Method for monitoring occupancy in a work area
AssigneeVergeSense, Inc.
InventorsDan Ryan, Kelby Green
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
One variation of a method for monitoring occupancy in a work area includes, at a sensor block: transitioning from an inactive state into an active state when an output of a motion sensor indicates motion in a work area; during a scan cycle in the active state, recording an image through an optical sensor at a time, detecting a set of humans in the image, detecting a second set of human effects in the image, predicting a second set of humans occupying but absent the work area based on the second set of human effects, and estimating a total occupancy in the work area at the time based on the set of humans and the second set of humans; and transmitting the total occupancy to a remote computer system for update of a scheduler for the work area.
Claims20
A method for monitoring occupancy in a work area comprising:
- accessing a first image recorded by a sensor block at a first time;
- detecting a first distribution of objects and a work surface in the first image;
- detecting a quantity of humans and a cluster of objects within a distance threshold of the work surface in the first image;
- in response to the quantity of humans falling below a human quantity threshold and in response to detecting the cluster of objects within the distance threshold of the work surface, updating an occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as occupied with humans absent;
- accessing a second image recorded by the sensor block at a second time;
- detecting a second distribution of objects, absence of humans, absence of clusters of objects, and the work surface present in the work area in the second image;
- calculating an object entropy in the work area based on a first difference between the first distribution of objects and the second distribution of objects;
- and
- in response to detecting absence of humans and detecting absence of clusters of objects and in response to the object entropy exceeding an entropy threshold, updating the occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as vacant.
A method for monitoring occupancy in a work area comprising:
- accessing a first image recorded by a sensor block at a first time, the sensor block facing the work area;
- detecting a first distribution of objects in the first image;
- extracting a first set of features from the first image;
- based on the first set of features:
- detecting a work surface present in the work area;
- and
- detecting absence of humans and a cluster of objects within a distance threshold of the work surface;
- in response to detecting absence of humans and in response to detecting the cluster of objects within the distance threshold of the work surface, updating an occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as occupied with humans absent;
- accessing a second image recorded by the sensor block at a second time;
- detecting a second distribution of objects in the second image;
- extracting a second set of features from the second image:
- detecting the work surface present in the work area;
- and
- detecting absence of humans and absence of the cluster of objects within the threshold distance of the work surface;
- calculating an object entropy in the work area based on a difference between the first distribution of objects and the second distribution of objects;
- and
- in response to detecting absence of humans and absence of the cluster of objects within the threshold distance of the work surface and in response to the object entropy exceeding an entropy threshold:
- updating the occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as vacant;
- and
- generating a notification to alert maintenance staff to clean the work area.
A method for monitoring occupancy in a work area comprising:
- at a first time:
- accessing a first image recorded by a sensor block facing the work area;
- detecting a work surface present in the work area in the first image;
- detecting a first quantity of humans within a distance threshold of the work surface in the first image;
- and
- in response to the quantity of humans exceeding a human quantity threshold, updating an occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as occupied with humans present;
- and
- at a second time:
- accessing a second image recorded by the sensor block;
- detecting the work surface present in the work area in the second image;
- detecting a second quantity of humans within the distance threshold of the work surface in the second image;
- detecting a first cluster of objects within the distance threshold of the work surface in the second image;
- and
- in response to the second quantity of humans falling below the human quantity threshold and in response to detecting the first cluster of objects within the distance threshold of the work surface, updating the occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as occupied with humans absent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.