JP7146416B2 - Information processing device, information processing system, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a surveillance system that performs surveillance using a plurality of surveillance cameras arranged over a wide area.

A monitoring system includes, for example, a plurality of monitoring cameras, and a management device that analyzes images captured by each monitoring camera and controls the operation of each monitoring camera. The management device and each surveillance camera are connected via a network. When monitoring a large area, dozens to more than hundreds of surveillance cameras are placed throughout the area. The management device acquires the video captured by each monitoring camera, records the video, analyzes the video, displays the analysis result, and the like. The management device detects objects to be monitored, such as suspicious persons and congestion, by analyzing images acquired from the surveillance cameras. In order to obtain suitable analysis results, the settings of parameters and the like of the monitoring camera are adjusted according to the purpose of analysis and the object to be monitored.

Therefore, the settings of many surveillance cameras are individually changed manually or automatically. Due to the number of surveillance cameras and the vastness of their installation area, it is desirable for the management device to automatically change the settings of each surveillance camera. However, even if the settings are automatically changed by the management device, it is not realistic to change the settings of the monitoring cameras in response to the monitoring target whose status changes according to the situation, due to the complexity of the work involved. do not have.

Patent Literature 1 discloses an invention of a wide area monitoring system that easily compares equipment data between buildings in real time, and automatically controls equipment in a plurality of buildings in conjunction with each other. A wide-area monitoring system includes a management device that collects and monitors state change information such as changes in the start/stop states of a plurality of devices placed in a target building. This management device activates a pre-registered event program when an object to be monitored undergoes a specific state change, and performs appropriate processing (for example, device start/stop processing) in response to the state change. settings.

Japanese Patent No. 2012-53549

In the wide area monitoring system of Patent Document 1, the main control target is start/stop processing based on the internal state of the equipment. In this wide area monitoring system, it is difficult to control the equipment autonomously in situations where the monitored object itself changes according to the situation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve such conventional problems, the main object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring system capable of automatically setting a monitoring camera according to the situation of a monitored object.

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus that generates setting information for a plurality of imaging devices corresponding to a plurality of sub-areas obtained by dividing a wide area, wherein the image captured by each of the plurality of imaging devices is generated. Acquisition means for acquiring event information indicating that a monitored object has been detected from at least one of the images ; Determining means for determining a group of the imaging devices, the camera parameters for the imaging devices determined based on the table information in which the relationship between the event information and the camera parameters is preset, and the determination based on the event information a reflection condition indicating a time at which the camera parameters are to be actually reflected in the imaging devices included in the group; is set for the imaging device that satisfies

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to automatically set a surveillance camera according to the situation of a monitoring object.

Overall configuration diagram of the monitoring system. 4(a) to 4(c) are configuration diagrams of a sub-area monitoring device; FIG. 4A and 4B are configuration diagrams of a management device; FIG. (a), (b) is a structural illustration figure of an integrated management apparatus. FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram of an image displayed on an output device; 4 is a flowchart showing processing for generating setting information; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of correspondence between events and setting information;

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(overall structure)
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a monitoring system including a management device of this embodiment. The monitoring system 1 controls the operations of a plurality of monitoring cameras 131 to 134 arranged in a wide area 140 to monitor the occurrence of suspicious persons and events. The wide area 140 is divided into a plurality of sub-areas and managed. In this embodiment, an example in which a wide area 140 is divided into three sub-areas 141 to 143 will be described. The number of divisions of the wide area 140 is not limited to this. Each of the sub-areas 141-143 is captured by one or more surveillance cameras. Here, sub-area 141 is captured by surveillance camera 131 . Subarea 142 is captured by surveillance camera 132 . A sub-area 143 is captured by surveillance cameras 133 and 134 . Although the sub-areas 141 to 143 are adjacent in FIG. 1, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the sub-areas 141-143 may be provided at separate positions.

The monitoring system 1 includes multiple management devices 101 and 102 , multiple sub-area monitoring devices 111 , 112 and 113 and an integrated management device 121 . The management devices 101 and 102, the subarea monitoring devices 111, 112 and 113, and the integrated management device 121 are communicably connected via a network . The network 130 can use, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet, a public communication line network, or a combination thereof.

