Bus getting on / off count system and method

Abstract

To provide a bus getting on / off count system capable of relatively easily counting the number of times of getting on / off.SOLUTION: A bus getting on / off count system 8 for counting the number of times of getting on / off of a bus 5 includes a driver recorder system 4 provided in the bus, and a getting on / off count device 1 for acquiring moving image data captured by the driver recorder system, and the getting on / off count device detects a movement trajectory PTL of a user 6 who gets on / off the bus from the moving image data acquired by the drive recorder system of the bus, detects the position of an entrance door of the bus from the movement trajectory, and detects the number of users who get on / off the bus on the basis of movement states of users who pass through a plurality of prescribed areas set in the detected entrance door.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a bus boarding and alighting counting system and method. [Background technology]

[0002] A technology for automatically counting passengers getting on and off a bus is known (Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 5674857 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The invention described in Patent Document 1 requires the installation of a dedicated camera on a bus, and initial settings (tuning) must be made in advance for each bus. This is because bus boarding and alighting situations vary widely depending on the camera installation position and angle, the shape of the bus body, the amount of light entering the bus while in operation, the type of passengers getting on and off, etc. Therefore, with the technology described in Patent Document 1, it is difficult to detect boarding and alighting on various buses in different situations, and this requires a lot of work and cost.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a bus boarding and alighting counting system and method that can relatively easily count the number of passengers getting on and off a bus. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, according to one aspect of the present invention, a bus boarding and alighting counting system for counting the number of passengers getting on and off a bus includes a drive recorder system installed on a bus, and a boarding and alighting counting device that acquires video data captured by the drive recorder system, and the boarding and alighting counting device detects the movement trajectories of passengers getting on and off the bus from the video data acquired by the bus drive recorder system, detects the position of the bus boarding and alighting entrance from the movement trajectory, and detects the number of passengers getting on and off the bus based on the movement status of the passengers passing through multiple specified areas set at the detected boarding and alighting entrance. Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present invention, the positions of bus boarding and alighting gates are detected from the movement trajectory of passengers, so that the number of passengers boarding and alighting from buses in various different conditions can be counted. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an overall view of a bus boarding and alighting counting system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the arrangement of cameras and microphones inside a bus. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the bus boarding and alighting counting system. [Figure 4] 4 is an example of data stored in a storage medium that is detachably provided in the drive recorder system. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of data flow. [Figure 6] 4 is a flowchart showing the overall processing of the boarding and alighting counting device. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart showing a process for detecting an area of ​​a boarding / alighting gate. [Figure 8] 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a movement trajectory of the center of gravity coordinates of a rectangle representing a user; [Figure 9] 13 is an explanatory diagram showing how a polynomial approximation curve is calculated from the movement trajectory of the center of gravity coordinates and a left disembarking area and a right disembarking area are set. FIG. [Figure 10]13 is a flowchart showing a process for counting the number of passengers getting on and off. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing how passengers are counted. [Figure 12] 13 is a flowchart showing a process for detecting an area of ​​a boarding / alighting gate in a second embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is an overall view of a bus boarding / alighting counting system according to a third embodiment. [Figure 14] FIG. 11 is an overall view of a bus boarding / alighting counting system according to a fourth embodiment. [Figure 15] 4 is a flowchart showing the overall processing of the bus boarding and alighting counting system. [Figure 16] FIG. 13 is an overall view of a bus boarding and alighting counting system according to a fifth embodiment. [Figure 17] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a state in which three or more areas are set to identify boarding and alighting gates in the sixth embodiment. [Figure 18] FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram illustrating how a movement trajectory of a user's center of gravity coordinates is obtained from an image captured by a camera outside a bus according to a seventh embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the bus boarding / alighting counting system according to the present embodiment, the position of the boarding / alighting gate of the bus is detected based on video data acquired from a drive recorder system mounted on the bus, and the number of people boarding and alighting from the bus is calculated from the movement trajectory of the center of gravity of the passengers heading to the detected boarding / alighting gate.

