SYSTEM FOR TRACKING VISUALLY HANDICAPPED PERSON AND METHOD FOR DETECTING VISUALLY HANDICAPPED PERSON

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safe system for tracking a visually handicapped person crossing a road without losing his/her sight.;SOLUTION: By placing cameras 2a, 2b on the opposite positions of the road, the visually handicapped person crossing the road is tracked. The visual field of each camera 2a, 2b mutually monitors the opposite side of the road, and is set in a state of being overlapped in the middle of the road. An image processing section of each camera 2a, 2b detects a segment having large luminance in the image captured by the camera. In case such the segment is detected, the image processing section regards the segment concerned as a white stick of the visually handicapped person, tracks the visually handicapped person based on feature information of the visually handicapped person, and passes the above feature information of the tracked visually handicapped person to the image processing section of the other camera. According to the system, if the visually handicapped person approaching across the road has a white stick, the white stick can surely be detected from the front. By grasping the feature information such as its color and size, the visually handicapped person can be tracked. When the visually handicapped person passes through the half way of the road, the feature information of the visually handicapped person being tracked is handed over to the image processing section of the other camera. Thus, even if the white stick cannot be detected, the other camera can continue to track the visually handicapped person concerned from the back until the completion of the crossing, based on the above feature.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI