Ambient inventorying arrangements
Inventory on a rack of store shelves is monitored by a camera-equipped system that senses when items have been removed. Image data is desirably sensed at plural spectral bands, to enhance item identification by digital watermark and/or other image recognition techniques. The system can be alert to the presence of nearby shoppers, and change its mode of operation in response, e.g., suppressing flash illumination or suspending image capture. The system may self-calibrate to the geometry of shelving in its field of view, and affine-correct captured imagery based on the camera's viewpoint. A great many other features and arrangements are also detailed.
1. A method comprising the acts:
(a) with a flash-equipped camera system, capturing a sequence of flash-illuminated first images depicting one or more instances of a first item stocked on a first store shelf, said first images depicting a front face of one of said first items, but said images not depicting visible barcoding on said front face;
(b) based on analysis of one or more of the captured images, determining a first GTIN identifier for the first item;
(c) sensing presence of a person, and as a consequence, suspending said capturing of the sequence of flash-illuminated images;
(d) after act (c), sensing absence of a person, and resuming said capturing of the sequence of flash-illuminated images, yielding second images; and
(e) based on analysis of one or more of the second images captured in said resumed capturing of flash-illuminated images, determining that one or more of the first items has been removed from the shelf.
2. The method of claim 1 in which the second images include a second image depicting an instance of the first item, and the method includes:
determining an affine parameter of a digital watermark detected from the second image, said digital watermark encoding said first GTIN; and
finding that said determined affine parameter is different than a parameter determined from one of the first images, indicating a movement of a first item on the shelf.
3. The method of claim 2 in which the determined affine parameter is a scale parameter, and the method includes finding that said determined scale parameter is smaller than a scale parameter from one of the first images, indicating that an instance of the first item has been removed from the shelf, revealing another instance of the first item that is more distant from the camera system.
4. The method of claim 1 in which the determining of act (e) includes analyzing one or more of the second images, and failing to decode a watermark encoding said first GTIN therefrom, indicating that a last instance of the first item has been removed from the shelf.
5. The method of claim 1 that includes storing a timestamp associated with the determining act (e) in a log file, for later use in discerning which shopper removed the first item(s).
6. A method comprising the acts:
sensing an apparent geometry of plural shelves as seen from a viewpoint, using an imaging system;
while said imaging system is fixedly-positioned in 3D space, steering a field of view of a camera portion of said system along a path to capture a sequence of images, in accordance with said apparent geometry; and
analyzing the sequence of images to determine information about an item stocked on one of said shelves;
wherein a path steered to capture a sequence of images along one shelf is non-parallel to a path steered to capture a sequence of images along another shelf.
7. The method of claim 6 that includes sensing said apparent geometry using a 3D sensing system distinct from said camera portion.
8. The method of claim 6 that includes sensing said apparent geometry using a 3D sensing system that makes use of said camera portion.
9. The method of claim 6 in which the steering includes steering by a pan-tilt arrangement that redirects a lens of said camera portion.
10. The method of claim 6 in which the steering includes steering by electronically panning through a high resolution image to define an excerpt thereof.
11. The method of claim 6 in which plural images in said sequence are captured without flash, using an exposure interval of 0.1 seconds or more.
12. The method of claim 6 in which plural images in said sequence are captured with flash illumination, and the method includes not capturing flash-illuminated images when a person is detected within a threshold distance of said imaging system.
13. A camera system for imaging a set of shelving in a retail store, the system comprising:
an image sensor;
a 3D sensor;
one or more processors and memories, the one or more memories containing software instructions that configure the system to perform acts including:
processing data from the 3D sensor to determine there is no person present between the camera system and the set of shelving, and to produce a datum indicating no person is present between the camera system and the set of shelving;
capturing imagery with the image sensor at a time that said datum indicates no person is present, said imagery depicting a front face of an item on said shelving but not depicting visible barcoding on said front face; and
based on analysis of said captured imagery, determining a GTIN identifier for said item from said imagery depicting the front face of the item.
14. The system of claim 13 in which the instructions configure the system to identify, using 3D information collected by the 3D sensor, plural shelves of said shelving depicted within the captured imagery, and to parse the captured imagery for analysis using said identified plural shelves, said parsing serving to identify a sub-region in the captured imagery to process, or to ignore.
15. The system of claim 13 that further includes an illumination unit, and the instructions configure the system to activate the illumination unit to illuminate the first set of shelving when capturing said imagery at said time that said datum indicates no person is present.
16. The system of claim 15 in which said acts further include:
sharing information between said camera system, and one or more adjoining camera systems that respectively image adjoining sets of shelving; and
capturing imagery with said image sensor at a time that no person is present between any of said one or more adjoining camera systems and the shelving that is respectively imaged by said one or more adjoining camera systems.
17. The system of claim 13 in which said capturing imagery act comprises capturing imagery with an exposure in excess of 0.25 seconds.
18. The system of claim 13 in which said capturing imagery act comprises capturing imagery with an exposure in excess of 0.5 seconds.
19. The system of claim 13 in which said capturing imagery act comprises capturing imagery with an exposure in excess of one second.
20. The method of claim 1 in which at least certain of the images in said sequence are illuminated by a flash color different than white.