US6678413B1 — System and method for object identification and b…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 132 words

A system comprising: a computer configured to determine a position and shape of an object of interest from video images and to characterize activity of said object of interest based on analysis of changes in said position and said shape over time; wherein said computer includes an object identification and segregation module receiving said video images; and wherein said object identification and segregation module operates using a background subtraction algorithm in which a plurality of said video images are grouped into a set, a standard deviation map of the set of video images is created, a bounding box where a variation is greater than a predetermined threshold is remove from said set of video images, and the set of images less said bounding boxes is averaged to produce a back ground image.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 132 words

A system comprising: a computer configured to determine a position and shape of an object of interest from video images and to characterize activity of said object of interest based on analysis of changes in said position and said shape over time; wherein said computer includes an object identification and segregation module receiving said video images; and wherein said object identification and segregation module operates using a background subtraction algorithm in which a plurality of said video images are grouped into a set, a standard deviation map of the set of video images is created, a bounding box where a variation is greater than a predetermined threshold is remove from said set of video images, and the set of images less said bounding boxes is averaged to produce a back ground image.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 20 words

The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a video camera coupled to said computer for providing said video images.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 35 words

The system of claim 2 , further comprising: a video digitization unit couple to said video camera and said computer for converting said video images provided by said video camera from analog to digital format.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 32 words

The system of claim 3 , further comprising: a storage/retrieval unit coupled to said video digitization unit, said video camera, and said computer, for storing video images and standard object video images.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 34 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said computer further includes a behavior identification module for characterizing activity of said object, said behavior identification module being coupled to said object identification and segregation module.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 59 words

The system of claim 5 , wherein said computer further includes an object tracking module for tracking said object from one frame of said video images to another frame, and an object shape and location change classifier for classifying the activity of said object, coupled to each other, said object identification and segregation module, and said behavior identification module.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 61 words

The system of claim 6 , wherein said computer further includes a standard object behavior storage module that stores information about known behavior of a predetermined standard object for comparing the activity of said object, said standard object behavior storage module being coupled to said behavior identification module, and a standard object classifier module coupled to said standard object behavior module.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 48 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said computer further includes a standard object behavior storage module that stores information about known behavior of a predetermined standard object for comparing the activity of said object, said standard object behavior storage module being coupled to said behavior identification module.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 13 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said object is a living object.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 12 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said object is an animal.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 12 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said object is a mouse.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 12 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said object is a human.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 14 words

The system of claim 1 , wherein said object is a man made machine.

Claim 15

Independent Claim 165 words

A method of characterizing activity of an object using a computer comprising: detecting a foreground object of interest in video images; tracking said foreground object over a plurality of said video images; classifying said foreground object in said plurality of video images; and characterizing said activity of said foreground object based on comparison of said classifications to activity of a standard object; wherein said characterizing said activity includes: describing a sequence of postures as behavior primitives; and aggregating behavior primitives into actual behavior over a range of images; wherein said describing said behavior primitives further includes: identifying patterns of postures over a sequence of images; and analyzing temporal information selected from the group consisting of direction and magnitude of movement of the centroid, increase and decrease of the eccentricity, increase and decrease of the area, increase and decrease of the aspect ratio of the bounding box, change in the b-spline representation points, change in the convex hull points, and direction and magnitude of corner points.

Claim 16

Independent Claim 165 words

A method of characterizing activity of an object using a computer comprising: detecting a foreground object of interest in video images; tracking said foreground object over a plurality of said video images; classifying said foreground object in said plurality of video images; and characterizing said activity of said foreground object based on comparison of said classifications to activity of a standard object; wherein said characterizing said activity includes: describing a sequence of postures as behavior primitives; and aggregating behavior primitives into actual behavior over a range of images; wherein said describing said behavior primitives further includes: identifying patterns of postures over a sequence of images; and analyzing temporal information selected from the group consisting of direction and magnitude of movement of the centroid, increase and decrease of the eccentricity, increase and decrease of the area, increase and decrease of the aspect ratio of the bounding box, change in the b-spline representation points, change in the convex hull points, and direction and magnitude of corner points.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 14 , wherein said foreground object detection includes the step of generating a background image from an average of a set of individual frames of said video images.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 15 , wherein said step of generating a background image includes the step of determining variation in intensity of pixels within said individual frames to identify a region where said foreground object is located.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 16 , wherein said step of generating a background image further includes the step of using non-variant pixels of the video images to generate said background image.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 34 words

