JP2004222315A - Image storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image storage device with which a system can be constructed at low cost and maintenance and management can be easily performed by solving the problems that costs for constructing the system are increased and the maintenance and management are difficult since software of a monitor station is large-scaled by providing functions of a WWW server on the side of the monitor station installed on a remote site in a conventional remote monitoring system. <P>SOLUTION: In the image storage device, image data transmitted from a plurality of monitor stations 1 are received in a receiver WWW client 31 within a master station and stored in an image database within a WWW server disk 33 and on the basis of requests from a plurality of WWW clients 34 connected by the Intranet, the WWW server 32 retrieves the image database of the WWW server disk 33 and outputs it. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image storage device that performs remote monitoring using an intranet, and more particularly to an image storage device that can be constructed at a low cost and that can easily perform maintenance and management.

With the spread of the Internet in recent years, an intranet has attracted attention as a means for realizing an in-house information system simply and at low cost.
In recent years, in the intranet technology, a remote monitoring system for realizing image monitoring of a remote place on the intranet is being put to practical use.

  The conventional remote monitoring system includes a plurality of monitoring stations provided with an image input device for acquiring an image to be monitored, and a master station for receiving images from the respective monitoring stations via a transmission path. Is provided with a plurality of clients connected via an intranet. Then, the client can monitor the remote location in the master station by receiving and displaying the image information from each monitoring station via the intranet and the transmission path.

  The plurality of monitoring stations have a function as a WWW (World Wide Web) server, and transmit image information in response to a request from a client.

  However, in the above-described conventional remote monitoring system, since a monitoring station provided at a remote place has a function of a WWW server, the software of the monitoring station becomes large-scale, and the system construction cost increases. However, there is a problem in that maintenance management is difficult because maintenance and management of the monitoring station requires network expertise.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an image storage device that can construct a system at low cost and that can easily perform maintenance management.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the prior art described above is an image storage device, comprising: an image database for storing image data; and searching the image database based on a request from a client connected to a network. And a receiving client that receives the image data transmitted from the monitoring station and stores the received image data in the image database. It is characterized in that reception and management of image data from the station are separated from the server and made independent.

  Further, in the image storage device, in the image storage device, for each of the monitoring station identification numbers added to the received image data, the receiving client stores the image data in a network in the image database in the image acquisition order in the monitoring station. When the server has an image search page of the image database and receives a request for image search from a client connected to a network by accessing the image search page, the server stores a desired image from the image database. The latest image information corresponding to the identification number of the monitoring station is distributed via a network.

  According to the present invention, a server having an image database for storing image data, a search unit for searching the image database based on a request from a client connected to a network and outputting image data, and a transmission from a monitoring station A receiving client for receiving the received image data and storing the received image data in an image database, wherein the receiving client separates and independently receives and manages the image data from the monitoring station from the server. Since the image storage device is used, the receiving client can perform the processing of receiving the image data and storing the image data in the image database independently of the server, thereby reducing the load on the server.

  Further, according to the present invention, the receiving client stores the image data in the image database in the order of image acquisition in the monitoring station via the network for each identification number of the monitoring station added to the received image data. The server has an image search page of an image database, and when an image search request is received from a client connected to the network by accessing the image search page, the latest image corresponding to the identification number of the desired monitoring station is received from the image database. Since the image storage device distributes image information via a network, the load of the server is reduced by allowing the receiving client to perform processing of receiving image data and storing the image data in the image database independently of the server. There are effects that can be.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the remote monitoring system according to the embodiment of the present invention, one WWW server for collectively managing images from a plurality of monitoring stations is provided in a master station, and information is transmitted from the WWW server to an intranet in the master station. In this way, the configuration of the monitoring station and the system configuration can be simplified to reduce the system construction cost and to facilitate the maintenance and management of the system.

First, the configuration of a remote monitoring system (this system) according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a system configuration block diagram of a remote monitoring system (this system) according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the present system collectively manages a plurality of monitoring stations 1-1 to 1-n for inputting images to be monitored at remote locations and image data from the monitoring stations 1, and browses and displays the data at any time. It comprises a master station 3 and a transmission line 2 connecting the monitoring station 1 and the master station 3.

Each component will be specifically described.
First, the monitoring station 1 includes an image input device 11 including a video camera or the like that captures an image, an image transmission device 12 that encodes an input image as an information source and transmits image data, and a modem 13 that modulates the transmission line 2. And captures an image to be monitored and transmits it to the master station 3.

  As described above, in the present system, since the monitoring station 1 has only the functions of acquiring and transmitting images, and does not have the function as a WWW server, the software can be greatly simplified and the cost of system construction can be reduced. Is what you can do.

