JP7534091B2 - Lost property prevention system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to technology that prevents passengers from leaving behind items in a vehicle.

A known technology for preventing passengers from forgetting things in a car is to determine whether or not an item has been left behind in the car based on the difference between the state of the interior of the car captured by a camera when the user gets out of the car and the state of the interior of the car captured and stored by a camera when the user got in or got out of the car the previous time, and to notify the user that an item has been left behind if it is determined that an item has been left behind (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

JP 2005-115911 A JP 2009-75756 A

According to the above-mentioned technology, when a user gets into a vehicle and forgets to take an item that should be taken with him/her, it is not possible to detect the item and notify the user of it.
In addition, according to the above-mentioned technology, it is not possible to distinguish between belongings that the user forgets to take with them and is left in the vehicle when getting off, and belongings that the user intentionally leaves in the vehicle when getting off. Therefore, even if the user intentionally leaves belongings in the vehicle, this will be detected as a lost item and the user will be notified.

Therefore, the present invention has an objective of detecting items that a user has forgotten to bring into a car.In addition, the present invention has an objective of detecting items that a user has actually forgotten to take outside the car when getting off.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an anti-lost-item system mounted on an automobile, which includes: boarding detection means for detecting when a user gets into the automobile; status detection means for detecting the current status of a predetermined object; item recognition means for recognizing items brought into the automobile when the boarding detection means detects when the user gets into the automobile, and storing brought-item data including the recognized items and the current status detected by the status detection means; status condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the brought-item data based on the stored brought-item data, a status among the statuses indicated by the statuses that is highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item as a status condition for the item; and warning means for outputting a warning message to alert the user that the unrecognized item has been left behind if the item for which the status indicated by the current status detected by the status detection means is set as a status condition when the boarding detection means detects when the user gets into the automobile is not recognized by the item recognition means.

In this type of lost property prevention system, when a user gets into a car, if an item that was frequently brought into the car when the user got into the car in the past under the same circumstances as the current one is not brought into the car, the user will be warned about the item.

Here, an item that has been frequently brought into a car when a ride has occurred in the past under the same circumstances as the present is likely to be an item that the user needs to take with him or her.
Therefore, according to this lost property prevention system, when a user gets into a car and forgets to take an item that should be taken with him/her, the lost property can be detected and the user can be notified.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automobile-mounted item-leaving prevention system that includes: alighting detection means for detecting when a user alights from the automobile; a state detection means for detecting the current state of a predetermined object; an item recognition means for recognizing items left behind in the automobile when the alighting detection means detects when the user alights from the automobile, and storing left-behind item data including the recognized items and the current state detected by the state detection means; a state condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the left-behind item data based on the stored left-behind item data, a state that is highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item among the states indicated by the state, as a state condition for the item; and a warning means for outputting a warning message to alert the user that the recognized item has been left behind when an item that is not an item for which the state indicated by the current state detected by the state detection means is set as a state condition when the boarding detection means detects when the user alights from the automobile is recognized by the item recognition means.

With this type of lost property prevention system, when a user gets out of a car and there is an item left behind that is not one of the items that are frequently left behind in a car when the user has previously gotten in under the same circumstances as the current situation, the system warns the user about the item.

Here, the items that are most likely to be left in the car in the same situation as the current one are those that the user intentionally left in the car, and other items are likely to be items that have been left behind.

Therefore, according to this lost property prevention system, it is possible to detect items that the user has truly left behind outside the vehicle when getting off and notify the user of these.
In addition, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an anti-lost-item system mounted on an automobile, which comprises: a boarding detection means for detecting a user getting into the automobile; a status detection means for detecting the current status of a specified number of items; an item recognition means for recognizing items brought into the automobile when the boarding detection means detects the user getting into the automobile, and storing brought-item data including the recognized items and the current status of the specified number of items detected by the status detection means; a situation condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the brought-item data based on the stored brought-item data, a condition of a combination of the states of any number of the items that is highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item as a situation condition for the item; and an alert means for outputting a alert message to draw attention to the fact that the unrecognized item has been left behind when the boarding detection means detects the user getting into the automobile, if an item for which a situation condition is set that is satisfied by the combination of the current status of the specified number of items detected by the status detection means is not recognized by the item recognition means.

