JPH03201179A - Counting method of the number of passers-by - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve counting precision by arranging optical sensors in two lines at prescribed intervals in a direction for crossing a passage so that they are not adjacent in front and behind and in right and left and detecting the head from the shoulder part of an adult. CONSTITUTION: The optical sensors in an A line and those in a B line are installed by making them lean so that the optical axes have prescribed angles against a vertical direction. The directions are made so that the optical axes are mutually detached and the fitting lean angles are made to be 2 deg.-5 deg. against the vertical straight line in accordance with the directivity of the optical sensors to be used. The detection sensitivities of the optical sensors are set so that light beams from a light emitter when the adult stands just under the sensors are abutted on the shoulder or the head of the person and are reflected and the reflected light turns on a light receiver. The light luminosity of the light emitter and the received light sensitivity of the light receiver are adjusted in accordance with the installed height of the optical sensors on the floor are adjusted. Thus, counting precision improves.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for counting the number of people bathing in a place where a large number of people come and go, such as a department store or an event venue.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional methods for counting the number of people passing by at a predetermined location include methods using optical detection means, methods using infrared sensors, and methods using ultrasonic sensors. Attempts have also been made to use a plurality of the above-mentioned sensors to determine the direction in which a person is passing. The sensor is often installed on the side or above the vehicle. The method of detecting a human body from the side of the road is not very accurate because if multiple people are walking side by side, they are counted as one person. Therefore, if more precision than the window is required, the method of installing multiple sensors above the vehicle is being adopted.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-59500 relates to the invention of a method for counting the number of people passing by by installing a plurality of infrared sensors from above downward. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, infrared light CI and C2 emitted from infrared light emitters AI and A2 mounted vertically, and infrared receivers 81 and B2 mounted at a certain angle with respect to the vertical direction. Detection zone El where DI and B2 intersect, which is the light receiving range of
and B2 are set, and when a person passes through the detection zone, the infrared receiver 81 and B2 detect it. And +
The direction of passage is determined based on the times detected by 31 and 82. The infrared sensors are installed in two parallel rows with an interval of about 40 cm across the passageway to prevent failure to detect people passing by.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the prior art, mutual interference occurs between adjacent optical sensors due to variations in luminous intensity characteristics of each light emitter and changes over time, and differences in light receiving sensitivity between the light receivers. Therefore, it has the following drawbacks.

(1) Among the optical sensors in the two rows of front and rear rows in the direction of travel of a person, a situation occurs in which the front side optical sensor is not necessarily turned on first, and in this case, an error occurs in determining the direction of travel.

(2) When a person passes below the middle position of the sensors installed at an interval of about 40 cm, both the left and right sensors detect the same person individually and count them as two people.

(3) In order to eliminate the mutual interference, it is not possible to uniformly install the light receiver, etc. at a constant angle with respect to the vertical direction, and a great deal of effort is required for installation and subsequent adjustment.

[Means to solve the problem]

The invention of this application solves the above problems and dramatically improves the accuracy of counting. That is, two or more types of optical sensors are prepared, each consisting of a light emitter that emits light of a specific frequency and a light receiver that detects light of the frequency, and that have different antiwave numbers. Human power 5 At a certain height from the floor of the walkway, optical sensors with the same frequency are placed in two parallel rows (row A and B
(rows) at regular intervals. The luminous flux of the light emitter and the detection sensitivity of the light receiver constituting each optical sensor are set to detect the shoulders to the head of an adult standing directly below the optical sensor, and two parallel rows of optical sensors. The direction of movement of passing people is determined based on whether the A or B line was detected first, and the number of people passing through the location is counted.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the method for counting the number of people passing by according to the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows a method of installing an optical sensor according to the present invention. The optical sensors are mounted above the passage in two parallel rows (row A and row B) in the direction across the passage. The distance between adjacent optical sensors in the horizontal direction is about 20 cm, and the number of optical sensors to be installed is determined according to the width of the passage. Adjacent optical sensors in the front and rear and left and right sides of each row use ones with different frequencies. The number of frequency types of the optical sensor to be used is two or more, and the number is determined in consideration of the installation floor height and the directivity of the light emitter and light receiver that make up the optical sensor so that mutual drying does not occur. The higher the installation height of the optical sensor on the floor, the more
Furthermore, the wider the directivity, the more it is necessary to increase the types of frequencies of the optical sensor used. - For example, if three types of optical sensors are used, one with the same frequency will be installed every second.

FIG. 2 explains the mounting angle of the optical sensor. The optical sensors having the same frequency must be installed so that they do not interfere with each other between the A and B rows. Therefore A
Each optical sensor in the row and each optical sensor in row B are installed so that their front axes are inclined at a constant angle with respect to the vertical direction. The direction is such that the optical axes are separated from each other, and the mounting inclination angle is set at 2° to 5'' with respect to the vertical line, depending on the directivity of the optical sensor used.

The detection sensitivity of each optical sensor is set so that when an adult stands directly below it, the light beam emitted from the light emitter hits the shoulder or head of the person and is reflected, and the reflected light activates (turns on) the light receiver. . Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the luminous intensity of the light emitter and the light receiving sensitivity of the light receiver depending on the installation height of the optical sensor above the floor. l It is also possible to count only the passage of people over a certain height by adjustment, and for example, to exclude small people from being counted.

FIG. 3 shows a control configuration block diagram of the present invention. Here, the optical sensors (1, 2) are of an integrated type with a light emitting part and a light receiving part, but they may be of a Sebaret type.

