimated by the CCD area sensor 22, based on the height information and the largeness of the led out prescribed region. Then, the estimation result is displayed on a display device 16. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a height estimation device and a photographing device capable of estimating the height of a photographed person.

  As a technique related to crime prevention based on a photographed image, Patent Document 1 discloses a countermeasure process for a suspicious person based on the size of the detected person's face by detecting a person's face from the photographed image. A technique for determining whether or not is necessary is disclosed. Further, in Patent Document 2, when a passer's face image is detected from a photographed image, the behavior of the passer is estimated from the movement of the face image, and it is determined that the passer has made a predetermined behavior. A technique for outputting an alarm signal is disclosed.

On the other hand, as a technique that can be applied for restricting admission based on the height of a visitor based on a photographed image, Patent Document 3 discloses a height of a photographing device in order to estimate the height of a person who enters a predetermined area. A technique for estimating the height of a person from the height position of the photographing apparatus at the time when the face of the person photographed by the photographing apparatus is correctly cut out by adjusting the position upward or downward and the person's face is cut out. It is disclosed. Further, Patent Document 4 detects a person's foot and the top of the head from a photographed image, and derives the height of the target person from the difference in height between the detected position of the foot and the position of the head of the head. Techniques to do this are disclosed.
JP 2006-11728 A JP 2006-99190 A JP 2004-348571 A JP 2001-56853 A

  However, the techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 have a problem that although a person's face can be detected, a person's height cannot be detected. In addition, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 requires a moving mechanism for moving the photographing apparatus up and down in order to estimate the height of a person, so that the cost is required. It was. Furthermore, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 4 has a problem that the whole body including the person's feet to the top of the head must be photographed in order to estimate the height of the person photographed by the photographing apparatus. .

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is a height estimation device and a photographing device that can estimate the height of a photographed person without incurring new costs or restricting the photographing angle of view. An object is to provide an apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, the height estimation apparatus according to claim 1 is configured to capture an image of a subject and acquire image information indicating the subject, and a size of a predetermined part captured by the imaging unit in a human body. Storage means in which height information indicating the relationship between the height and the height of the person is stored in advance, detection means for detecting the predetermined part from the subject indicated by the image information acquired by the imaging means, and detection by the detection means A deriving unit for deriving the size of the predetermined part, and reading the height information from the storage unit, and based on the height information and the size of the predetermined part derived by the deriving unit, by the imaging unit Estimating means for estimating the height of the imaged person and display means for displaying an estimation result obtained by the estimating means.

  In the height estimation apparatus according to claim 1, the image of the subject is captured by the imaging unit and image information indicating the subject is acquired, and the size of the predetermined portion captured by the imaging unit of the human body is acquired by the storage unit. Height information indicating the relationship between the height and the height of the person is stored in advance.

  The imaging means includes a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) area sensor or a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor. In addition, the storage means includes a semiconductor storage element such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory), and a portable recording medium such as a flash disk (Flash EEPROM) or a hard disk (HDD) such as a flexible disk. A fixed recording medium such as a disk drive) or an external storage device provided in a server computer connected to a network.

  Here, in the present invention, the detection unit detects the predetermined part from the subject indicated by the image information acquired by the imaging unit, the derivation unit derives the size of the predetermined part detected by the detection unit, and estimates The height information is read from the storage means by the means, and based on the read height information and the size of the predetermined part derived by the derivation means, the height of the person imaged by the imaging means is estimated and displayed. The estimation result is displayed by means.

  The display by the display means includes a visible display by an image display device such as a display device, a permanent visible display by an image forming device such as a printer, and an audible display by an audio generation device.

  As described above, according to the height estimation device according to claim 1, the height information indicating the relationship between the size of the predetermined part of the human body and the height of the person is stored in advance, and the height information and the image are captured. Since the height of the imaged person is estimated based on the size of the predetermined part, the height of the imaged person can be estimated without incurring new costs or limiting the angle of view of the image. .

  The invention according to claim 1 is the actual size of the subject indicated by the image information based on the distance from the imaging means to the subject. It is also possible to derive a reduction rate with respect to, and to derive the size of the predetermined portion using the reduction rate. Thereby, the height of a person can be estimated with higher accuracy.