[0010] According to the bus boarding and alighting count system of this embodiment, it is possible to identify the boarding and alighting entrances and count the number of people getting on and off the bus while eliminating the influence of individual differences in buses such as the camera mounting angle, mounting position, imaging settings (field of view, aperture value), body shape, body structure, etc. Hereinafter, the center of gravity may be referred to as the center of gravity coordinate. EXAMPLES

[0011] A first embodiment will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 11. Fig. 1 is an overall view of a bus boarding / alighting counting system 8. The bus boarding / alighting counting system 8 includes, for example, a boarding / alighting counting device 1, a business office terminal 2, a storage medium 3, and a drive recorder system 4, each of which will be described later. A bus 5 as a target vehicle temporarily stops at a bus stop 7 appropriately installed for each route where there are users (hereinafter also referred to as passengers or passengers) who wish to board or alight, and allows the users to board and alight. The bus stops 7 usually have signs, but even if there are no clear signs, they can be treated as bus stops by the bus boarding / alighting counting system 8 as long as the bus 5 stops at a roughly fixed position to allow users to board and alight.

[0012] The boarding and alighting counting device 1 is a device that counts the number of people getting on and off the bus 5. The boarding and alighting counting device 1 may be a server computer installed in a facility managed by a bus operator, such as a business office, or may be a server computer installed in a so-called cloud. As in an embodiment described later, the function of the boarding and alighting counting device 1 may be provided in a business office terminal 2 or a drive recorder system 4.

[0013] The boarding / alighting counting device 1 includes, for example, a data acquisition unit 11, a storage unit 12, an analysis unit 13, and a user interface unit 14. In the figure, the user interface unit 14 is abbreviated as "UI unit 14". The boarding / alighting counting device 1 estimates (detects) the boarding / alighting entrance from the drive recorder data D1 received via the storage medium 3, sets a plurality of areas WL, WR at the estimated boarding / alighting entrance, counts the number of people getting on and off the bus 5, and outputs the count result data D2. Details of the boarding / alighting counting device 1 will be described later with reference to FIG. 3. Hereinafter, the data D1 from the drive recorder may be abbreviated as drive recorder data D1.

[0014] The office terminal 2 is, for example, a personal computer owned by the bus operator, and includes, for example, a data acquisition unit 21 and a data transmission unit 22. The office terminal 2 receives the drive recorder data D1 via the storage medium 3, and transmits the drive recorder data D1 to the boarding / alighting counting device 1. The office terminal 2 may transmit all of the drive recorder data D1 as is to the boarding / alighting counting device 1, or may transmit only a portion of the drive recorder data D1, or may transmit data generated from the drive recorder data D1 (for example, center of gravity coordinate data D2, which will be described later in FIG. 16).

[0015] The drive recorder system 4 has at least one camera 41 installed on the bus 5, and stores video data captured by the camera 41 and audio data recorded by a microphone 43 (see FIG. 3) in a control device 42 (see FIG. 3). Hereinafter, the microphone 43 will be abbreviated to microphone 43. The drive recorder system 41 may include not only the camera 41 and the microphone 43, but also a GPS (Global Positioning System), a distance meter, a speedometer, an accelerometer, and the like.

[0016] 2 shows an example of the arrangement of cameras 41 and the like in a bus 5. A driver's seat 52 and multiple passenger seats 53 are arranged in the bus 5. Furthermore, multiple cameras 41(1)-41(4) are provided in the bus 5, and a fare box 44 is also installed. The two-dot chain line in the figure indicates a movement trajectory 55 of a passenger on the bus 5 when he or she gets off from the front of the bus 5.

[0017] Camera 41(1) photographs the front boarding / alighting entrance 51F and the driver's seat from inside the vehicle. Camera 41(2) photographs the rear boarding / alighting entrance 51R from inside the vehicle. Camera 41(3) photographs the front of bus 5. Camera 41(4) photographs the rear of bus 5. Camera 41(5) photographs the left side of bus 5 from the left front of bus 5. Hereinafter, cameras 41(1) to 41(5) will be referred to as cameras 41 unless otherwise distinguished. Unless otherwise distinguished, front boarding / alighting entrance 51F and rear boarding / alighting entrance 51R will be referred to as boarding / alighting entrance 51.

[0018] 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the boarding / alighting counting system. The boarding / alighting counting device 1 includes, for example, a microprocessor (CPU in the figure) 101, a memory 102, a communication interface unit (communication IF in the figure) 103, and a user interface unit (UI in the figure) 104.

[0019] The memory 102 here is a device that serves both as a main storage device and an auxiliary storage device. The memory 102 stores a predetermined computer program for implementing a user detection system 131, a boarding / alighting number counting system 132, and a count result output unit 133, a video data storage area 121, a still image data storage area 122, a coordinate accumulation table 123, and a count result table 124.

[0020] The microprocessor 101 reads out a predetermined computer program from the memory 102 and executes it to realize each of the functions 131, 132, and 133.

