Home Communication System with Face Recognition and Automatic Resident Selection

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional home communication systems with multiple residents require visitors to manually scroll through numerous bell buttons to find the correct resident, making it cumbersome and inefficient.

Innovation Solution

A home communication system that uses face recognition and image processing to adapt the display, linking image information with stored scrolling information, allowing the system to automatically select and display the correct resident, and enabling automatic communication and control of building systems based on recognized visitors.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If manual scrolling through bell buttons is used to select a resident, then the system supports a large number of residents, but the operation becomes cumbersome and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenumber of residentsVSAvoidresident selection process
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the mechanical interaction of manually scrolling through bell buttons with an optical recognition system. A camera captures the visitor's face, and an image comparison device automatically identifies the visitor by comparing captured images with stored reference images, thereby substituting manual mechanical selection with automated optical recognition.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs self-service by automatically identifying the visitor and presenting relevant information without requiring manual intervention. The image comparison device and control unit work autonomously to recognize the visitor and display appropriate resident information, eliminating the need for the visitor to manually scroll through options.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Loss of information

If all resident names are displayed simultaneously, then complete information is available, but the display becomes cluttered and difficult to navigate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresident information availabilityVSAvoiddisplay navigation
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-storing reference images of all residents in the reference memory during system setup. This allows the image comparison device to quickly retrieve and compare against stored images without requiring real-time display of all resident names, thus maintaining information availability while simplifying the display interface.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the information display by showing only relevant resident information based on visitor recognition. Instead of displaying all resident names simultaneously, the system divides the display into relevant and irrelevant sections, showing only the information pertinent to the identified visitor, thereby reducing clutter while maintaining accessibility to complete information through the recognition system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP2667602B1Building communication system with at least one door station and a number of residence stations
Publication Date: 2018.10.24 ABB (SCHWEIZ) AG
  • EP2667602B1 patent drawingFigure 1

AI summary

A home communication system (1) is proposed, comprising at least one door station (2), at least one door opener (21), and a plurality of apartment stations (12, 18, 19), • wherein the door station (1) includes a camera (3) with image processing for capturing visitors (A), a reference memory (7) for stored image information (IA) of visitors (A), an evaluation/processing/control unit (9) connected to the camera (3) and reference memory (7), including an image comparison device (8), and a scroll display (4) with a scrollable, graphical user interface, with which a specific resident can be selected from a list (6) of all residents (B), • wherein the links between specific image information (IA) and specific apartment stations (12, 18, 19) are stored in the reference memory (4).• wherein the evaluation/processing/control unit (9) performs a coincidence evaluation between an image currently captured by the camera (3) and the image information (IA) of the reference memory (7), • wherein the scroll display (4) can be controlled with a scroll information (IB) linked to and stored with the image information (IA) when a sufficient match is detected between a specific piece of image information (IA) and the image currently captured by the camera (3), in order to selectively display a specific resident (B).