  In the invention according to claim 1 or 2, the predetermined part may be a face as in the invention according to claim 3. Since the size of the face has a high correlation with the height of the person, the height of the photographed person can be estimated with high accuracy.

  Furthermore, in the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, as in the invention according to claim 4, the height of the person estimated by the estimation means is a predetermined allowable height. You may further provide the alerting | reporting means to alert | report that there is a high possibility that the estimation result of a height is incorrect when it is out of the range. Thereby, it can be made to grasp | ascertain that the accuracy of the estimated height is low with respect to a user.

  On the other hand, in order to achieve the above object, an imaging apparatus according to a fifth aspect includes the height estimation apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects. Therefore, also in the present invention, similar to the height estimation apparatus according to the first aspect, the height of the photographed person can be estimated without incurring new costs or restricting the shooting angle of view.

  As described above, according to the present invention, there is an excellent effect that it is possible to estimate the height of a photographed person without incurring new costs or restricting the angle of view.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the present invention includes a monitoring camera, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) for analyzing image information obtained by the monitoring camera (hereinafter referred to as “camera”), and various images. The case where it applies to the visitor monitoring system comprised including the display apparatus to display is demonstrated.

  First, the configuration of the visitor monitoring system 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the visitor monitoring system 10 is installed by being suspended at a predetermined position on the ceiling of a room to be monitored as shown in FIG. The camera 12 that captures a predetermined area of the image and outputs image information indicating the captured image is electrically connected to the camera 12. The image information output from the camera 12 is input, and the image information is analyzed. The personal computer 14 is configured to include a display device 16 that is electrically connected to the personal computer 14 and displays an image taken by the camera 12, an image indicated by information output from the personal computer 14, and the like.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the configuration of the main parts of the electrical system of the camera 12 and the personal computer 14 according to the present embodiment will be described.

  As shown in the figure, the camera 12 receives an optical unit 20 including a lens for forming a subject image, and a CCD area sensor 22 disposed behind the optical axis of the lens. An analog signal processing unit 24 that performs various types of analog signal processing on the analog signal, an analog / digital converter (hereinafter referred to as “ADC”) 26 that converts the input analog signal into digital information, and a predetermined capacity. And a digital signal processing unit 28 for performing various digital signal processing on the input digital information.

  The output end of the CCD area sensor 22 is connected to the input end of the analog signal processing unit 24, the output end of the analog signal processing unit 24 is connected to the input end of the ADC 26, and the output end of the ADC 26 is connected to the input end of the digital signal processing unit 28. Has been. Accordingly, the analog signal indicating the subject image output from the CCD area sensor 22 is subjected to predetermined analog signal processing by the analog signal processing unit 24 and converted into digital image information (hereinafter referred to as “image information”) by the ADC 26. Is input to the digital signal processing unit 28.

  The camera 12 also operates a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 30 that controls the operation of the entire camera 12, a memory 32 in which programs executed by the CPU 30 and other information are stored in advance, and an AF (Auto Focus) function. An AF detection circuit 34 for detecting a physical quantity required for this purpose (in this embodiment, a contrast evaluation value of an image obtained by imaging by the CCD area sensor 22), image information generated by the camera 12, and the like. And an external interface 36 for transmitting and receiving various kinds of information to the outside. The digital signal processing unit 28, the CPU 30, the memory 32, the AF detection circuit 34, and the external interface 36 are mutually connected via a system bus 38. It is connected.

  The camera 12 includes a timing generator 40 that mainly generates a timing signal for driving the CCD area sensor 22 at a predetermined frame rate and supplies the timing signal to the CCD area sensor 22. Is controlled by the CPU 30 via the timing generator 40.

  Further, the camera 12 is provided with a motor drive unit 42, and driving of a focus adjustment motor and an aperture drive motor (not shown) provided in the optical unit 20 is also controlled by the CPU 30 via the motor drive unit 42.

  On the other hand, the personal computer 14 is used as a CPU 50 that controls the entire personal computer 14, a ROM 52 that stores various control programs executed by the CPU 50, various parameters, and the like, a work area when the CPU 50 executes various processing programs, and the like. RAM 54, HDD 56 used for storing various information, and various information such as image information transmitted from camera 12, and image information captured by camera 12 and other information are displayed to display device 16. And an external interface 58 for output. These units are connected to each other by a system bus 60.

