Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and methods for detecting number of people waiting in an elevator hall using plural image processing means with overlapping fields of view

US5298697A · kind A · utility

68Cited by
5References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 21, 1992
Grant dateMar 29, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 21, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
  • CPC primaryB66B1/20
  • WIPO fieldHandling
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus for detecting people waiting for an elevator. A detecting unit detects the number of people waiting on the basis of an image from an image pickup unit and delivers that number to a corresponding second people waiting detecting unit. The apparatus includes a unit which generates a coefficient depending on a percentage of overlap of the field of view of a reference image pickup unit, which is one of several image pickup units, with the field of view of a different image pickup unit on the basis of data on the allocation of an elevator, and calculates the number of waiting people in the overall hall from the respective numbers of waiting people output from the plurality of image pickup units and those coefficients. The coefficient generating unit generates a maximum coefficient for the reference image pickup unit and a smaller coefficient for any remaining image pickup unit based on the of overlap of the field of view of the respective image pickup units. Thus, even if the fields of view of the plurality of image pickup units overlap, an accurate number of people waiting in the elevator hall, and free from an error in detection, is detected.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.