This type of loss prevention system can also detect and notify a user when they get into a car and forget to bring an item that they should have taken with them.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an anti-lost-item system mounted on an automobile, which includes: an alighting detection means for detecting when a user alights from the automobile; a state detection means for detecting the current state of a plurality of predetermined items; an item recognition means for recognizing items left behind in the automobile when the alighting detection means detects when the user alights from the automobile, and storing left-behind item data including the recognized items and the current states of the plurality of items detected by the state detection means; a state condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the left-behind item data based on the stored left-behind item data, a state condition of any number of combinations of the states of the items that are highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item as the state condition of the item; and a warning means for outputting a warning message to alert the user that the recognized item has been left behind when an item that is not an item for which a state condition is set that is satisfied by the combination of the current states of the plurality of predetermined items detected by the state detection means is recognized by the item recognition means when the boarding detection means detects when the user alights from the automobile.

In such a lost property prevention system, the warning means may output the warning message by sending the warning message to a terminal of a pre-registered user.

Such a forgotten item prevention system can also detect items that the user has truly left behind outside the vehicle when getting off and notify the user of these items.
In each of the above-mentioned loss prevention systems, it is preferable that the one or more predetermined items include at least one of the following items: day of the week, time period, location, and weather.
In addition, the above-mentioned lost property prevention system may be equipped with a camera, and the item recognition means may recognize items in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, or in the passenger compartment and luggage compartment of the vehicle, from images captured by the camera.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to detect items that a user has left behind in a car.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, it is possible to detect any property that the user truly forgot to take with him or her outside the vehicle when getting off.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the arrangement of a display device and a camera of the in-vehicle system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the contents of an item recognition history database according to an embodiment of the present invention. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing the contents of a brought-in item table and a left-behind item table according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing an outside-vehicle item-left-behind notification process according to the embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing a process for notifying a person of an item left behind in a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an in-vehicle system according to this embodiment.
The in-vehicle system is a system installed in an automobile, and as shown in the figure, comprises a display device 1, an audio output device 2 which has a speaker and outputs audio from the speaker, a navigation system 3 which calculates the current position and provides route guidance to a destination set by the user, a mobile communication device 4 which performs mobile communications, a vehicle condition sensor 5, a camera 6, and an anti-lost-item control device 7.

The vehicle condition sensor 5 detects various conditions of the vehicle, such as the state of the vehicle's ignition key/switch, transmission, engine, parking brake, and vehicle speed, the locked and opened/closed state of each door, the vehicle's outside temperature state, and the load state of each seat.

The audio output device 2 is a device shared by the navigation system 3 and the loss prevention control device 7, and is used to output route guidance audio from the navigation system 3 and audio warning messages about lost items from the loss prevention control device 7.

The display device 1 is a device shared by the navigation system 3 and the loss prevention control device 7, and is installed on the dashboard, for example, as shown in FIG. 2a, and is used to display the route guidance screen of the navigation system 3 and the lost item warning message of the loss prevention control device 7.

Moreover, the camera 6 is installed, for example, on the ceiling of the passenger compartment of the automobile as shown in FIG. 2b so as to be able to photograph each seat of the automobile.
Returning to FIG. 1, the lost item prevention control device 7 comprises a lost item warning unit 71, an item recognition history analysis unit 72, an item recognition unit 73, a brought-in item table 74, a left-behind item table 75, and an item recognition history database 76.

FIG. 3 shows the contents of the item recognition history database 76. As shown in FIG.
As shown, the item recognition history database 76 includes brought-in item history data and left-behind item history data.
A plurality of pieces of brought-in item data can be registered in the brought-in item history data, and each piece of brought-in item data consists of situation data and item data. A plurality of pieces of left-behind item data can be registered in the left-behind item history data, and each piece of left-behind item data consists of situation data and item data. The contents of the situation data and item data of the brought-in item data and left-behind item data will be described later.

The item recognition unit 73 detects the occurrence of a user getting in the car based on the state of the car detected by the vehicle state sensor 5. Here, this detection is performed, for example, by detecting the occurrence of a user getting in the car when the ACC power is turned on by operating the car's ignition key/switch after the car is unlocked, or when the engine is started.