  As an example, the HDD 56 stores height information indicating the relationship between the size of a predetermined part imaged by the CCD area sensor 22 and the height of a person, which is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG.

  The height information according to the present embodiment is height information indicating the relationship between the size of the face and the height of the person using the fact that the correlation between the size of the face and the height of the person is high. In the visitor monitoring system 10 according to the present embodiment, the height information is created by measuring a plurality of vertical sizes of a face and the height of a person having the face and calculating an average value. Yes.

  Next, the operation of the visitor monitoring system 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the height estimation processing program executed by the CPU 50 when the execution of the height estimation mode for estimating the height of the imaged person is set. It is stored in advance in a predetermined area. In order to avoid complications, here, when executing the height estimation mode, the image information acquired via the CCD area sensor 22 is transferred from the camera 12 to the personal computer 14 in real time at a predetermined frame rate. A case where the image information is sequentially stored in a predetermined area of the RAM 54 will be described.

  First, in step 100, the process waits until a human face is detected from image information stored in a predetermined area of the RAM.

  As face detection processing for detecting a human face from a subject image indicated by image information, for example, a range of color difference signals corresponding to a person's skin color is determined in advance, stored in the HDD 56, and a predetermined area of the RAM 54. By determining whether or not the color difference signal of each pixel of the image information stored in the image information is within the range of the color difference signal, a group of areas having the skin color indicated by the color difference signal is determined as a skin color area. Extract as Next, it is determined whether or not the extracted skin color area includes a non-skin color pattern such as eyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrows. If these patterns are included, the skin color area is determined to be a face. Needless to say, the face detection method is not limited to this, and other conventionally known methods can be applied.

  In the next step 102, a reduction ratio with respect to the actual size of the subject indicated by the image information is derived based on the distance from the CCD area sensor 22 to the subject.

  Here, a method for deriving the reduction ratio according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the distance L (cm) from the CCD area sensor 22 to the person who is the subject is obtained. The camera 12 according to the present embodiment detects the position of the focus lens (not shown) included in the lens 80 when the AF evaluation value detected by the AF detection circuit 34 is maximized, and the detected position. Is transmitted to the personal computer 14 in association with the image information together with the image information. Then, the distance L is obtained based on the transmitted information indicating the relationship between the position of the focus lens and the distance to the subject. The method for obtaining the distance L is not limited to this, and the camera 12 may be provided with a distance measuring sensor for measuring the distance from the CCD area sensor 22 to the subject, and the distance may be obtained.

  5B, the obtained distance L, the vertical size A (cm) of the imaging range captured by the CCD area sensor 22 through the lens 80, and the vertical direction of the CCD area sensor 22. From the size a (cm), the focal length f (cm) of the lens 80, and the shooting angle of view θ (°), the reduction ratio R with respect to the actual size of the subject indicated by the image information is calculated by the following equation (1). This is because the imaging field angle θ with the center O of the lens 80 as the apex, the triangular area indicated by the vertical size a of the CCD area sensor 22, and the imaging field angle θ with the center O of the lens 80 as the apex, The triangular area indicated by the vertical size A of the imaging range is based on a similar relationship.

次のステップ１０４では、ステップ１００の顔検出処理によって検出した顔の大きさを導出する。

In the next step 104, the size of the face detected by the face detection process in step 100 is derived.

  Here, a method for deriving the face size according to the present embodiment will be described.

  First, the vertical size q of the face indicated by the image information is obtained by multiplying the vertical size of the pixels constituting the CCD area sensor 22 by the number of pixels indicating the detected vertical direction of the face.

  Then, by substituting the size q into the following equation (2), the size Q in the vertical direction of the face, which is the actual size, is derived by dividing by the reduction ratio R derived by the processing of step 102. .

次のステップ１０６では、身長情報をＨＤＤ５６から読み出し、当該身長情報とステップ１０４の処理によって導出した顔の縦方向の大きさＱとに基づいて、撮像した人の身長Ｈ（ｃｍ）を推定する。このとき、顔の縦方向の大きさＱが、例えばＱ２とＱ３との間であった場合は、Ｈ２とＨ３の値を用いて線形補間により顔を検出された人の身長を推定する。

In the next step 106, the height information is read from the HDD 56, and the height H (cm) of the imaged person is estimated based on the height information and the vertical size Q of the face derived by the processing in step 104. At this time, if the vertical size Q of the face is between Q2 and Q3, for example, the height of the person whose face is detected by linear interpolation is estimated using the values of H2 and H3.

