Pan-tilt Camera Tracking Object Reacquisition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current monitoring systems fail to efficiently track individuals within enclosed spaces, particularly in learning and navigating entrances and exits, leading to difficulties in reacquiring the target if lost.
Innovation Solution
A camera-enabled device with a processor, memory module, and pan-tilt camera equipped with angle sensors, utilizing machine-readable instructions to track objects, record coordinates of entrances and exits, and prioritize search locations based on frequency of loss, enabling quick reacquisition of the object of interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a monitoring system tracks an individual using cameras, then the individual can be monitored within a defined space, but the system fails to efficiently learn and navigate entrances and exits, leading to difficulty in reacquiring the target if lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively recording coordinates when the target is still visible and predicting potential loss locations before the target actually leaves the monitoring area. This allows the system to prepare recovery strategies in advance, reducing the time needed to reacquire the target when it is lost.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a buffer by maintaining a history of target positions and predicting future loss points. This cushioning effect ensures that when the target is lost, the system already has prepared candidate locations to search, rather than starting the search from scratch.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the system records coordinates where the target is lost, then it can learn entrance and exit patterns, but the system complexity increases with additional recording and processing functions
Solution Approach 1:
The camera system performs multiple functions: it acts as both a target tracking device and a learning device that records entrance/exit patterns. By making the existing camera system multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate dedicated hardware for learning patterns, thus limiting the increase in system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the target tracking function and the entrance/exit learning function into a single integrated system. The same camera and processing unit that tracks the target also records and analyzes loss coordinates, merging what could have been separate systems into one unified device.
3Productivity
If the system uses a pan-tilt camera to track objects, then continuous monitoring is possible, but the system may lose track of objects at entrances and exits
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback by continuously monitoring whether the target remains within the camera's field of view and comparing current position with historical loss coordinates. When the target approaches a predicted loss location, the system adjusts its tracking strategy proactively, and when the target is lost, it quickly re-acquires it by checking recorded coordinates.
Data Source
AI summary
A tracking system and an image obtaining means include: a processor; a memory module communicatively coupled to the processor; a pan-tilt camera including angle sensors communicatively coupled to the processor for tracking a predetermined object and sensing the coordinates of the pan-tilt camera; and machine readable instructions stored in the memory module that cause the image obtaining means to determine whether the predetermined object becomes lost within the image periphery of the image data; and if the predetermined object becomes lost, record the coordinates of the camera in the memory module where the predetermined has been tracked for the last time.