A versatile and effective method for counting people on either RGB or depth overhead cameras

In this paper we present an innovative method for counting people from zenithal mounted cameras. The proposed method is designed to be computationally efficient and able to provide accurate counting under different realistic conditions. The method can operate with traditional surveillance cameras or with depth imaging sensors. The validation has been carried out on a significant dataset of images that has been specifically devised and collected in order to account for the main factors that may impact on the counting accuracy and, in particular, the acquisition technology (traditional RGB camera and depth sensor), the installation scenario (indoor and outdoor), the density of the people flow (isolated people and groups of persons). Results confirm that the method can achieve an accuracy ranging between 90% and 98% depending on the adopted sensor technology and on the complexity of the scenario.

[1]  Dubravko Culibrk,et al.  K-means based segmentation for real-time zenithal people counting , 2009, 2009 16th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP).

[2]  Satarupa Mukherjee,et al.  Anovel framework for automatic passenger counting , 2011, 2011 18th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.

[3]  Ben J. A. Kröse,et al.  Head Detection in Stereo Data for People Counting and Segmentation , 2011, VISAPP.

[4]  Fernando Boto,et al.  Real-Time People Counting Using Multiple Lines , 2008, 2008 Ninth International Workshop on Image Analysis for Multimedia Interactive Services.

[5]  Junjie Yan,et al.  Water Filling: Unsupervised People Counting via Vertical Kinect Sensor , 2012, 2012 IEEE Ninth International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance.

[6]  Mario Vento,et al.  An Experimental Evaluation of Foreground Detection Algorithms in Real Scenes , 2010, EURASIP J. Adv. Signal Process..

[7]  Louahdi Khoudour,et al.  A People Counting System Based on Dense and Close Stereovision , 2008, ICISP.

[8]  Kenji Terada,et al.  A method of counting the passing people by using the stereo images , 1999, Proceedings 1999 International Conference on Image Processing (Cat. 99CH36348).

[9]  Tsong-Yi Chen,et al.  An Intelligent People-Flow Counting Method for Passing Through a Gate , 2006, 2006 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics.

[10]  Joaquín Salas,et al.  Counting Pedestrians in Bidirectional Scenarios Using Zenithal Depth Images , 2013, MCPR.

[11]  Huadong Ma,et al.  Scene-adaptive accurate and fast vertical crowd counting via joint using depth and color information , 2013, Multimedia Tools and Applications.

[12]  Tsong-Yi Chen,et al.  A Cost-Effective People-Counter for a Crowd of Moving People Based on Two-Stage Segmentation , 2012, J. Inf. Hiding Multim. Signal Process..