US 2010/0134611 A1 · ARTICLE ESTIMATING APPARATUS AND ARTICLE POSITION ESTIMATING APPARATUS, ARTICLE ESTIMATING METHOD AS WELL AS ARTICLE ESTIMATING PROGRAM

Abstract

The apparatus is provided with a holding-state registering database in which an article and a holding state at the time of transporting the article are registered in association with each other, holding-state determination processing device that determines, when a person is transporting an object article, how the object article is held, and first article candidate extraction device that extracts, among articles registered in the holding-state registering database, an article whose holding state, determined by the holding-state determination processing device, is registered therein, as a candidate article.

Claims14

Dependent claims

An article estimating apparatus comprising:

an article sensing unit that detects information of positions of a plurality of articles located in environmental space;
a hand sensing unit that detects information of a position of a hand of a person that exists in the environmental space;
a holding-state determination processing unit that determines a positional relationship between the information of the position of the article and the information of the position of the hand, respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit, as a holding state of the article by the hand;
and
an article estimating unit that estimates an article whose ID corresponds to the information of the holding state determined by the holding-state determination processing unit as the article held by the person, based upon a holding-state registering database in which the holding state of each article by the person is registered as a positional relationship between the article and the hand of the person, for each ID of the article.

2 more elements

An article estimating apparatus comprising:

an article sensing unit that detects ID information of a plurality of articles located in environmental space and information of positions of the articles so as to register the detected information in an article detection history database;
a hand sensing unit that detects ID information of a person existing in the environmental space and information of a position of a hand of the person so as to register the detected information in a hand detection history database;
a holding-state determination processing unit that determines a holding state of the article by the hand based upon a positional relationship between the positional information of the article and the positional information of the hand, respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit and registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database, so as to register information of the determined holding state in a holding-state determination result history database for each of IDs of the articles;
a first candidate article extraction unit that extracts an ID of an article corresponding to the information of the holding state acquired by the holding-state determination processing unit, from a holding-state registering database in which the holding state of the article by the person is registered as a positional relationship between the article and the hand of the person for each of IDs of the articles, as a first candidate article;
and
an article estimating unit that estimates the first candidate article extracted by the first article candidate extraction unit as an article that is being carried by the person.

3 more elements

An article estimating apparatus comprising:

an article sensing unit that detects ID information of a plurality of articles located in environmental space and information of positions of the articles so as to register the detected information in an article detection history database in association with information of time at which the information is detected;
a hand sensing unit that detects ID information of a person existing in the environmental space and information of a position of a hand of the person so as to register the detected information in a hand detection history database in association with information of time at which the information is detected;
a holding-state determination processing unit that determines the holding state of the article by the hand, or whether or not no article is held by the hand, based upon a positional relationship between the positional information of the article and the positional information of the hand, respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit, and registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database, so as to register information of the determination result in a holding-state determination result history database in association with information of time at which the respective pieces of information are registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database in association with the pieces of information respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit;
a first article candidate extraction unit that extracts an ID of the article corresponding to the information of the holding state acquired by the holding-state determination processing unit from a holding-state registering database in which the holding state of the article by the person is registered as a positional relationship between the article and the hand of the person for each of IDs of the articles, as a first candidate article;
a scene determination unit that refers to the holding-state determination result history database to acquire information of time section which includes a point of time at which the holding state of the article is determined;
a second article candidate extraction unit that refers to the hand detection history database to acquire the position of the hand in the time information immediately before the time section acquired by the scene determination unit, and that also refers to the article detection history database based upon the acquired information of the position of the hand and the time information immediately before the time section, so as to extract a second candidate article that is present at an original position where the article is placed prior to the taking-up and transporting states of the article with the hand by the person;
and
an article estimating unit that estimates an article that is in common with the first candidate articles extracted by the first article candidate extraction unit and the second candidate articles extracted by the second article candidate extraction unit, as an article being carried by the person.

5 more elements

An article estimating method comprising:

detecting ID information of a plurality of articles located in environmental space and information of positions of the articles by using an article sensing unit so as to register the detected information in an article detection history database in association with information of time at which the information is detected;
detecting ID information of a person existing in the environmental space and information of the position of a hand of the person by using a hand sensing unit so as to register the detected information in a hand detection history database in association with information of time at which the detected information is detected;
determining the holding state of the article by the hand, or whether or not no article is held by the hand, based upon a positional relationship between the positional information of the article and the positional information of the hand, respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit, and registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database, by using a holding-state determination processing unit, so as to register information of determination result in a holding-state determination result history database in association with information of time at which the respective pieces of information are registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database in association with the pieces of information respectively detected by the article sensing unit and the hand sensing unit;
extracting an ID of the article corresponding to the information of the holding state acquired by the holding-state determination processing unit from the holding-state registering database in which the holding state of the article by the person is registered as a positional relationship between the article and the hand of the person for each of IDs of articles by using a first article candidate extraction unit, as a first candidate article;
referring to the holding-state determination result history database by using a scene determination unit to acquire information of time section which includes a point of time at which the holding state of the article is determined;
referring to the hand detection history database by using a second article candidate extraction unit to acquire a position of the hand in time information immediately before the time section acquired by the scene determination unit, and also referring to the article detection history database based upon the acquired information of the position of the hand and the time information immediately before the time section, so as to extract a second candidate article that is present at an original position where the article is placed prior to the transporting of the article by the person;
and
estimating an article that is in common with the first candidate articles extracted by the first article candidate extraction unit and the second candidate articles extracted by the second article candidate extraction unit as an article being carried by the person, by using an article estimating unit.

5 more elements

An article estimating program, which allows a computer to function as:

a holding-state determination processing means for, based upon a positional relationship between positional information of an article and positional information of a hand respectively registered in an article detection history database in which ID information of each of a plurality of articles located in environmental space, detected by an article sensing means, and information of positions of the articles are registered in association with information of time at which the information is detected, and a hand detection history database in which ID information of each of persons existing in the environmental space and positional information of the hand of each person, detected by a hand sensing means, are registered in association with information of time at which the information is detected, determining the holding state of the article by the hand, or whether or not no article is held by the hand, and registering information of determination result in a holding state determination result history database in association with information of time at which the respective pieces of information are registered in the article detection history database and the hand detection history database in association with the pieces of information respectively detected by the article sensing means and the hand sensing means;
a first article candidate extraction means for extracting an ID of the article corresponding to the information of the holding state acquired by the holding-state determination processing means from the holding-state registering database in which the holding state of the article by the person is registered as a positional relationship between the article and the hand of the person for each of IDs of articles, as a first candidate article;
a scene determination means for referring to the holding-state determination result history database to acquire information of time section which includes a point of time at which the holding state of the article is determined;
a second article candidate extraction means for referring to the hand detection history database to acquire a position of the hand in time information immediately before the time section acquired by the scene determination means, and for also referring to the article detection history database based upon the acquired information of the position of the hand and the time information immediately before the time section, so as to extract a second candidate article that is present at an original position where the article is placed prior to the transporting of the article by the person;
and
an article estimating means for estimating an article that is in common with the first candidate articles extracted by the first article candidate extraction means and the second candidate articles extracted by the second article candidate extraction means as an article being carried by the person.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Article estimating apparatus and article position estimating apparatus, article estimating method as well as article estimating program

Life of this patent

Article estimating apparatus and article position estimating apparatus, article estimating method as well as article estimating program

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14