One sub-area monitoring device takes charge of monitoring one sub-area. In this embodiment, the sub-area monitoring device 111 is connected to the monitoring camera 131 and monitors the sub-area 141 . The sub-area monitoring device 112 is connected to the monitoring camera 132 and monitors the sub-area 142 . The sub-area monitoring device 113 is connected to monitoring cameras 133 and 134 and monitors a sub-area 143 . Each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 operates independently and monitors the sub-areas 141-143 in charge based on the images captured by the monitoring cameras 131-134. Each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 detects an object to be monitored, such as a person, from an image, and if the object to be monitored moves, it is monitored by tracking it. Each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113, for example, based on the images of the sub-areas 141-143 captured by the monitoring cameras 131-134, uses face detection or human body detection technology when the monitored object is a person. Discover monitored targets. Each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 acquires images of monitored objects registered in the monitoring system 1 from the management devices 101 and 102 or the integrated management device 121, and detects the monitored objects based on the obtained images. Each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 tracks a monitoring target detected by position prediction, template matching, or the like, for example. The sub-area monitoring device and the monitoring camera may be configured integrally.

A plurality of management devices 101 and 102 cooperate to perform distributed management of a plurality of sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. If the number of subarea monitoring devices is small, there may be only one management device. If the number of subarea monitoring devices is large, more management devices may be added. Management devices 101 and 102 acquire monitoring results such as the number and attributes of monitoring targets from sub-area monitoring devices 111 , 112 and 113 via network 130 . The management devices 101 and 102 can individually or collectively display the monitoring results obtained from the respective sub-area monitoring devices 111, 112 and 113 on a predetermined display.

The integrated management device 121 integrates and manages the management devices 101 and 102 . The integrated management device 121 is provided when the number of sub-area monitoring devices is enormous and the processing load of managing the sub-area monitoring devices is large with only a plurality of management devices.
When the integrated management device 121 is provided, each of the management devices 101 and 102 is assigned sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 to manage. For example, management device 101 manages sub-area monitoring device 111 and sub-area monitoring device 112 , and management device 102 manages sub-area monitoring device 113 . As a result, the integrated management device 121 obtains the monitoring result of the sub-area monitoring device 111 via the management device 101 instead of obtaining the monitoring result directly from the sub-area monitoring device 111, for example. The integrated management device 121 can display the acquired monitoring results individually or collectively on a predetermined display.

The sub-area monitoring devices 111, 112, 113, the management devices 101, 102, and the integrated management device 121 are treated in exactly the same manner on the network 130. FIG. Communication between each device is realized by an appropriate communication protocol.

In the monitoring system 1 as described above, sub-area monitoring devices are provided according to the number of sub-areas. There is a one-to-one correspondence between subarea monitoring devices and subareas. The number of management devices and integrated management devices is provided according to the number of subarea monitoring devices. The sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 to be managed by the management devices 101 and 102 are not assigned in advance, and the assignment may be changed dynamically by the integrated management device 121 depending on the processing load. .

The monitoring system 1 divides groups of sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 and monitoring cameras 131 to 134 into groups and controls them. The grouping of the surveillance cameras 131 to 134 depends on the sub-area to be photographed, the installation conditions (the height of the installation position of the surveillance camera, the positional relationship such as by the window), and the external environment (outdoors, indoors, subject density of the monitored object, etc.). done on the basis of The surveillance cameras 131 to 134 are grouped according to one or a combination of these conditions. The grouping of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 may be performed in advance, or may be performed dynamically by the management apparatuses 101 and 102 or the integrated management apparatus 121 based on the monitoring results. Depending on the grouping of the monitoring cameras 131-134, the management devices 101, 102 or the integrated management device 121 also groups the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113.

(Sub-area monitoring device)
FIG. 2 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a sub-area monitoring device. FIG. 2A illustrates the hardware configuration of the subarea monitoring device 111. As shown in FIG. Other sub-area monitoring devices 112 and 113 also have the same hardware configuration. However, two monitoring cameras 133 and 134 are connected to the sub-area monitoring device 113 . FIG. 2(b) is a functional block diagram of the sub-area monitoring device 111 to which one monitoring camera 131 is connected. FIG. 2(c) is a functional block diagram of the sub-area monitoring device 113 to which two monitoring cameras 133 and 134 are connected.