[0021] To explain the correspondence between Figures 1 and 3, the calculation unit 130 in Figure 1 corresponds to the microprocessor 101 in Figure 3, the memory unit 12 in Figure 1 corresponds to each memory area and table 121-124 in Figure 3, the user interface unit 14 in Figure 1 corresponds to the user interface unit 104 in Figure 3, and the data acquisition unit 11 in Figure 1 corresponds to the communication interface unit 103 in Figure 3.

[0022] The data acquisition unit 11 acquires the dashcam data D1 from the office terminal 2, and stores it in the video data storage area 121 of the memory 102. The office terminal 2 and the boarding and alighting counting device 1 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate with each other via wires or wirelessly, or both.

[0023] The analysis unit 13 has a function of detecting bus boarding and alighting entrances from the movement trajectory of the center of gravity of users based on the video data stored in the video data memory area 121 of the memory unit 12, and calculating the number of people boarding and alighting from the entrances.

[0024] The analysis unit 13 includes a user detection system 131 that detects users, a boarding / alighting count system 132 that counts the number of boarding and alighting passengers, and a count result output unit 133. The user detection system 131 includes a still image data extraction unit 1311 and a user detection processing unit 1312. The still image data extraction unit 1311 has a function of extracting still image data for each frame from the video data and storing it in the still image data storage area 122. The user detection processing unit 1312 has a function of detecting users from the still image data for each frame. Hereinafter, the still image data for each frame may be referred to as a frame or frame data.

[0025] The boarding / alighting count system 132 includes a boarding / alighting entrance area detection processing unit 1321 that detects an image area corresponding to a boarding / alighting entrance in the frame, and a boarding / alighting number count processing unit 1322 that counts the number of people getting on and off through the boarding / alighting entrance.

[0026] The count result output unit 133 outputs the result counted by the boarding / alighting count processing unit 1322 as count result data D2 (see FIG. 1).

[0027] The communication interface unit 103 is a circuit that performs two-way communication with the business office terminal 2. The communication interface unit 103 can communicate with the business office terminal 2 via a communication means such as a public line such as the Internet, a dedicated line, a direct connection, or a LAN (Local Area Network).

[0028] The user interface unit 104 is an information input / output device used by an administrator of the bus boarding / alighting counting system 8. The user interface unit 104 has an information input device through which the administrator inputs information to the boarding / alighting counting device 1, and an information output device that provides information from the boarding / alighting counting device 1 to the administrator. The information input device is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, a voice recognition device, an eye tracking device, etc. The information output device is, for example, a monitor display, a printer, a speaker, etc. The information input device and the information output device may be integrated together.

[0029] The office terminal 2 includes, for example, a microprocessor 201, a memory 202, a communication interface unit 203, a user interface unit 204, and a medium interface unit (medium IF in the figure) 205. The office terminal 2 is, for example, a personal computer such as a desktop type, a laptop type, or a tablet type. It is not limited to a personal computer, and may be any information processing device having a function of acquiring information from the storage medium 3 and a function of communicating with the boarding and alighting counting device 1.

[0030] The memory 202 stores, for example, a predetermined computer program for implementing the data acquisition unit 21 and the data transmission unit 22. The data acquisition unit 21 acquires the drive recorder data D1 from the storage medium 3. The data transmission unit 22 transmits the drive recorder data D1 acquired by the data acquisition unit 21 to the boarding and alighting counting device 1.

[0031] The communication interface unit 203 is a circuit for two-way communication with the boarding and alighting counting device 1. The user interface unit 204 is a device for exchanging information with a user who operates the office terminal 2 (for example, an employee of a bus company, etc.).

[0032] The medium interface unit 205 is a device for inputting and outputting information to and from a storage medium 3 configured, for example, as an SD (Secure Digital) card. The storage medium 3 is not limited to an SD card, and may be a memory device, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic tape, or the like. The medium interface unit 205 can be connected to the storage medium 3 by wire or wirelessly.

[0033] The drive recorder system 4 includes the above-mentioned cameras 41, a drive recorder control device 42, and a microphone 43. Video data captured by the cameras 41 and audio data recorded by the microphone 43 are stored in the storage medium 3. The audio data includes voice announcements reading out the names of bus stops, as well as alarm sounds and warning messages that notify passengers of emergency situations. The drive recorder system 4 can also include built-in sensors such as a GPS, a speedometer, an accelerometer, and a distance meter (none of which are shown).

