Patent · US Active

Optical flow for object recognition

US7646887B2 · kind B2 · utility

32Cited by
5References
25Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 3, 2006
Grant dateJan 12, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 21, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06V20/68
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for using optical flow to detect objects moving past a camera and to select images of the moving objects. A shopping cart, for example, may be detected by subdividing an image into a plurality of image blocks; comparing the blocks to a preceding image to determine the motion of the portion of the object pictured; associating the most common motion with the shopping cart. The motion of the cart may also be integrated over time for purposes of tracking cart motion and selecting a subset of the captured images for object recognition processing. Detection of the cart and image selection improves computational efficiency an increase merchandise throughput.

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