The hardware configuration will be explained. The sub-area monitoring device 111 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 20, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 21, and a RAM (Random
Access Memory) 22. The CPU 20 controls the operation of the sub-area monitoring device 111 by executing computer programs stored in the ROM 21 using the RAM 22 as a work area. The subarea monitoring device 111 has a communication interface (I/F) 23 and an input/output I/F 24 . Communication I/F 23 controls communication with other devices via network 130 . The input/output I/F 24 controls communication with the surveillance camera 131 . CPU 20 transmits images obtained from surveillance camera 131 to management devices 101 and 102 via network 130 using communication I/F 23 . The CPU 20, ROM 21, RAM 22, communication I/F 23, and input/output I/F 24 are communicably connected via a bus. When a plurality of monitoring cameras 133 and 134 are connected like the sub-area monitoring device 113, the input/output I/F 24 is provided according to the number of monitoring cameras.

Functions of the subarea monitoring device 111 will be described. The sub-area monitoring device 111 functions as a camera control section 201 , an event detection section 202 , a sub-area monitoring section 203 , an inter-sub-area correspondence section 204 and a communication control section 205 . Each functional block of this embodiment is implemented by the CPU 20 executing a predetermined program, but at least a part of them may be implemented by hardware.

The camera control unit 201 controls photographing operations by the surveillance camera 131 . Therefore, the camera control unit 201 transmits a control signal for controlling the operation to the surveillance camera 131 . The camera control unit 201 sets various parameters (focal length, exposure correction, image quality, etc.) for the monitoring camera 131 at the time of photographing. Also, the camera control unit 201 acquires an image of the sub-area 141 from the surveillance camera 131 .

Based on the image acquired by the camera control unit 201, the event detection unit 202 detects, as an event, a preset event, such as the entry of a monitored object into the sub-area 141 in charge. The sub-area monitoring unit 203 detects and tracks the monitored object using the video acquired by the camera control unit 201 according to the event detected by the event detection unit 202, and simultaneously acquires the attribute information of the monitored object.
The sub-area monitoring unit 203 detects and tracks a monitoring target by using, for example, a difference between video frames and a template matching technique, and monitors the monitoring target. A template image used in the template matching technique is a monitored image registered in the monitoring system 1 . The sub-area monitoring unit 203 acquires images to be monitored in advance from the management devices 101 and 102 or the integrated management device 121 by the communication control unit 205 . The monitoring target attribute information is, for example, the number of monitoring targets included in the video within the sub-area 141, the positions of the monitoring targets within the video, and the like. The monitoring target attribute information also includes information representing characteristics for identifying the monitoring target detected as an event. For example, if the monitored object detected as an event is a person, the attribute information of the monitored object includes information such as age and gender, which can be obtained mainly from facial images, and information representing the characteristics of the whole body, such as clothing and body shape. include. The sub-area monitoring unit 203 transmits the acquired attribute information of the monitored object to the management apparatuses 101 and 102 via the network 130 by the communication control unit 205 as event information and additional event information indicating that an event has occurred. The event information includes the type of event that occurred and the attribute information of the monitoring target. The additional event information is typically information such as the time, detected position, situation (surrounding objects, people accompanying the subject, etc.), and parameters of the monitoring camera used to capture the image. Sub-area monitoring section 203 may include the function of event detection section 202 .

The inter-subarea correspondence unit 204 transmits the attribute information of the monitoring targets that may enter the subarea 141 in charge from the other subareas 142 and 143 to the management devices 101 and 102 via the network 130 by the communication control unit 205 . Get from When the sub-area monitoring unit 203 detects a monitoring target that has entered the sub-area 141 , the inter-sub-area correspondence unit 204 acquires the attribute information of the monitoring target from the sub-area monitoring unit 203 . Inter-subarea correspondence section 204 associates the attribute information acquired from subarea monitoring section 203 with the attribute information acquired from management devices 101 and 102 . In other words, inter-subarea correspondence unit 204 associates the monitoring target grasped in adjacent subarea 142 with the monitoring target grasped in subarea 141 in charge. Inter-subarea correspondence section 204 transmits the association result to management devices 101 and 102 via network 130 by communication control section 205 .