[0034] 4 shows an example of the configuration of the drive recorder data D1 stored in the storage medium 3. The drive recorder data D1 has a device ID (identifier) ​​that identifies the camera 41 that generated the video file, and a file name that includes the date and time of the start of recording. The drive recorder data D1 can include video data, audio data, speed data, acceleration data, and GPS data.

[0035] When the drive recorder data D1 exceeds a certain size, the recording start date and time are updated and new drive recorder data D1 is created. When the bus 5 travels on multiple routes from when it leaves the depot to when it enters the depot, multiple sets of drive recorder data D1 are stored in the storage medium 3.

[0036] 5 is a schematic diagram of a data flow in the bus boarding and alighting counting system 8. The boarding and alighting counting device 1 acquires the drive recorder data D1 from the drive recorder system 4 via the storage medium 3, and stores it in the video data storage area 121. The still image data extraction unit 1311 extracts still image data group F1 (frame group F1) for each frame from the video data in the video data drive recorder data D1, and stores it in the still image data storage area 122.

[0037] The user detection processing unit 1312 reads the frame group F1 from the still image data storage area 122 and detects users for each frame. It is possible to detect users from still image data by artificial intelligence technology using a machine learning model (for example, the yolo algorithm). Furthermore, the user detection processing unit 1312 sets a rectangle representing the detected user, obtains the center of gravity of the rectangle, and registers the coordinates of the center of gravity in the coordinate accumulation table 123. In other words, the user detection processing unit 1312 does not detect passengers on the bus 5 as unique people, but detects them as rectangular objects and calculates the center of gravity of the rectangle.

[0038] The boarding / alighting gate area detection unit 1321 reads out the coordinates of the center of gravity of the user for each frame from the coordinate accumulation table 123, and detects the position of the boarding / alighting gate in the frame from the movement trajectory of the coordinates of the center of gravity. Since a user who gets on or off a bus moves toward the boarding / alighting gate whether getting on or off the bus, the position of the boarding / alighting gate can be identified (estimated) by tracking the change in coordinates of the center of gravity of the rectangle representing the user between adjacent frames.

[0039] The boarding / alighting number count processing unit 1322 sets a plurality of continuous areas WL, WR (see FIG. 1) for the detected boarding / alighting entrance, calculates the number of passengers boarding / alighting from the change in the center of gravity coordinates included in these plurality of areas WL, WR, and outputs the calculation result as count result data D2. As will be described in detail later, the boarding / alighting number count processing unit 1322 sets a first area WL located on the side where passengers enter the boarding / alighting entrance, and a second area WR located on the side where passengers exit the boarding / alighting entrance.

[0040] In this embodiment, a case will be described in which a boarding / alighting gate 51F (more specifically, a disembarking gate) is located at the front of the bus 5, and a passenger inside the bus 5 reaches the boarding / alighting gate from the left side of the boarding / alighting gate and exits the bus 5 from the right side of the boarding / alighting gate. In this case, the first area is the left disembarking area WL, and the second area is the right disembarking area WR. The left disembarking area WL is located on the side where a passenger moves to the boarding / alighting gate to exit the bus, and is a detection area for detecting that the passenger has reached the boarding / alighting gate. The right disembarking area WR is located on the side where a passenger exits the boarding / alighting gate and is a detection area for detecting that the passenger has exited the bus 5.

[0041] To count the number of passengers boarding from the boarding / alighting entrance (more specifically, the boarding entrance) in the center or rear of the bus 5, for example, an external camera 41(5) may be used that captures the vicinity of the boarding entrance in the center or rear of the bus 5 from the outside at the front of the bus 5. In this case, in the video data from the external camera 41(5) that captures the vicinity of the boarding entrance from the front left side of the bus 5, passengers waiting at the bus stop 7 reach the boarding entrance from the right side and board the bus 5 from the left side of the entrance. Therefore, the first area can be called the boarding right area, and the second area can be called the boarding left area.

[0042] In this way, when a passenger intending to board or disembark moves from a specific direction toward the boarding / alighting gate of bus 5, the number of passengers boarding and alighting can be counted by setting a detection area that detects when the passenger reaches the boarding / alighting gate and a detection area that detects when the passenger moves from the boarding / alighting gate into or out of bus 5.

[0043] If there is only one boarding / alighting gate, the number of boarding passengers and the number of alighting passengers can be counted separately by separating the timing of boarding and alighting. Normally, passengers are allowed to board after alighting, but if the bus collects passengers at each stop and heads to a specific facility, the bus boarding / alighting counting system 8 only needs to count boarding passengers at each stop except the final stop, and only alighting passengers at the final stop.