The reference clock supplied from the oscillator (8) is applied to the frequency divider (9).
) and input it to 1/2 of the reference clock, l/4.1/8.
..., for example, create signals of fl and f2. fl or f2 is the light emitting element (16) of each optical sensor
is input to a driver (15) for exciting the . The light emitted from the light emitting element (16) is reflected by the floor surface when there is no person directly under the light sensor, and the reflected light is detected by the light receiving element. However, in this case, since the amount of light received is weak, the voltage comparator (14) does not detect it (off). When a person is present, the light emitted from the light-emitting element hits the shoulder and head of the person and is reflected, and the reflected light is converged by a lens, received by the light-receiving element, and input into the optical amplifier (11) for the light-receiving signal. Ru. The received light signal that has been amplified at a constant magnification is a band that passes only the signal in the frequency band (fl or f2) and blocks the signals in other bands.
Main amplifier (1) via pass filter (12)
3), and the voltage is amplified at a constant magnification.

The amplified light reception signal is compared with a predetermined threshold voltage by a voltage comparator (14), and if it is larger than that value, it is judged to be on (person present), and if it is smaller, it is judged to be off (no person present). The on/off state is determined by the central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as rCPυ) via an interface.

> is monitored constantly or at regular intervals. Memories (4 and 5) are connected to the CPU under a common signal line.

A read-only memory, ROM (4), stores a control program and fixed data related to the present invention. The rewritable memory RAM (5) is used as a working memory to store variation constants such as parameters used in the control program and to temporarily store calculation results. The display device (6) displays the cumulative number of people passing by, and displays the number of people entering or leaving the venue individually, or displays the number of residents minus the number of people leaving the venue from the number of people entering. In places where there are multiple entrances and exits, such as department stores, it is necessary to tally the number of people passing through each entrance and exit, so communication interfaces (7
) to a central host computer over a local communication line.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operating state of each optical sensor in row A and row B, which are in the same traveling direction (n). First, the photosensors in row A turn on, then the photosensors in row 8 turn on, and then the photosensors in row A turn off, and then the photosensors in row 8 turn off ((
In the case of A), it is determined that a person has entered (passing from the side of row A to the side of row B), and the visitor counter is incremented by one. In the opposite case (case (B)), it is determined that the person is leaving (passing from row B side to row A side), and the exit number counter is incremented by 1. If the light sensor that was turned on first turns off after the other light sensor (such as in case (C)), this is not counted because a person is standing still under the light sensor.

In this example, optical sensors were installed at intervals of 20 centimeters. The frontal width of an adult human is usually 40 to 50 cm, so when one person passes, two
or three optical sensors are activated. Also, if two people pass side by side in the horizontal direction, 4
Since from 1 to 6 optical sensors are expected to operate, the count value is determined taking this into consideration. If only one optical sensor is activated, this is regarded as noise and ignored. This eliminates false detections caused by hand movements, etc.

Next, consider a case where multiple people walk in close contact with each other in the direction of travel. In order for a human to walk at a predetermined speed (relatively slower than normal walking speed), the gap between the head or shoulders of the person walking first and the head or shoulders of the person walking after is at least 20 to 30 mm. Centimeters are maintained. Therefore, the waveform indicating the ON state of the optical sensor (Figure 4)
The system never becomes flat even when two or more people walk closely together, and the CPU can recognize each person's head or shoulders separately.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention solves various problems that the prior art had and produces the following effects.

(+) Since it was possible to eliminate mutual interference between the optical sensors located before and after the traveling direction, the optical sensors in the front row in the traveling direction were always turned on first, eliminating errors in determining the traveling direction. This increased the accuracy of counting.

(2) For the same reason as effect (1) above, even if two or more people walk in close contact with each other in the direction of travel, it is possible to always detect the gap between them, and the accuracy of counting can be improved.

(3) Progress Since we were able to eliminate mutual interference between optical sensors in the horizontal direction, when two or three optical sensors in the same row are activated (turned on) at the same time, one person can receive light from four to six optical sensors in the same row. It became possible to count the cases where two sensors were activated (turned on) at the same time, increasing the accuracy of counting.

(4) Since no mutual interference occurs between the front and rear and left and right optical sensors, installation and adjustment of the optical sensors is facilitated.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 shows the method of installing the optical sensor according to the present invention, Fig. 2 shows the mounting angle of the optical sensor according to the invention, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the control configuration of the invention, and Fig. 4 shows the operation of the optical sensor and its judgment. and FIG. 5 is a diagram explaining a method of counting the number of people passing by using a conventional infrared sensor. Application agent: Isao Saito JI++i, $→ It's like a nine-touch knob that makes you sick to your throat! :, 1
3-tei tra $! 6 shouts 15s 6 lights 7 J putsu, pregnant ina town-AjjlS & Ru-589- Is it a plan to teach i running?

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An optical sensor consisting of a light emitter that emits light of a specific frequency and a light receiver that detects the light of the frequency, which is placed at a certain height from the floor of a passage where people walk, and has different frequencies. Two or more kinds of optical sensors are used, and the optical sensors with the same frequency are installed in two parallel rows at a certain interval in the direction across the aisle so that they are not adjacent to each other in the front and back or left and right, and the detection sensitivity of each optical sensor is determined by the detection sensitivity of the optical sensor. The system is set to detect the head of an adult standing directly below from the shoulder area, and the direction of movement of the passing person is determined based on the detection time of the two parallel rows of optical sensors. Counting method.