  The master station 3 serves as a WWW server 32 that collectively manages the image information transmitted from the monitoring station 1 and transmits the image information via an intranet, an image database that hierarchically stores the image data, and a homepage of the image database. A WWW server disk 33 provided with an image search page, a modem 30 for receiving and demodulating image data from the transmission path 2, receiving image data input from the modem 30, and receiving the image data from the modem 30 via the intranet. And a plurality of WWW clients 34-1 to 34-m for extracting and displaying images in the WWW server disk 33. The WWW client 34 further stores image data in the WWW server disk 33. Is provided with a Web browser 35 for browsing.

  Although not shown here, the WWW server 32 may be connected to the Internet via a modem. In this case, not only the WWW client 34 in the master station 3 but also a user on the Internet can be connected at any time. It is possible to browse image information in the WWW server disk 33.

  Also, as a feature of this system, uploading from the client to the image database of the WWW server disk 33 is permitted only to the receiving WWW client 31. That is, the receiving WWW client 31 separates and manages the reception and management of image data from the monitoring station 1 from the WWW server 32, and the provision of the receiving WWW client 31 reduces the load on the server. Is what you can do.

  In addition, the receiving WWW client 31 stores in advance the ID of the monitoring station recognized by the present system, and when receiving the data from the transmission line 2, whether the ID in the received data matches the registered ID. It is checked whether or not the image data from the sender having the registered ID is stored in the WWW server disk 33. The registration ID can be rewritten at any time from the receiving WWW client 31.

Next, the configuration of the image database in the WWW server disk 33 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the image database in the WWW server disk 33.
As shown in FIG. 2, a directory for each monitoring station 1 is provided under an image directory in the image database, and further below the directory, image data transmitted from each monitoring station 1 is stored for each image acquisition date and time. It has a hierarchical structure stored as a file.

  As described above, in the present system, since only the receiving WWW client 31 has access right on the intranet after the image directory, the process of storing data from the receiving WWW client 31 to the image database is simplified. It is something that can be.

  An image search page stored in the WWW server disk 33 is an HTML document (homepage) for browsing image information in the WWW server disk 33 from the WWW client 34 in the master station 3 connected to the intranet. The WWW server disk 33 has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

  Then, when the URL of the image search page is accessed from the WWW client 34 on the intranet, the image search means of the WWW server 32 starts the search processing.

Next, the operation of the present system will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is an operation block diagram of the present system.
As shown in FIG. 3, in the present system, first, the image input means 1a of the monitoring station 1 acquires an image to be monitored, the information source coding means 1b digitizes the input image, and the monitoring station ID adding means 1c. The ID of the own station is added to the encoded image data, the image acquisition time adding means 1d reads the time from an internal clock and adds the image acquisition time, and the data modulation / demodulation means 1e modulates a series of data. It is transmitted to the transmission line 2.

  Here, the image input unit 1a in FIG. 3 corresponds to the image input device 11 shown in FIG. 1, and the information source encoding unit 1b, the monitoring station ID adding unit 1c, and the image acquisition time adding unit 1d correspond to the image in FIG. The data modulation / demodulation means 1e provided in the transmission device 12 corresponds to the modem 13 in FIG.

  Then, in the master station 3 on the receiving side, the data modulation / demodulation means 3a demodulates the data received from the transmission line 2, the monitoring station ID checking means 3b reads the ID in the received data, and stores a plurality of monitoring data registered in advance. It is checked whether the ID matches the ID of the station 1. If the ID matches, the image data is sent to the data storage unit 3d, and the data storage unit 3d stores the received data in the WWW server disk 33 in a hierarchical manner. If the ID in the received data is not the registered ID in the monitoring station ID checking means 3b, the received data is sent to the ID error processing means 3c, the received data is discarded, and the data is sent to the WWW server disk 33. Store the error log.

  The data modulation / demodulation means 3a in FIG. 3 is the modem 30 shown in FIG. 1. The monitoring station ID check means 3b, the ID error processing means 3c, and a part of the data storage means 3d are the receiving WWW client in FIG. 31 is an image receiving / managing means, and a part of the data storage means 3 d is provided in the WWW server 32.

Here, a data format of data transmitted from the monitoring station 1 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view showing a format of an image packet transmitted from the monitoring station 1.
As shown in FIG. 4, the image packet transmitted from the monitoring station 1 includes a monitoring station ID field, an image acquisition time field, and a data field, and the monitoring station ID and the image acquisition time have a fixed length. , The data field is of variable length. The encoded image data is stored in the data field.

  Then, the information is encoded into the format shown in FIG. 4 by the information source encoding unit 1b, the monitoring station ID adding unit 1c, and the image acquisition time adding unit 1d shown in FIG. It is supposed to be.

  In the master station 3 on the receiving side, the receiving WWW client 31 stores the image data in the image database of the WWW server disk 33 based on the monitoring station ID and the image acquisition time in the received image packet. is there.

Next, an operation when browsing the image information in the WWW server disk 33 from the Web browser 35 of the WWW client 34 will be described.
When browsing the image data in the WWW server disk 33 from the Web browser 35 of the WWW client 34, the user accesses the image search page of the WWW server 32 from the Web browser 35 via the intranet, and inputs a desired monitoring station 1 ID. .