[0044] 6 shows the overall processing of the bus boarding and alighting counting system 8. When a trip ends and drive recorder data D1 is input from the drive recorder system 4, the boarding and alighting counting device 1 executes the following processing. The boarding and alighting counting device 1 extracts a frame group from the drive recorder data D1 of the drive recorder system 4 (S1), detects the area of ​​the boarding and alighting entrance (S2), and counts the number of boarding and alighting (S3). The processing of steps S2 and S3 will be described in detail later. Details of step S1 will be omitted.

[0045] 7 shows details of the process (S2) for detecting the area of ​​the boarding / alighting gate on the image captured by the camera 41. This process is performed by the user detection system 131 and the boarding / alighting number counting system 132 working together.

[0046] The boarding / alighting counting device 1 selects one unprocessed frame as an inference target from among the still image data (frames) stored in the still image data storage area 122 (S21). The boarding / alighting counting device 1 detects the user's area as a rectangle from the frame selected as the inference target, and calculates the coordinates of the center of gravity of the rectangle (S22).

[0047] The boarding / alighting counting device 1 registers the calculated coordinates of the rectangular center of gravity of the users in the coordinate accumulation table 123 (S23). The boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines whether or not it has detected users in a rectangular shape and calculated the center of gravity coordinates for all frames included in the operation data (dashcam data D1) of the bus 5 (S24). If there are unprocessed frames (S24: NO), the boarding / alighting counting device 1 returns to step s21. When it has finished calculating the center of gravity coordinates of users for all frames (S24: YES), the boarding / alighting counting device 1 obtains a polynomial approximation curve from the data group of center of gravity coordinates (S25), as shown in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 8, it can be seen that the center of gravity coordinates of users are gathered in a roughly capital L-shape.

[0048] As shown in the upper part of Fig. 9, the boarding / alighting counting device 1 sets a polynomial approximation curve PTL to a group of center of gravity coordinates gathered in a shape roughly like a capital letter L. As shown in the lower part of Fig. 9, the boarding / alighting counting device 1 connects the intersection point between the Y-axis coordinate parallel line of the right end point of the polynomial approximation curve PTL and the polynomial approximation curve PTL, and sets the length of the line segment to n × 2 (S26).

[0049] The boarding / alighting counting device 1 divides the center O1 of the line segment of length n×2 into two, left and right, and sets boarding / alighting entrance areas on the left and right sides, respectively (S27). The left boarding / alighting entrance area is the left alighting area, and the right boarding / alighting entrance area is the right alighting area. The horizontal dimension of each boarding / alighting entrance can be set to, for example, (n×2) / 3.

[0050] When the length of a perpendicular line dropped from a line segment of length n×2 to the polynomial approximation curve PTL is m, the boarding / alighting counting device 1 sets the length of m×2 as the vertical dimension of the boarding / alighting gate area. The vertical and horizontal dimensions of the boarding / alighting gate area are set to necessary and sufficient values.

[0051] 10 shows details of the process (S3) of counting the number of passengers getting on and off. This process is executed by the passengers getting on and off counting system 132, but in the following description, the main operator is the passengers getting on and off counting device 1.

[0052] The boarding / alighting counting device 1 acquires coordinate data included in an unprocessed frame from the coordinate accumulation table 123, and processes the acquired coordinate data (S31). The boarding / alighting counting device 1 counts the number of coordinate data included in the alighting left area and the alighting right area among the coordinate data to be processed (S32). The boarding / alighting counting device 1 repeatedly executes steps S31 and S32 until it has counted the number of coordinates for all frames included in the dashcam data D1 to be analyzed (S33: NO).

[0053] When the boarding / alighting counting device 1 finishes counting the number of coordinates for all frames (S33: YES), it executes the following steps S35-S37 in the order of frame numbers (S34). The boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines whether the number of coordinates included in the left alighting area of ​​the processing frame has decreased (S35). In other words, the boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines whether the number of coordinates included in the processing frame for the left alighting area is greater than the number of coordinates included in the frame following the processing frame (S35).

[0054] When the boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines that the number of coordinates included in the alighting left area has decreased (S35: YES), it determines whether the number of coordinates included in the alighting right area of ​​the processing frame has increased (S36). In other words, the boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines whether the number of coordinates included in the alighting right area of ​​the processing frame is less than the number of coordinates included in the frame next to the processing frame (S36).

