Video tracking based method for automatic sequencing of vehicles in drive-thru applications

1. A method for updating an event sequence, the method including:

acquiring video data of a queue area from at least one image source;

receiving a number of individual event requests from multiple subjects, each event request being received when a subject is located in one of multiple queues in the queue area;

searching one of frames and at least one region of interest (ROI) in the frames of the video data for a subject located near at least one defined start points, each corresponding to one of the multiple queues in the video data;

tracking a movement of each detected subject through the queue area over a subsequent series of frames;

using the tracking, determining if a location of a tracked subject reaches a predefined merge point on the image plane where the multiple queues in the queue area converge into a single queue lane;

in response to the tracked subject reaching the predefined merge point, computing an observed sequence of where the tracked subject places relative to other subjects already past the merge point and approaching an end-event point in the single queue lane;

updating a sequence of the events to match the observed sequence of subjects in the single queue lane; and

wherein the queue area includes a fast-food drive-thru, the event-requests include orders, and the end-events include one of goods and services.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

searching the one of the frames and ROI for an object-in-motion;

in response to detecting an object-in-motion, associating the detected object-in-motion as a candidate subject.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

classifying each candidate subject as belonging to one of a new subject and a currently tracked subject;

in response to the candidate subject being a new subject, assigning a tracker to the new subject; and,

in response to the candidate subject being a currently tracked subject, discarding the candidate subject.

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

extracting a feature descriptor from each detected candidate subject;

comparing the extracted feature descriptor to one of a threshold and corresponding descriptors of current trackers; and

based on the comparing, classifying the each detected candidate subject as belonging to one of a new subject and a currently tracked subject.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising defining the ROI in the queue area.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking the movement of the each detected subject through the queue area includes:

performing a motion consistency test to remove occlusions.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the searching the one of the frames and ROI is performed using one of foreground detection via background subtraction and motion detection.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to receiving an individual event request, associating an identifier to the subject detected nearest the defined start point at a time the individual event request is received; and,

updating the sequence of events using the identifier.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining if the location of the tracked subject reaches the predefined merge point includes:

computing a statistic of tracked feature locations of the subject; and,

comparing the statistic to a location of a merge point region;

wherein the statistic is selected from a group consisting of: a single point identifying a position of the tracked subject, a centroid of the tracked feature locations, a median center location of the tracked feature locations, a first point, a predetermined percentage of feature points, a last point, and a degree of overlap.

10. A system for updating an event sequence, the system comprising an automatic sequencing device including a memory and a processor in communication with the processor configured to:

acquire video data of a queue area from at least one image source;

receive a number of individual event requests from multiple subjects, each event request being received when a subject is located in one of multiple queues in the queue area;

search one of frames and at least one region of interest (ROI) in the frames of the video data for a subject located near one defined start point, each corresponding to one of the multiple queues in the video data;

track a movement of each detected subject through the queue area over a subsequent series of frames;

use the tracking, determine if a location of a tracked subject reaches a predefined merge point on the image plane where the multiple queues in the queue area converge into single queue lane;

in response to the tracked subject reaching the predefined merge point, compute an observed sequence of where the tracked subject places relative to other subjects already past the merge point and approaching an end-event point in the single queue lane;

update a sequence of the events to match the observed sequence of subjects in the single queue lane; and,

wherein the queue area includes a fast-food drive-thru, the event-requests include orders, and the end-events include one of goods and services.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

search the one of the frames and ROI for an object-in-motion;

in response to detecting an object-in-motion, associate the detected object-in-motion as a candidate subject.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

classify each candidate subject as belonging to one of a new subject and a currently tracked subject;

in response to the candidate subject being a new subject, assign a tracker to the new subject; and,

in response to the candidate subject being a currently tracked subject, discard the candidate subject.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

extract a feature descriptor from each detected candidate subject;

compare the extracted feature descriptor to one of a threshold and corresponding descriptors of current trackers; and

based on the comparing, classify the each detected candidate subject as belonging to one of a new subject and a currently tracked subject.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

define the ROI in the queue area.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

performing a motion consistency test on the tracking locations to remove occlusions.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform one of foreground detection via background subtraction and motion detection to search the one of the frames and ROI.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

in response to receiving an individual event request, associate an identifier to the subject detected nearest the defined start point at a time the individual event request is received; and,

update the sequence of events using the identifier.

18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

compute a statistic of tracked feature locations of the subject;

compare the statistic to a location of a merge point region; and,

determine if a location of the tracked subject reaches the predefined merge point based on the comparison;

wherein the statistic is selected from a group consisting of: a single point identifying a position of the tracked subject, a centroid of the tracked feature locations, a median center location of the tracked feature locations, a first point, a predetermined percentage of feature points, a last point, and a degree of overlap.