US 12,111,382 B2 · Methods and systems for improving target detection performance of an indoor radar sensor

Abstract

A computer assisted method for processing output from a mmWave sensor to derive a more reliable count of people in a room, zone or space being monitored by the sensor. In some examples, damping is applied to a varying “people count” signal from the sensor. The damping reduces volatility of the people count and avoids counting anomalous false positive detections. When the people count value decreases, damping may be applied more heavily to disregard intermittent false negatives where the sensor momentarily fails to detect an actual person. In some examples, the mmWave sensor provides point clouds representing the approximate shape and location of detected apparent objects, some of which may be people. Some example methods define digital targets corresponding to the point clouds. The targets are deemed to represent real people if the objects and their corresponding targets have sufficient lifespan and exhibit movement within a predetermined normal range.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for determining a number of people in a space, the method comprising:

monitoring the space using a mmWave sensor, wherein the mmWave sensor detects each of one or more apparent objects in the space each of which has a corresponding detection duration while in the space;
identifying one or more false objects of the one or more apparent objects based at least partially on the corresponding detection duration of the one or more false objects being equal to or less than a predetermined minimum detection duration;
determining a credible object count of one or more credible objects of the apparent objects, the credible object count is representative of a number of the apparent objects in the space that are not identified as one or more of the false objects;
and
determining the number of people in the space based at least partially on the credible object count.

2 more elements

A method for determining a number of people in a space, the method comprising:

monitoring the space using an indoor radar sensor, wherein the indoor radar sensor detects each of one or more apparent objects in the space and each of the one or more apparent objects are tracked while remaining in the space;
determining the space is occupied when at least one of the one or more apparent objects are detected by the indoor radar sensor and are determined to remain in the space for at least a first predetermined duration of time;
determining the space is no longer occupied when no apparent objects are detected by the indoor radar sensor to be in the space for at least a second predetermined duration of time, wherein the first predetermined duration of time is less than the second predetermined duration of time;
and
determining and reporting the number of people in the space.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and systems for improving target detection performance of an indoor radar sensor

Life of this patent

Methods and systems for improving target detection performance of an indoor radar sensor

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20