  In the next step 108, it is determined whether or not the height estimation result by the process in step 106 is outside the range of the predetermined allowable height stored in advance in the predetermined area of the HDD 56. If YES in step 110, the process advances to step 112. If NO in step 110, the process advances to step 112. The allowable height is appropriately set according to the use of the visitor monitoring system 10.

  In step 110, notification processing is performed to indicate that the estimated person's height is outside the predetermined allowable height range.

  In the visitor monitoring system 10 according to the present embodiment, as the notification process, a process of displaying information indicating that a person having a height outside the allowable height range is captured on the display device 16 is performed. The notification process is not limited to this, and when a printer and a speaker are connected to the personal computer 14, a sheet on which an image showing a person having a height outside the allowable height range is formed from the printer connected to the personal computer 14. Needless to say, a process of outputting a sound, a process of sounding an alarm sound from a speaker connected to the personal computer 14, and the like may be performed.

  Here, when the allowable height is set to be within the range of normal human height (as an example, 50 cm to 250 cm), if the height estimation result falls outside the range of the allowable height, the height estimation result Is executed to indicate that there is a high possibility of being erroneous.

  In addition, when the place where the visitor monitoring system 10 according to the present embodiment is installed is, for example, a gate of a kindergarten or a nursery school, the allowable height is set to, for example, the height range of a child (for example, 130 cm or less). Thus, it is possible to cope with an adult intrusion outside the pick-up time, and the notification process is executed when the estimated height of the person is outside the range of the allowable height. Furthermore, when the place where the visitor monitoring system 10 according to the present embodiment is installed is a dangerous place such as a construction site, the allowable height is set to an adult height range (for example, 160 cm or more). Thus, the notification process is executed when the child's intrusion can be dealt with and the estimated height of the person is outside the range of the allowable height.

  In the next step 112, it is determined whether or not a predetermined end condition of the program is satisfied. If the determination is affirmative, the program is ended. If the determination is negative, the process returns to step 100. . In addition, in the visitor monitoring system 10 which concerns on this Embodiment, although the condition that the instruction | indication which transfers to a different mode from a height estimation mode was input into the personal computer 14 was applied as said completion | finish conditions. Of course, the present invention is not limited to this, and other conditions such as a predetermined period for executing the height estimation mode may be applied.

  As described above in detail, in the present embodiment, the imaging unit (here, the CCD area sensor 22) captures the subject and acquires image information indicating the subject, while the storage unit (here, the HDD 56). ), Height information indicating the relationship between the size of a predetermined part (here, the face) imaged by the imaging means in the human body and the height of the person is stored in advance, and the image information acquired by the imaging means is used. A predetermined part is detected from the subject shown, the size of the detected predetermined part is derived, and the height of the person imaged by the imaging means is estimated based on the height information and the derived predetermined part size After that, since the estimation result is displayed by the display means (here, the display device 16), the person who took the image does not incur new costs or limit the shooting angle of view. It is possible to estimate the height.

  In the present embodiment, since the reduction ratio with respect to the actual size of the subject indicated by the image information is derived based on the distance from the imaging means to the subject, the height of the person can be estimated with higher accuracy. .