The method of claim 17 , wherein said step of generating a background image is performed periodically to correct for changes in background objects and small movements of a camera capturing said video images.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 80 words

The method of claim 14 , wherein said detecting a foreground object includes using a background subtraction method comprising the steps of: multiply frames in a neighborhood of current image; apply a lenient threshold on a difference between a current image and a background so as to determine a broad region of interest; classify by intensity various pixels in said region of interest to obtain said foreground object; and apply edge information to refine contours of said foreground object image.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 27 words

The method of claim 14 , wherein said step of detecting said foreground includes the step of manual identification of foreground objects to be tracked and characterized.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 14 , wherein said posture determination and description includes using statistical and contour-based shape information.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 73 words

The method of claim 21 , wherein said step of identifying and classifying changes to said foreground object includes using statistical shape information selected from the group consisting of: area of the foreground object; centroid of the foreground object; bounding box and its aspect ratio of the foreground object; eccentricity of the foreground object; and a directional orientation of the foreground object relative to an axis as generated with a Principal Component Analysis.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 21 , wherein said step of identifying and classifying changes to said foreground object uses contour-based shape information selected from the group consisting of b-spline representation, convex hull representation, and comer points.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 44 words

The method of claim 21 , wherein said step of identifying and classifying changes to said foreground object includes identifying a set of model postures and their description information, said set of model postures including horizontal posture, vertical posture, eating posture, or sleeping posture.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 42 words

The method of claim 24 , wherein said step of identifying and classifying changes to said foreground object includes classifying changes to said foreground object includes classifying the statistical and contour-based shape information from a current image to assign a best-matched posture.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 45 words

The method of claim 25 , wherein the said step of determining actual behavior by aggregating behavior primitives includes the step of analyzing temporal ordering of the primitives, such as using information about a transition from a previous behavior primitive to a next behavior primitive.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method of claim 26 , wherein said temporal analysis is a time-series analysis such as Hidden Markov Model (HMMs).

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 26 , wherein the said step of determining actual behavior includes identifying actual behavior selected from a group consisting of sleeping, eating, roaming around, grooming, and climbing.

Claim 31

Independent Claim 81 words

A method for background subtraction of a video image, comprising the steps of: grouping a number of images into a set of video images; creating a standard deviation map of the grouped images; removing a bounding box area of said image where variation is above a predetermined threshold to create a/partial image; and combining said partial image with,an existing set of partial images by averaging the set of images to generate a complete background image deplete of a desired foreground object.

Claim 32

Independent Claim 81 words

A method for background subtraction of a video image, comprising the steps of: grouping a number of images into a set of video images; creating a standard deviation map of the grouped images; removing a bounding box area of said image where variation is above a predetermined threshold to create a/partial image; and combining said partial image with,an existing set of partial images by averaging the set of images to generate a complete background image deplete of a desired foreground object.

Claim 33

Dependent Claim 28 words

The method of claim 29 , further comprising the step of subtracting said complete background image from a current image so a to obtain said desired foreground object.

Claim 34

Dependent Claim 18 words

The method of claim 29 , wherein said steps are repeated periodically to update said complete background package.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2007-01-12	2007-07-14	2008-01-13	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2011-01-12	2011-07-14	2012-01-13	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2015-01-12	2015-07-14	2016-01-13	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

System and method for object identification and behavior characterization using video analysis

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