Granted Patent B2

US 8,744,132 · App. 13/461,266 · Granted Jun 3, 2014

Abstract

Claims (79)

1. A method for determining a parking boundary violation, the method comprising:

receiving video data from a sequence of frames taken from an associated image capture device monitoring a parking area including at least a single parking space;

determining a boundary defining at least one parking space in the parking area;

detecting a presence of a vehicle in the parking area;

determining an area that the detected vehicle reaches beyond the boundary of the at least one parking space;

comparing the area to a predetermined threshold; and,

in response to the area meeting or exceeding the predetermined threshold, indicating that the detected vehicle is in violation of the parking regulation.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

classifying the detected vehicle as one of satisfying and not satisfying an exception to the parking regulation.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the classifying includes:

determining an attribute of the detected vehicle;

comparing the attribute to a predetermined threshold;

in response to the attribute meeting and exceeding the threshold, classifying the detected vehicle as satisfying the exception; and,

in response to the attribute not meeting and exceeding the threshold, classifying the detected vehicle as not satisfying the exception.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the classifying includes:

extracting at least one feature describing the detected vehicle;

inputting the at least one feature into a classifier previously trained using labeled sample features;

in response to the at least one feature matching the sample labeled features, classifying the detected vehicle based on the label.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the detected vehicle is violating the parking regulation includes:

in response to the area not meeting or exceeding the predetermined threshold, proceeding to process a subsequent frame in the sequence.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting the vehicle includes:

determining whether a current frame is an initial frame of the sequence;

in response to the current frame being the initial frame, initializing a background image; and

in response to the current frame not being the initial frame, updating a background in the current frame by applying a predetermined updating factor p in an algorithm used to determine the background, wherein the updating factor p varies for each pixel in the current frame and depends on a classification of the pixel as belonging to one of a foreground image and a background construct.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the algorithm includes a function

B t+1 =p*F t+1 +(1 −p )* B t ,

wherein B t is the background at time t, F t+1 is a frame at time t+1, and p is the updating factor for the pixel, wherein the updating factor is selected from a group consisting:

a “0” value if a vehicle is detected at the pixel location;

a “1” value if another object is detected at a pixel location previously occupied by a vehicle; and,

a value 0≦p≦1 for all other pixels.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

computing an absolute difference in an intensity between pixels located in a current frame and pixels at corresponding locations in one of a background image initialized in an initial frame and a background of a preceding frame;

determining if the difference meets or exceeds a threshold; and,

classifying the pixels in the select frame based on the difference and the threshold.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the classifying the pixels includes:

in response to the threshold not being met or exceeded, classifying a pixel as belonging to the background construct;

in response to a threshold being met or exceeded, classifying the pixel as belonging to the foreground image.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

providing an image using the classified pixels, the providing including:

assigning different values to the pixels corresponding to locations classified as belonging to background, and foreground; and,

processing the image for determining whether the detected vehicle is violating the parking regulation.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to determining that the detected vehicle is violating the parking regulation, providing notice of the violation to a user device.

12. A computer program product comprising tangible media which encodes instructions for performing the method of claim 1 .

13. A system for determining parking availability comprising:

a parking boundary determination device comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of claim 1 and a processor, in communication with the memory for executing the instructions.

14. A system for determining a parking boundary violation, the system comprising:

a parking boundary violation determination device, the determination device including:

a video buffer module adapted for receiving video data from a sequence of frames taken from an associated image capture device monitoring a parking area including at least a single parking space;

a boundary violation detection module adapted for determining a boundary defining at least one parking space in the parking area;

a stationary vehicle detection module adapted for detecting a presence of a vehicle in the parking area;

a boundary violation detection module adapted to:

determine an area that the detected vehicle reaches beyond the boundary of the at least one parking space,

compare the area to a predetermined threshold, and

in response to the area meeting or exceeding the predetermined threshold, indicate that the detected vehicle is in violation of the parking regulation; and,

a processor adapted to implement the modules.

15. The system according to claim 14 further comprising a vehicle classification module adapted for classifying the detected vehicle as one of satisfying and not satisfying an exception to the parking regulation.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the vehicle classification module is adapted to:

determine an attribute of the detected vehicle;

compare the attribute to a predetermined threshold;

in response to the attribute meeting and exceeding the threshold, classify the detected vehicle as satisfying the exception; and,

in response to the attribute not meeting and exceeding the threshold, classify the detected vehicle as not satisfying the exception.

17. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the vehicle classification module is adapted to:

extract at least one feature describing the detected vehicle;

input the at least one feature into a classifier previously trained using sample

labeled features;

in response to the at least one feature matching the sample labeled features, classify the detected vehicle based on the label.

18. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the boundary violation detection module is adapted to:

in response to the area not meeting or exceeding the predetermined threshold, proceed to process a subsequent frame in the sequence.

19. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the stationary vehicle detection module is adapted to:

determine whether a current frame is an initial frame of the sequence;

in response to the current frame being the initial frame, initialize a background image; and

in response to the current frame not being the initial frame, update a background in the current frame by applying a predetermined updating factor p in an algorithm used to determine the background, wherein the updating factor p varies for each pixel in the current frame and depends on a classification of the pixel as belonging to one of a foreground image and a background construct.

20. The system according to claim 19 , wherein the algorithm includes a function,

B t+1 =p*F t+1 +(1 −p )* B t ,

wherein B t is the background at time t, F t+1 is a frame at time t+1, and p is the updating factor for the pixel, wherein the updating factor is selected from a group consisting:

a “0” value if a vehicle is detected at the pixel location;

a “1” value if another object is detected at a pixel location previously occupied by a vehicle; and,

a value 0≦p≦1 for all other pixels.

Assignments (8)