Patent ID: 11889232
Assignee: VERGESENSE, INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 14:
15. A method for monitoring occupancy in a work area comprising:
accessing a first image recorded by a sensor block at a first time, the sensor block facing the work area;
detecting a first distribution of objects in the first image;
extracting a first set of features from the first image;
based on the first set of features:
detecting a work surface present in the work area; and
detecting absence of humans and a cluster of objects within a distance threshold of the work surface;

in response to detecting absence of humans and in response to detecting the cluster of objects within the distance threshold of the work surface, updating an occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as occupied with humans absent;
accessing a second image recorded by the sensor block at a second time;
detecting a second distribution of objects in the second image;
extracting a second set of features from the second image:
detecting the work surface present in the work area; and
detecting absence of humans and absence of the cluster of objects within the threshold distance of the work surface;

calculating an object entropy in the work area based on a difference between the first distribution of objects and the second distribution of objects; and
in response to detecting absence of humans and absence of the cluster of objects within the threshold distance of the work surface and in response to the object entropy exceeding an entropy threshold:
updating the occupancy status of the work surface to indicate the work surface as vacant; and
generating a notification to alert maintenance staff to clean the work area.