Then, when the item recognition unit 73 detects that the user has boarded the vehicle, it notifies the forgotten item warning unit 71 that the user has boarded the vehicle.
Furthermore, when the item recognition unit 73 detects that a user has boarded the vehicle, it analyzes the image captured by the camera 6 to recognize items brought into the vehicle by the passenger. Here, items brought into the vehicle include items placed on each seat or in the luggage space of the vehicle, each passenger's baggage, and items worn or carried by each passenger. However, the camera 6 may also be provided to capture images of the inside of the trunk or other luggage compartments or the glove box, and items in these luggage compartments or the glove box may also be recognized.

In addition, when the item recognition unit 73 detects that a user has boarded the vehicle, it collects information on the current situation. The information on the current situation includes the current state of multiple items such as the current date and time, whether it is a holiday or weekday, the day of the week, the time period, the current location, the weather, the outside temperature, the number of passengers in the vehicle, the departure point, and the destination.

The current location is obtained, for example, from the current position calculated by the navigation system 3, the current weather is obtained from an external weather information server via the mobile communication device 4, and the current outside air temperature is obtained from the vehicle condition sensor. The current number of passengers is obtained by analyzing the load on each seat detected by the vehicle condition sensor and images captured by the camera 6, the current departure point is obtained as a point where the vehicle was parked with the engine stopped for a predetermined time (e.g., 3 hours) or more before the present, which is obtained from the driving history managed by the navigation system 3, and the destination is obtained as the destination set in the navigation system 3.

Here, the item recognition unit 73 performs personal recognition of the vehicle occupants from the images captured by the camera 6, and may also collect the combination of individuals occupying the recognized vehicle as information on the current situation.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the item recognition unit 73 registers the current status of the multiple items collected in the situation data, creates brought-in item data in which each item recognized in the item data is registered, and registers this in the brought-in item history data in the item recognition history database 76.

The item recognition unit 73 may rewrite the destination of the status data of the carry-on data created and registered in this manner to the current location at the time when the vehicle is first parked for a predetermined period of time (e.g., two hours) or more with the engine stopped after registration.

In addition, the item recognition unit 73 may erase the registered carry-on data if the vehicle does not depart within a specified period of time after the registration of the carry-on data and the passengers leave the vehicle. Here, the unmanned state and the passengers leaving the vehicle are detected, for example, by monitoring the presence or absence of passengers in each seat of the vehicle from images captured by the camera 6.

The item recognition unit 73 also detects the occurrence of the user getting off the vehicle based on the state of the vehicle detected by the vehicle state sensor 5. Here, this detection is performed, for example, by detecting the occurrence of the user getting off the vehicle when the vehicle's engine is stopped or the transmission gear is shifted to parking within a predetermined period (e.g., 3 minutes) from the occurrence of a state transition from driving to parking, and then the vehicle door is opened, or by detecting the occurrence of the user getting off the vehicle when a decrease in the number of passengers is detected within a predetermined period (e.g., 3 minutes) from the occurrence of a state transition from driving to parking.

Then, when the article recognition unit 73 detects that the user has got off the vehicle, it notifies the forgotten item warning unit 71 that the user has got off the vehicle.
In addition, when the item recognition unit 73 detects the occurrence of the user getting off the vehicle, it analyzes the image captured by the camera 6 to recognize the items left in the vehicle. In addition, it collects information on the current situation. As the information on the current situation, the current states of multiple items similar to the information collected when the above-mentioned occurrence of boarding is detected are collected. However, when the user gets off the vehicle, the current location is set as the destination. In addition, the item recognition unit 73 detects the number of passengers during the vehicle's travel, and uses the number of passengers during the most recent travel, i.e., the number of passengers before the vehicle's disembarking, as the number of passengers. In addition, the item recognition unit 73 may recognize the individuals of the passengers in the vehicle while it is traveling, and may also use the combination of individuals recognized during the most recent travel, i.e., the combination of individuals who were in the vehicle before the vehicle's disembarking, as the information on the current situation.

Then, the item recognition unit 73 registers the current status of the multiple items collected in the situation data, creates left-behind item data in which each item recognized in the item data is registered, and registers this in the left-behind item history data in the item recognition history database 76.

The item recognition unit 73 may rewrite the destination of the status data of the left-behind item data created and registered in this manner to the current location at the time when the vehicle is first parked for a predetermined period of time (e.g., two hours) or more with the engine stopped after registration.