Functions of the sub-area monitoring device 113 will be described. The sub-area monitoring device 111 includes first and second camera control units 401 and 411, first and second sub-area monitoring units 402 and 412, an integration processing unit 403, an inter-subarea correspondence unit 404, and a communication control unit 405. Function. Each functional block of this embodiment is realized by executing a predetermined program by the CPU of the sub-area monitoring device 113, but at least a part thereof may be realized by hardware.

A first camera control unit 401 controls the shooting operation of the monitoring camera 133 . Therefore, the first camera control unit 401 transmits a control signal for controlling the operation to the surveillance camera 133 . The first camera control unit 401 sets various parameters for the monitoring camera 133 at the time of shooting. Also, the first camera control unit 401 acquires the image of the imaging area of the monitoring camera 133 within the sub-area 143 from the monitoring camera 133 .
A second camera control unit 411 controls the shooting operation of the monitoring camera 134 . Therefore, the second camera control unit 411 transmits a control signal for controlling the operation to the surveillance camera 134 . The second camera control unit 411 sets various parameters for the surveillance camera 134 at the time of photographing. Also, the second camera control unit 411 acquires the image of the imaging area of the monitoring camera 134 in the sub-area 143 from the monitoring camera 134 .

The first sub-area monitoring unit 402 detects and tracks the monitored object from the image acquired by the first camera control unit 401, and simultaneously acquires the attribute information of the monitored object. The second sub-area monitoring unit 412 detects and tracks the monitored object from the image acquired by the second camera control unit 411, and simultaneously acquires the attribute information of the monitored object. The first sub-area monitoring section 402 and the second sub-area monitoring section 412 each have the function of combining the event detection section 202 and the sub-area monitoring section 203 . The first sub-area monitoring unit 402 and the second sub-area monitoring unit 412 transmit the acquired attribute information of the monitoring target to the integrated processing unit 403 as a monitoring result.

The integration processing unit 403 integrates the monitoring results obtained from the first sub-area monitoring unit 402 and the second sub-area monitoring unit 412 to generate a monitoring result for the entire sub-area 143 . The integration processing unit 403 compares and corrects attribute information such as the number and positions of monitoring targets and information representing information characteristics for identifying monitoring targets, and outputs the integrated attribute information as the final monitoring result. Generate. The integration processing unit 403 transmits the generated final monitoring result to the management apparatuses 101 and 102 via the network 130 by the communication control unit 405 .

Inter-subarea correspondence section 404 associates monitoring targets by the same processing as inter-subarea correspondence section 204 . The inter-subarea correspondence unit 404 associates the monitoring targets by associating the attribute information acquired from the integration processing unit 403 with the attribute information acquired from the management devices 101 and 102 . Inter-subarea correspondence section 404 transmits the association result to management devices 101 and 102 via network 130 by communication control section 405 .

The configurations of the sub-area monitoring device 111 to which one monitoring camera is connected and the sub-area monitoring device 113 to which two monitoring cameras are connected have been described above. More surveillance cameras may be connected to the sub-area surveillance device. The sub-area monitoring device is provided with a number of camera control units and sub-area monitoring units corresponding to the number of connected monitoring cameras.

(Management device)
The management devices 101 and 102 track the monitored objects moving between the sub-areas 141-143 based on various information obtained from the respective sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. Also, the management devices 101 and 102 set the parameters of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 and the monitoring cameras 131-134 based on various information acquired from the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. This configuration enables each sub-area monitor 111-113 and each monitor camera 131-134 to capture and analyze video to facilitate detection and tracking of monitored objects. FIG. 3 is an exemplary configuration diagram of a management device that performs such processing. 3A illustrates the hardware configuration of the management device 101. FIG. FIG. 3B is a functional block diagram of the management device 101. As shown in FIG. The management device 102 also has the same hardware and functional block configuration as the management device 101 .

