Patent ID: 8266174

Claim:
A behavior history retrieval apparatus that extracts a behavior history of a specific person, comprising: a plurality of cameras for extracting features containing at least one of face, color, and shape of a person; at least one reader for detecting passage of the person; a plurality of databases which respectively store information in accordance with different degrees of accuracy for identifying an individual; a meta classification unit which assigns an accuracy level to person feature information of the person extracted from the cameras and to passage information of the person detected through the at least one reader and stores the person feature information and the passage information in databases, of the plurality of databases, corresponding to respectively assigned accuracy levels; a retrieval request reception unit which receives an identifier for identifying a person to be retrieved at least as a first retrieval key; a discrete retrieval unit which retrieves the person corresponding to the first retrieval key received by the retrieval request reception unit in a high accuracy database of the plurality of databases; a dependence determination unit which determines a person having a dependence on the person to be retrieved using a plurality of retrieval results hit by the discrete retrieval unit in the high accuracy database; a query generation unit which generates a second retrieval key based on an identifier of the person having the dependence, determined by the dependence determination unit, and the first retrieval key; and a discrete candidate-to-candidate retrieval unit which retrieves persons corresponding to the second retrieval key, generated by the query generation unit, in a low accuracy database of the plurality of databases.