Next, the item recognition history analysis unit 72 updates the brought-in item table 74 periodically or when new brought-in item data is registered in the brought-in item history data.
4A, this update is performed so that brought-in item table 74 has entries (each row in the figure) corresponding to all items registered in the item data of the brought-in item history data. In this update, a state or combination of states that has a high correlation of a predetermined level or more with the occurrence of recognition at the time of the occurrence of the detection of riding of the item corresponding to the entry, which is obtained by statistically analyzing each brought-in item data of the brought-in item history data, is registered as a situation condition in each entry of brought-in item table 74.

That is, for example, if the brought-item history data indicates that an "umbrella" is frequently recognized when boarding is detected when the weather is rainy, "weather = rain" is registered as the situation condition in the entry corresponding to "umbrella" in brought-item table 74. Also, for example, if the brought-item history data indicates that a "lunchbox" is frequently recognized when boarding is detected during weekday morning hours and weekday evening hours, "holiday/weekday = weekday and (time period = morning or time period = evening)" is registered as the situation condition in the entry corresponding to "lunchbox" in brought-item table 74.

The status condition for the entry of an item that represents that the carry-on history data is always recognized with a high frequency when a ride is detected, regardless of the state of multiple items registered in the carry-on data status data, is set to "optional."

In addition, the item recognition history analysis unit 72 updates the left item table 75 periodically or when new left item data is registered in the left item history data.
This update is performed so that the left-behind item table 75 has entries (each row in the figure) corresponding to all items registered in the item data of the left-behind item history data, as shown in Fig. 4b. In this update, a state or combination of states that has a high correlation of a predetermined level or more with the occurrence of recognition at the time of disembarking of the item corresponding to the entry, which is obtained by statistically analyzing each left-behind item data in the left-behind item history data, is registered as a situation condition in each entry of the left-behind item table 75.

For example, if the left-behind history data indicates that "rain boots" are frequently recognized when disembarking detection occurs when the weather is sunny, "weather = sunny" is registered as the situation condition in the entry corresponding to "rain boots" in the left-behind item table 75.

The status condition for the entry of an item that indicates that the left behind item history data is always recognized with a high frequency when disembarking is detected, regardless of the state of multiple items registered in the status data of the left behind item data, is registered as "optional."

Next, when the item warning unit 71 is notified by the item recognition unit 73 that the user has boarded the vehicle, the item warning unit 71 performs an outside vehicle item left behind notification process.
FIG. 5 shows the procedure for this outside-vehicle item notification process.
As shown in the figure, in this process, the forgotten item warning unit 71 acquires the current situation information and recognized items collected by the item recognition unit 73 at the time of the user's current boarding as described above (step 502).

Then, all items in the bring-in items table 74 are extracted for entries in which a situation condition that is satisfied by a combination of the states of multiple items indicated by the current situation information is registered (step 504). Note that items for which "any" is registered as a situation condition are always considered to be items for which a situation condition that is satisfied by a combination of the states of multiple items indicated by the current situation information is registered.

Then, it is checked whether all of the items extracted from the carry-on items table 74 are included among the items recognized by the item recognition unit 73 when the user boarded the vehicle (step 506), and if so, the process of notifying the user of items left behind outside the vehicle is terminated.

On the other hand, if there is an item among the items extracted from the carry-on items table 74 that was not recognized by the item recognition unit 73 when the user boarded the vehicle (step 506), that is, an item that was not recognized by the item recognition unit 73, a warning message is output to alert the user to the fact that the item was left behind (step 508).

Then, the outside-vehicle item notification process ends.
Here, the output of the warning message in step 508 is performed by assuming that the item that was not recognized by the item recognition unit 73 among the items extracted from the bring-in item table 74 is A, and by displaying a warning message such as "Have you forgotten to bring A?" on the display device 1 or outputting it as audio from the audio output device 2.

Next, when the item warning unit 71 is notified by the item recognition unit 73 that the user has disembarked, it performs processing for notifying the user of an item left behind in the vehicle.
FIG. 6 shows the procedure for processing the notification of an item left behind in the vehicle.
As shown in the figure, in this process, the forgotten item warning unit 71 acquires the current situation information and recognized items collected by the item recognition unit 73 at the time the user gets off the vehicle as described above (step 602).

Then, all items in the left-behind item table 75 are extracted from entries in which a situation condition that is satisfied by a combination of the states of multiple items indicated by the current situation information is registered (step 604). Note that items for which "any" is registered as a situation condition are always considered to be items for which a situation condition that is satisfied by a combination of the states of multiple items indicated by the current situation information is registered.