The hardware configuration will be explained. The management device 101 is a computer system that includes a CPU 30, a ROM 31, and a RAM 32. The CPU 30 controls the operation of the management device 101 by executing computer programs stored in the ROM 31 using the RAM 32 as a work area. The management device 101 has a communication I/F 33 , an input I/F 34 , an output I/F 35 and a mass storage device 36 . The CPU 30, ROM 31, RAM 32, communication I/F 33, input I/F 34, output I/F 35, and mass storage device 36 are communicably connected via a bus.

Communication I/F 33 controls communication with other devices via network 130 . The input I/F 34 controls communication with the input device 37 . The input device 37 is a keyboard, pointing device, touch panel, or the like, and is used when the user inputs data or instructions. The input I/F 34 transmits data and instructions input from the input device 37 to the CPU 30 . The output I/F 35 controls communication with the output device 38 . The output device 38 is, for example, a display. The output I/F 35 causes the output device 38 to display an image according to an instruction from the CPU 30 . The large-capacity storage device 36 is a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive), and stores images captured by the surveillance camera. The mass storage device 36 will store images that the management device 101 acquires from at least one of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. The mass storage device 36 stores images of monitored objects registered in the monitoring system 1 . The CPU 30 transmits images to be monitored to the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 in advance.

Functions of the management device 101 will be described. The management device 101 functions as an input control unit 301 , a situation grasping unit 302 , a communication control unit 303 , a parameter determination unit 304 and an output control unit 305 . Each functional block of this embodiment is implemented by the CPU 30 executing a predetermined program, but at least a part of them may be implemented by hardware.

The input control unit 301 receives inputs such as instructions from the input device 37 . For example, the user inputs instructions from the input device 37, such as tracking of a specific monitored object, grasping of the situation in a specific sub-area, and the like. The registration of the image of the monitoring target is performed by the input control unit 301 receiving the image from the input device 37 and inputting various information specifying the monitoring target.

The status grasping unit 302 performs processing such as tracking of a specific monitoring target, grasping of the situation of a specific sub-area, etc., according to instructions from the input device 37 received by the input control unit 301 . The status grasping unit 302 requests data necessary for processing according to the received instruction from each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 via the communication control unit 303 . The requested data is, for example, video and attribute information. The status grasping unit 302 executes processing according to data acquired from any one of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 in response to a request. If it is clear which sub-area monitoring device possesses the necessary data, the status grasping unit 302 requests the sub-area monitoring device for the data and acquires the data. The processing result of the status grasping unit 302 and the data (video, attribute information, etc.) used for the processing may be transmitted to the integrated management device 121 via the communication control unit 303 .

The parameter determination unit 304 acquires event information and additional event information of events occurring in the subareas 141 to 143 from the subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 via the communication control unit 303 . The parameter determining unit 304 generates setting information such as appropriate control parameters for the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 according to the acquired event information and event additional information. Control parameters include, for example, shooting direction, focal length, resolution, shutter speed, aperture (F number), photometry mode, focal length, exposure correction step value, color space, frame rate, and the like.

Parameter determination section 304 transmits the determined control parameters to sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 via communication control section 303 . For example, when it is confirmed from the event information that a person to be monitored has entered a sub-area, the parameter determining unit 304 adjusts the angle of view of the corresponding surveillance camera and adjusts the angle of view of the corresponding surveillance camera according to the lighting direction so that the person can be easily photographed. Determining control parameters to effect changes in exposure. The parameter determination unit 304 holds a table in which, for example, the situation in the sub-area based on the event information and the setting information representing the setting contents of the control parameters that can be set for the surveillance cameras are associated with each other. The parameter determination unit 304 determines control parameters by referring to this table. Control parameters may be transmitted to the integrated management device 121 via the communication control unit 303 . Details of the processing performed by the parameter determination unit 304 and the control parameters will be described later.