  In the WWW server 32, upon receiving the image search request, the image search means searches the image database of the WWW server disk 33 for a directory of the monitoring station ID input from the WWW client 34, and searches for the image data of the monitoring station 1. Create a file list.

  Then, the WWW client 34 displays the image search page on its own display unit based on the file list created by the WWW server 32. At this time, the latest image of the monitoring station 1 corresponding to the input monitoring station ID is displayed as an initial screen.

  As described above, in the present system, the function of distributing image data to the intranet 34 is integrated not in each monitoring station 1 but in the WWW server 32 in the master station 3. The communication cost can be greatly reduced as compared with the method of transmitting the data to the server.

Here, processing in the image search means of the WWW server 32 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing in the image search means of the WWW server 32.
As shown in FIG. 5, the image search means of the WWW server 32 starts a search process when an image search page is accessed from the WWW client 34, and first searches a directory of the monitoring station ID from the image database (100). ), List the monitoring stations 1 currently operating. Thus, even if the monitoring station 1 is added or abolished, it can be used as it is without changing the image search page.

Then, the image search means of the WWW server 32 creates an image file list for each monitoring station ID (102). This process is performed for all directories (monitoring station IDs), and when the image file list is created for the final directory (104), the search process ends.
An image search page is displayed on the WWW client 34 based on the file list created in this manner.

Next, a display screen on the WWW client 34 side will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of a display screen at the time of search in the WWW client 34.
When the user accesses the image search page from the WWW client 34 and inputs a specific monitoring station ID, an initial screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed.

  The area 41 in FIG. 6 is an area for displaying the latest image acquired by the specified monitoring station 1, and the area 42 is for displaying a list of monitoring station IDs. The area 43 displays a list of image files stored in the directory of the monitoring station ID selected by the area 42, and is a command button for switching a monitoring station ID or a file to be displayed. The area 44 displays the monitoring station ID and the image acquisition date and time of the image data displayed in the area 41.

  Here, the monitoring station ID and the list of image files are displayed based on the file list created by the image search means of the WWW server 32 by the search processing shown in FIG.

  Then, from the file list, the image of the file designated in the area 42 and the area 43 is taken into the area 41 of the image search page and displayed on one screen. In this system, when the monitoring station ID is switched by the area 42, the latest image file among the image files stored under the monitoring station ID is output.

  According to the remote monitoring system (this system) according to the embodiment of the present invention, the receiving WWW client 31 in the master station 3 collectively receives the image data transmitted from the plurality of monitoring stations 1 and receives the image data in a WWW server disk. Since the WWW server 32 searches for and outputs the image database of the WWW server disk 33 based on requests from a plurality of WWW clients 34 connected via an intranet, monitoring is performed. As compared with the case where the station 1 is provided with a server function, the configuration of the monitoring station 1 can be greatly simplified to reduce the cost of system construction, and the reception and storage of image data can be performed by a WWW client for reception. The provision of the information processing apparatus 31 has an effect that the processing of the WWW server 32 can be reduced.

  According to this system, the image data is stored in the image database for each monitoring station ID for each image acquisition time, and the WWW server 32 receives a request to switch the monitoring station ID to be viewed from the WWW client 34. Since the latest image data stored under the newly specified monitoring station ID is output, the client can easily switch the monitoring station image and browse from the latest image. This has the effect of improving convenience.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is suitable for an image storage device in which a system can be constructed at low cost and maintenance can be easily performed.

It is a system configuration block diagram of a remote monitoring system (this system) according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image database in a WWW server disk 33. It is an operation | movement block diagram of this system. FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing a format of an image packet transmitted from the monitoring station 1. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process in an image search unit of the WWW server 32. FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of a display screen at the time of a search in a WWW client 34.

Explanation of reference numerals

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Monitoring station, 2 ... Transmission line, 3 ... Master station, 11 ... Image input device, 12 ... Image transmission device, 13 ... Modem, 31 ... Reception WWW client, 32 ... WWW server, 33 ... WWW server disk, 34 ... WWW client, 35 ... Web browser

Claims (2)

An image database that stores image data, and a server having a search unit that searches the image database based on a request from a client connected to a network and outputs image data,
A receiving client that receives the image data transmitted from the monitoring station and stores the received image data in the image database,
The image storage device, wherein the receiving client separates and independently receives and manages image data from the monitoring station from the server. A receiving client stores image data via the network in the image database in the order of image acquisition at the monitoring station for each identification number of the monitoring station added to the received image data,
When the server has an image search page of the image database and receives an image search request from a client connected to a network by accessing the image search page, the server corresponds to the identification number of a desired monitoring station from the image database. 2. The image storage device according to claim 1, wherein the latest image information is distributed via a network.

Images