Then, it is checked whether any items other than those extracted from the left-behind property table 75 are included among the items recognized by the item recognition unit 73 when the user disembarked (step 606), and if not, the process of notifying the user of the item left behind in the vehicle is terminated.

On the other hand, if an item other than the item extracted from the left behind item table 75 is included among the items recognized by the item recognition unit 73 when the user disembarks (step 606), a warning message calling attention to the left behind item is sent to the user's pre-registered mobile terminal using the mobile communication device 4 (step 608).

Then, the mobile terminal that receives the warning message transmitted in this manner notifies the user of the received warning message.
Then, the process of notifying the owner of an item left behind in the vehicle is completed.
Here, the warning message in step 608 is, for example, a warning message such as "B has been left in the vehicle. Have you forgotten to take it with you?", assuming that B is an item that was recognized by the item recognition unit 73 when the user got off the vehicle and was not an item extracted from the left behind item table 75.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
Thus, in this embodiment, when a user gets into a car, if an item that was frequently brought into the car when the user got into the car in the past under the same circumstances as the current one is not brought into the car, the user is warned about leaving the item behind.

Here, an item that has been frequently brought into a car when a ride has occurred in the past under the same circumstances as the present is likely to be an item that the user needs to take with him or her.
Therefore, according to this embodiment, when a user gets into a car and forgets to bring an item that should be taken with him/her, the item can be detected and the user can be notified of the item.
In addition, in this embodiment, when a user gets out of a car and there is an item left behind that is not an item that is frequently left in a car when a user gets in the car in the past under the same circumstances as the current situation, the user is warned about the item.

Here, in the same situation as today, the items that are most frequently left in the car are likely to be items that the user intentionally left in the car, and the other items are likely to be items that were not intentionally left in the car.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to detect items that the user truly forgot to take outside the vehicle when getting off and notify the user.

1...Display device, 2...Audio output device, 3...Navigation system, 4...Mobile communication device, 5...Vehicle condition sensor, 6...Camera, 7...Lost item prevention control device, 71...Lost item warning unit, 72...Item recognition history analysis unit, 73...Item recognition unit, 74...Bring-in item table, 75...Left-behind item table, 76...Item recognition history database.

Claims (5)

A forgotten property prevention system mounted on a vehicle,
A vehicle exit detection means for detecting when a user exits the vehicle;
A state detection means for detecting a current state of a predetermined object;
an item recognition means for recognizing an item left in the vehicle when the alighting detection means detects that the user has alighted from the vehicle, and storing left-behind item data including the recognized item and the current status detected by the status detection means;
A situation condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the left-behind data, a situation that is highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item among situations indicated by the state based on the stored left-behind data, as a situation condition of the item;
The system is characterized in that, when the alighting detection means detects that the user has alighted, if an item is recognized by the item recognition means and the situation indicated by the current state detected by the state detection means is not an item set as a situation condition, the system has an alert means for outputting a alert message to draw attention to the fact that the recognized item has been left behind. A property-loss prevention system mounted on a vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle exit detection means for detecting when a user exits the vehicle;
A status detection means for detecting a current status of a plurality of predetermined items;
an item recognition means for recognizing items left behind in the vehicle when the alighting detection means detects that the user has alighted from the vehicle, and storing left-behind item data including the recognized items and the current states of the plurality of items detected by the state detection means;
A situation condition calculation means for setting, for each item included in the left-behind data based on the stored left-behind data, a combination of states of any number of any of the items that are highly correlated with the occurrence of recognition of the item as a situation condition of the item;
The system is characterized in that, when the alighting detection means detects that the user has alighted, if an item is recognized by the item recognition means that is not an item for which a situation condition is set that is satisfied by the combination of the current states of the plurality of specified items detected by the status detection means, the system has an alert means for outputting a alert message to draw attention to the fact that the recognized item has been left behind. The system for preventing lost property according to claim 1 or 2,
The warning means outputs the warning message by sending the warning message to a terminal of a user who has been registered in advance. The system for preventing lost property according to claim 2,
The plurality of predetermined items include at least one of the following: day of the week, time period, location, and weather. The system for preventing forgotten items according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4,
Equipped with a camera,
The object recognition means recognizes objects in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, or in the passenger compartment and luggage compartment of the vehicle, from images captured by the camera.