Vehicle occupancy detection using time-of-flight sensor
View Patent ↗Vehicle occupancy detection involves projecting modulated light onto an occupant from a light source outside of a vehicle. Reflections of the light source are received at a detector located outside of the vehicle. Three-dimensional data is determined based on a time-of-flight of the reflections, and the occupant is detected based on the three-dimensional data.
1. A method comprising:
projecting modulated light onto an occupant from a plurality of light sources outside of a vehicle;
receiving reflections of the light sources at a plurality of detectors having different views and located outside of the vehicle, the vehicle moving relative to the light sources and the detectors;
determining three-dimensional data based on a time-of-flight of the reflections; and
detecting the occupant using the three-dimensional data comprising combining the outputs of the plurality of detectors to correlate occupant detection data.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the light sources and the detectors are part of an apparatus of a traffic monitoring system.
6. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of light sources configured to project modulated light onto an occupant from outside of a vehicle that is moving relative to the light sources;
a plurality of detectors configured to receive reflections of the light, the detectors fixed relative to the light sources and having different views;
a processor coupled to the light sources and the detectors, the processor configured to:
determine time-of-flight of the reflections;
determine three-dimensional data of an interior of the vehicle based on the time-of-flight of the reflections; and
detect the occupant using the three-dimensional data; and
a correlator configured to combine the outputs of the plurality of detectors.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.
8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.
9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.
10. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising an imaging device configured to set one or more parameters of the light sources.
11. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the apparatus is part of a traffic monitoring system.
12. A system comprising:
time-of-flight sensors configured to detect objects in an interior of a vehicle from outside of the vehicle that is moving relative to the time-of-flight sensors, the time of flight sensors projecting modulated light onto the vehicle and determining time-of-flight data based on reflections of the light detected by a plurality of detectors having different views; and
a computing arrangement coupled to the time-of-flight sensors, the computing arrangement having a processor configured to:
receive the time-of-flight data from the time-of-flight sensors;
correlate the different views of time-of-flight data;
detect an occupant of the vehicle using the correlated time-of-flight data; and
signal the detection of the occupant to an end-user application.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing a face of the occupant.
14. The system of claim 12 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises recognizing an outline of the occupant.
15. The system of claim 12 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises determining a count of occupants in the vehicle.
16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the user application comprises a traffic monitoring system.
17. The system of claim 12 , where the data received from the time-of-flight sensors comprises a sequence of frames each having three-dimensional data.
18. The system of claim 17 , wherein detecting the occupant comprises combining two or more of the frames to form an improved three-dimensional model based on the three-dimensional data.
19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a location of a window of the vehicle using an intensity imaging device.