[0055] When the boarding / alighting counting device 1 determines that the number of coordinates included in the alighting right region has increased (S36: YES), it adds one to the alighting number (S37). This is because a behavior for alighting has been detected.

[0056] If the determination is "NO" in either step S35 or step S36, the next frame is processed (S34).

[0057] Figure 11 shows how passengers are counted from the change in the coordinate number of the center of gravity between frames. The center of gravity of the passenger is indicated by a black circle, and the frame number Ni where the center of gravity exists is added. The center of gravity of the passenger is found as the center of gravity of the rectangle R that represents the passenger.

[0058] When a user gets off at a certain bus stop 7, the user's center of gravity coordinates move from the left alighting area WL (N1, N2, N3) to the right alighting area WR (N4, N5, N6) as the frame number increases. When the center of gravity coordinates move from the left alighting area WL to the right alighting area WR, it is determined that the user has alighted. Then, the user's center of gravity coordinates move out of the right alighting area WR (N7).

[0059] According to this embodiment configured as described above, it is possible to count the number of people getting on and off the bus 5 based only on the data from the drive recorder system 4 installed on the bus 5, without using any special sensors or the like.

[0060] According to the bus boarding and alighting counting system 8 of this embodiment, the position of the bus boarding and alighting gate can be detected based on the video data acquired from the drive recorder system 4, and the number of people boarding and alighting the bus 5 can be calculated from the movement trajectory of the center of gravity of the passengers heading toward the detected boarding and alighting gate.

[0061] According to the bus boarding and alighting counting system 8 of this embodiment, the influence of individual differences in buses, such as the mounting angle and mounting position of the camera 41, the imaging settings (field of view, aperture value), the body shape and body structure of the bus 5, etc., can be eliminated, and the boarding and alighting entrances can be identified and the number of people boarding and alighting the bus can be counted.

[0062] In this embodiment, since users captured in the dashcam data D1 are detected as rectangular areas, it is possible to count the number of passengers getting on and off while protecting the privacy of the passengers.

[0063] According to this embodiment, the machine learning model used by the user detection processing unit 1312 detects users by learning only image data of the upper body of the user, so that even when many users (passengers) are photographed overlapping each other in a small vehicle, the detection accuracy of users can be improved and the number of passengers getting on and off can be counted accurately.

[0064] In this embodiment, the movement of a user is detected based on the frame-by-frame change in the number of center coordinates included in the disembarking left area WL and the number of center coordinates included in the disembarking right area WR. Therefore, in this embodiment, there is no need to execute a feature point extraction process for tracking a specific user, and the movement of a user can be detected with a reduced processing load on the CPU. EXAMPLES

[0065] A second embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 12. Fig. 12 is a flowchart showing a process for detecting the area of ​​the boarding / alighting entrance. The bus boarding / alighting counting system 8A of this embodiment detects the boarding / alighting entrance by using not only the coordinate data obtained from the current dashcam data D1 but also the coordinate data from a predetermined period in the past (S20).

[0066] This embodiment configured as described above also has the same effect as that of the first embodiment. Furthermore, according to this embodiment, since the coordinate data obtained from the past dashcam data D1 is also used, even if the number of users captured in the current dashcam data D1 is small, the boarding / alighting entrance can be accurately detected. After the boarding / alighting entrance is detected, the number of boarding / alighting can be counted from the frame-to-frame change in the center of gravity extracted from the current dashcam data D1. EXAMPLES

[0067] Example 3 will be described with reference to Fig. 13. Fig. 13 shows the entire bus boarding and alighting counting system 8B. In this example, the drive recorder data D1 is directly input from the drive recorder system 4 to the boarding and alighting counting device 1 without going through the office terminal 2. The storage medium 3 is removed from the drive recorder system 4 and attached to the boarding and alighting counting device 1. The drive recorder system 4 and the boarding and alighting counting device 1 may be connected by a communication line CN, and the drive recorder data D1 may be directly transmitted from the drive recorder system 4 to the boarding and alighting counting device 1.

[0068] This embodiment configured in this manner also achieves the same effects as those of embodiment 1. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the business office terminal 2 is not necessary, so that the overall configuration can be simplified. EXAMPLES

[0069] A fourth embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 14. Fig. 14 is an overall view of a bus boarding / alighting counting system 8C. In this embodiment, a control device 42C of a drive recorder system 4C is provided with the functions of an analysis unit 130C (a user detection system 131C and a boarding / alighting counting system 132C), as well as storage areas and tables 121-124.

