Abstract: A system for automatically classifying and counting people, such as supermarket customers, and associated objects such as shopping trolleys. One or more video cameras view an area traversed by the customers and the video data is processed, in real time, to allocate each customer to one or more of a set of predetermined categories in dependence upon recognition criteria developed to permit reliable classification of customers in relation to the various categories.

Abstract: There is provided an apparatus and method for encoding a code signal particularly into an audio signal. Previously as a result of data compression protocol codes hidden into “sync periods” have been degraded or lost as a result of, for example, low pass filtering. Sometimes, during quiet intervals codes were audible. The invention overcomes the problem of encoding a code into an audio signal by sampling the audio signal in order to determine its energy content and embedding the code into a suitable portion of the audio signal so that the code is hidden within a sufficiently energetic portion of audio signal. The advantage is that code is never audible.

Abstract: A monitoring system including a video viewer sited to view an area of interest characterized by its proximity to, and/or location with respect to, at least one visual stimulus, a generator of electrical signals representing video images of the area at different times, processor for processing the signals to determine a behavior pattern of people traversing said area and a response indicator utilizing the behavior pattern to provide an indication of a response by said people to said visual stimulus.

Abstract: The invention relates to the application of identifying codes to stationary images, for example images of fine art, using a process known as watermarking, by means of which coded identification data are incorporated into proprietary visual images. A system is described whereby the identification codes remain detectable in, and retrievable from, watermarked images, even where the images have been changed or modified as a result of operations such as resizing, cropping and rotation. The system combines a reference code with an identification code and embeds the combined codes into a still image, and a scanning process, which may automatically switch between coarse and fine modes, is used to detect the reference code and to decode as an identification code, data located in conjunction with a detected reference code, utilizing respective modules for (a) modification detection, (b) image resumption and (c) decoding.