The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 15, 2008
Filed:
Sep. 21, 2001
Ralph N. Crabtree, Atlanta, GA (US);
Michael C. Moed, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Ralph N. Crabtree, Atlanta, GA (US);
Michael C. Moed, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Brickstream Corporation, Atlanta, GA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a system and method for tracking objects, such as customers in a retail environment. The invention is divided into two distinct software subsystems, the Customer Tracking system and the Track Analysis system. The Customer Tracking System tracks individuals through multiple cameras and reports various types of information regarding the tracking function, such as location by time and real world coordinates. The Track Analysis system converts individual tracks to reportable actions. Inputs to the Customer Tracking System are a set of analog or digital cameras that are positioned to view some physical environment. The output of the Customer Tracking System is a set of customer tracks that contain time and position information that describe the path that an individual took through the environment being monitored. The Track Analysis System reads the set of customer tracks produced by the tracking system and interprets the activities of individuals based on user defined regions of interest (ROI). Examples of a region of interest are: (1) a teller station in a bank branch, (2) a check-out lane in a retail store, (3) an aisle in a retail store, and the like.