  Moreover, in this Embodiment, since the predetermined site | part is made into the face, the height of the image | photographed person can be estimated with high precision.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when the estimated person's height is outside the predetermined allowable height range, it is informed that there is a high possibility that the height estimation result is incorrect. It is possible to make the user know that the estimated height accuracy is low.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using the said embodiment, the technical scope of this invention is not limited to the range as described in the said embodiment. Various modifications or improvements can be added to the above-described embodiment without departing from the gist of the invention, and embodiments to which such modifications or improvements are added are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  Further, the above embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims (claims), and all the combinations of features described in the embodiments are essential for the solution means of the invention. Not exclusively. The embodiments described above include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by combinations of a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. Even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in the above embodiment, as long as an effect is obtained, a configuration in which these some constituent elements are deleted can be extracted as an invention.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the case where the height is estimated based on the vertical size of the face with the predetermined part as the face has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. The height may be estimated based on the size in the horizontal direction. In this case, it is necessary to prepare in advance information indicating the relationship between the size of the face in the horizontal direction and the height of the person as height information. In this case as well, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained. Moreover, it is good also as a form which estimates a height based on the magnitude | size of a shoulder width, making a predetermined site | part into a shoulder width, for example. In this case, it is necessary to prepare in advance information indicating the relationship between the size of the shoulder width and the height of the person as the height information. In this case as well, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  Further, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which the size of one place is derived as the predetermined part and the height of the person is estimated based on this, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the height information The information indicating the relationship between the size of the two or more predetermined parts and the height of the person, and deriving the size of the two or more predetermined parts from the subject indicated by the acquired image information, It is good also as a form which estimates a person's height based on the magnitude | size of the derived | derived two or more predetermined site | parts. In this case, the height can be estimated with higher accuracy than in the above embodiment.

  In the above embodiment, the zoom function of the camera 12 is not mentioned. However, when the camera 12 has a zoom function, the reduction ratio may be derived in consideration of the zoom magnification. In this case as well, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  In the above embodiment, the reduction ratio is derived by an arithmetic expression in order to derive the size of the predetermined portion. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the CCD area sensor 22 to the subject are not limited thereto. Information indicating the relationship between the distance and the reduction ratio may be stored in the HDD 56 in advance, and the size of the predetermined part may be derived based on the information. In this case as well, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a visitor monitoring system having a camera, a personal computer, and a display device is described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the camera It is good also as a form applied to. In this case as well, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  In addition, the configuration of the visitor monitoring system 10 described in the above embodiment (see FIGS. 1 and 2) is merely an example, and unnecessary portions may be deleted or newly added without departing from the scope of the present invention. Needless to say, you can add parts.

  Furthermore, the processing flow of the imaging program described in the above embodiment (see FIG. 4) is also an example, and unnecessary steps are deleted or new steps are added without departing from the gist of the present invention. Needless to say, the processing order can be changed.

  Further, as an application example of the above-described embodiment, a feature amount such as the position and size of the eye, mouth, nose and the like may be detected together with the height. Thereby, for example, even if a face of a person outside the predetermined allowable height range is detected, the feature amount of the detected person's face is the same as the face feature amount stored in advance, The notification process may not be executed. Further, for example, when a face is detected, the feature amount of the face can be sequentially stored, and the number of detections of a face having the same face feature amount can be notified together. In this case, the same effect as the above embodiment can be obtained, and a visitor monitoring system having a high crime prevention function can be provided.

It is the schematic which shows the whole structure of the visitor monitoring system which concerns on embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the principal part structure of the electric system of the visitor monitoring system which concerns on embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the height information memorize | stored in HDD which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the height estimation processing program which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure where it uses for description of the derivation method of the reduction rate which concerns on embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10 Visitor monitoring system 16 Display device (display means)
22 CCD area sensor (imaging means)
50 CPU (detection means, derivation means, estimation means, notification means)
56 HDD (storage means)

Claims (5)

Imaging means for imaging a subject and obtaining image information indicating the subject;
Storage means for preliminarily storing height information indicating the relationship between the size of a predetermined part imaged by the imaging means in the human body and the height of the person;
Detecting means for detecting the predetermined part from a subject indicated by the image information acquired by the imaging means;
Derivation means for deriving the size of the predetermined part detected by the detection means;
Estimating means for reading the height information from the storage means and estimating the height of the person imaged by the imaging means based on the height information and the size of the predetermined part derived by the deriving means;
Display means for displaying an estimation result by the estimation means;
Height estimation device equipped with.   The deriving unit derives a reduction ratio with respect to the actual size of the subject indicated by the image information based on a distance from the imaging unit to the subject, and derives the size of the predetermined portion using the reduction rate. The height estimation apparatus according to claim 1.   The height estimation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined part is a face.   In addition, when the height of the person estimated by the estimation means is outside the range of the predetermined allowable height, a notification means for notifying that there is a high possibility that the estimation result of the height is incorrect is further provided. The height estimation apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein:   The imaging device provided with the height estimation apparatus in any one of Claims 1-4.

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