[0070] FIG. 15 shows the overall processing of the bus boarding / alighting counting system 8C. In this embodiment, the number of boarding / alighting is counted for each bus stop 7, and the count result is recorded (S0). Each time the boarding / alighting counting device 1 arrives at a bus stop (S0), it extracts a frame group from the drive recorder data D1 from the drive recorder system 4 (S1C), detects the area of ​​the boarding / alighting entrance (S2C), and counts the number of boarding / alighting (S3C). In step S2C, the boarding / alighting entrance is detected using coordinate data from a predetermined period in the past. The coordinate data from a predetermined period in the past may be coordinate data from a predetermined period in the same bus stop or may be coordinate data from a predetermined period in the past at another bus stop. Although the shooting environment changes depending on the location of the bus stop 7, the date and time, etc., the body structure of the bus 5 does not change, so the boarding / alighting entrance can be detected using coordinate data obtained from the data D1 at another bus stop.

[0071] The present embodiment thus configured also has the same operational effects as those of embodiment 1. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the number of passengers getting on and off at each bus stop can be counted. EXAMPLES

[0072] A fifth embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 16. Fig. 16 is an overall view of a bus boarding / alighting counting system 8D. In this embodiment, the office terminal 2D detects coordinate data of the center of gravity of a user for each frame from the drive recorder data D1, and transmits the detected coordinate data D3 to the boarding / alighting counting device 1D.

[0073] The memory 202 of the business office terminal 2D is provided with a moving image data storage area 121D, a still image data storage area 122D, and a user detection system 131D in addition to a data receiving unit 21D and a data transmitting unit 22D. Although not shown in the figure, the user detection system 131D includes a still image data extraction unit and a user detection processing unit, similar to the user detection system 131 described in the first embodiment.

[0074] The analysis unit 130D of the boarding / alighting counting device 1D is provided with only a boarding / alighting number counting system 132 and a count result output unit 133. The office terminal 2D detects the coordinates of the user for each frame and transmits the coordinate data D3 to the boarding / alighting counting device 1D. The boarding / alighting number counting system 132 of the boarding / alighting counting device 1D counts the number of boarding / alighting based on the coordinate data D3 from the office terminal 2D and outputs the result.

[0075] This embodiment configured in this manner also achieves the same effects as those of the first embodiment. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the coordinates of the center of gravity of the user are detected within the office terminal 2D, so the processing load of the boarding / alighting counting device 1D can be reduced. Furthermore, only the coordinate data of the center of gravity of the user is transmitted from the office terminal 2D to the boarding / alighting counting device 1D, so the communication load and communication time can be reduced. Furthermore, only the coordinate data of the vicinity of the boarding / alighting gates, for example, the coordinate data specifying the left alighting area WL and the right alighting area WR, can be transmitted from the office terminal 2D to the boarding / alighting counting device 1D, in which case the amount of data can be further reduced and the communication time can be shortened. EXAMPLES

[0076] A sixth embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 17. Fig. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which three or more regions are set to identify the boarding / alighting entrances. That is, the bus boarding / alighting counting system 8E of this embodiment sets an intermediate region WM between the alighting left region WL and the alighting right region WR. By setting three detection regions WL, WM, and WR in the region corresponding to the boarding / alighting entrances, it is possible to prevent the so-called center of gravity coordinates from jumping even when the frame rate of the drive recorder system 4 is low, and it is possible to accurately detect the boarding / alighting entrances and count the number of boarding / alighting entrances. EXAMPLES

[0077] Example 7 will be described with reference to Figure 18. Figure 18 shows how the movement trajectory of the coordinates of the center of gravity of a user is obtained from video data captured by a camera 41(5) outside the bus 5. An image captured by the external camera 41(5) is shown in the lower part of Figure 5. The movement trajectory of the coordinates of the center of gravity of the user contained in the image is shown in the upper part of Figure 18. In this example, it is assumed that a user (passenger) boards the bus 5 from boarding gate 51R in the center of the bus 5 and disembarks from disembarking gate 51F at the front of the bus 5.

[0078] When the bus 5 arrives and the boarding gate 51R opens, the passengers waiting at the bus stop 7 board the bus 5. In the example of Fig. 18, the passengers board the bus by moving from the right side to the left side in the figure. Therefore, similar to the method described in the first embodiment, a boarding left area WL1 and a boarding right area WR1 are set on the left and right of the boarding gate.

[0079] This embodiment configured as described above also achieves the same effects as those of the embodiment 1. In this embodiment, the movement trajectory of the center of gravity of the user is detected using the camera 41(5) outside the vehicle, and the number of passengers getting on and off (number of passengers) is counted. In this embodiment, the movement trajectory of the center of gravity for each frame is detected based on the position of the boarding / alighting gate and the installation position of the camera, and an area for detecting the boarding / alighting gate can be set.

[0080] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. A person skilled in the art can make various additions and modifications within the scope of the present invention. The above-described embodiment is not limited to the configuration example shown in the attached drawings. The configuration and processing method of the embodiment can be appropriately changed within the scope of achieving the object of the present invention.

[0081] The components of the present invention may be selected arbitrarily, and the invention having the selected components is also included in the present invention. Furthermore, the components described in the claims may be combined in combinations other than those explicitly stated in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0082] 1, 1D: boarding and alighting counting device, 2, 2D: business office terminal, 3: storage medium, 4, 4C: drive recorder system, 5: bus, 51F, 51R: door, 6: user (passenger), 7: bus stop, 11: data acquisition unit, 12: storage unit, 13: calculation unit, 14: user interface unit, 21: data acquisition unit, 22: data transmission unit, 41: camera

Claims

1. A bus boarding / alighting counting system for counting boarding and alighting of a bus, comprising: A drive recorder system provided in the bus; A vehicle boarding and alighting counting device is provided for acquiring video data captured by the drive recorder system, The boarding and alighting counting device is Detecting movement trajectories of passengers getting on and off the bus from video data acquired by the drive recorder system of the bus; Detecting a position of a boarding / alighting gate of the bus from the movement trajectory; The number of passengers getting on and off the bus is detected based on a movement state of passengers passing through a plurality of predetermined areas set at the detected boarding and alighting entrances. Bus boarding and alighting counting system.

2. The boarding / alighting counting device detects a moving trajectory of the center of gravity of the user from the video data, and detects a position of the boarding / alighting gate of the bus from the moving trajectory of the center of gravity of the user. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

3. The plurality of predetermined areas include a first area located on a side where a user enters the boarding / alighting entrance, and a second area located on a side where a user exits the boarding / alighting entrance. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

4. The boarding / alighting counting device detects the number of users getting on and off the bus by using a time change in the number of centers of gravity of the users included in the first area and a time change in the number of centers of gravity of the users included in the second area as the movement status. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 3.

5. The boarding and alighting counting device detects the movement trajectory of passengers getting on and off the bus from video data acquired by a drive recorder system of the bus when the bus has finished operating a predetermined route including a plurality of stops. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

6. The boarding / alighting counting device detects the movement trajectory of passengers getting on and off the bus from video data acquired by a drive recorder system of the bus every time the bus stops at a bus stop. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

7. The boarding and alighting counting device detects the movement trajectories of passengers getting on and off the bus by using past video data acquired from the drive recorder system during a predetermined period in the past in addition to the video data acquired from the drive recorder system of the bus. The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

8. the boarding / alighting counting device calculates a predetermined shape representing the user from an image of the upper body of the user from the video data acquired by the drive recorder system of the bus, and detects a movement trajectory of the user getting on and off the bus based on the movement trajectory of the calculated predetermined shape; The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

9. The drive recorder system includes an internal camera that captures an image of the inside of the bus and an external camera that captures an image of the outside of the bus, The boarding and alighting counting device is detecting movement trajectories of users getting on and off the bus from either the video data captured by the internal camera or the video data captured by the external camera; The bus boarding and alighting counting system according to claim 1.

10. A method for counting passengers getting on and off a bus using a passenger boarding / alighting counting device for counting passengers getting on and off a bus, comprising the steps of: The boarding and alighting counting device is Extracting still image data of each frame from the video data acquired by the drive recorder system of the bus; Calculating a predetermined shape representing a user from the still image data of each of the frames; determining a center of gravity of the predetermined shape; Detecting a movement trajectory of the center of gravity of the predetermined shape; Detecting a position of a boarding / alighting gate of the bus from the movement trajectory; A plurality of predetermined areas are set at the detected boarding / alighting entrance, the predetermined areas including a first area located on a side where a user enters the boarding / alighting entrance and a second area located on a side where a user exits the boarding / alighting entrance; The number of passengers getting on and off the bus is detected based on a movement state of the center of gravity of the predetermined shape passing from the first area to the second area. How to count bus boarding and alighting.

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