The output control unit 305 displays the result of processing by the situation grasping unit 302 on the output device 38, for example, a display. For example, when grasping the situation in a specific sub-area, the situation grasping unit 302 acquires necessary data from the sub-area monitoring device in charge of the sub-area to be grasped. Required data include attribute information such as the number of monitored objects existing in the sub-area and their positions, and the result of association of monitored objects between sub-area monitoring devices. When the necessary data is acquired, the situation grasping unit 302 plots the current position of the monitoring target and its movement restrictions on the pre-stored map images of the respective sub-areas 141 to 143, for example, to generate an output image. The output image is displayed on the display by the output control unit 305 .

(Integrated management device)
The integrated management device 121 tracks monitoring objects moving between the subareas 141 to 143 based on various information acquired from the respective subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 via the management devices 101 and 102 . Also, the integrated management device 121 sets the parameters of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 and the monitoring cameras 131-134 based on various information acquired from the management devices 101 and 102 and the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. I do. This configuration enables each sub-area monitor 111-113 and each monitor camera 131-134 to capture and analyze video to facilitate detection and tracking of monitored objects. FIG. 4 is an exemplary configuration diagram of the integrated management device 121 that performs such processing. 4A illustrates the hardware configuration of the integrated management device 121. FIG. FIG. 4B is a functional block diagram of the integrated management device 121. As shown in FIG.

The hardware configuration will be explained. The integrated management device 121 is a computer system that includes a CPU 40, a ROM 41, and a RAM 42. The CPU 40 controls the operation of the integrated management device 121 by executing computer programs stored in the ROM 41 using the RAM 42 as a work area. Integrated management device 121 includes communication I/F 43 , input I/F 44 , output I/F 45 , and mass storage device 46 . The CPU 40, ROM 41, RAM 42, communication I/F 43, input I/F 44, output I/F 45, and mass storage device 46 are communicably connected via a bus.

Communication I/F 43 controls communication with other devices via network 130 . The input I/F 44 controls communication with the input device 47 . The input device 47 is a keyboard, pointing device, touch panel, or the like, and is used when the user inputs data or instructions. The input I/F 44 transmits data and instructions input from the input device 47 to the CPU 40 . The output I/F 45 controls communication with the output device 48 . The output device 48 is, for example, a display. The output I/F 45 causes the output device 48 to display an image according to an instruction from the CPU 40 . At least one of the output device 48 connected to the integrated management device 121 and the output device 38 connected to the management devices 101 and 102 may be provided. A large-capacity storage device 46 is an HDD or SSD, and stores images captured by the surveillance cameras 131-134. The mass storage device 46 stores images of monitored objects registered in the monitoring system 1 . The CPU 40 transmits images to be monitored in advance to the management devices 101 and 102 and the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113.

Functions of the integrated management device 121 will be described. The integrated management device 121 functions as an input control section 501 , an information management section 502 , a communication control section 503 , an integration parameter determination section 504 and an output control section 505 . Each functional block of this embodiment is implemented by the CPU 40 executing a predetermined program, but at least a part of them may be implemented by hardware.

The input control unit 501 receives inputs such as instructions from the input device 47 . For example, registration of an image of a monitoring target is performed by the input control unit 501 accepting the image from the input device 47 and inputting various information specifying the monitoring target.

Information management unit 502 acquires necessary information from management devices 101 and 102 and sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 via communication control unit 503 . For example, when a person matching a pre-registered monitoring target image (for example, a face image) is detected, the information management unit 502 stores event information such as the detection time, camera position, and which face image matches. Get information and additional event information. At that time, the information management unit 502 may also acquire the parameters and the image at the time of shooting of the surveillance camera that detected the person. The information management unit 502 causes the output control unit 505 to display an image obtained by editing the acquired information on the output device 48, for example, a display.

The integrated parameter determination unit 504 determines overall control parameters for the monitoring system 1 and transmits them to the management devices 101 and 102 via the communication control unit 503 . The functions of the integrated parameter determination unit 504 are substantially the same as those of the parameter determination units 304 of the management apparatuses 101 and 102 .

FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram of an image displayed on the output device 48 (display). A similar image can also be displayed on the output device 38 . An image generated by the information management unit 502 is displayed on the display. An example in which an image is divided into three divided screens 601, 602, and 603 will be described below, but the present invention is not limited to this.

A split screen 601 displays the entire wide area 140 to be monitored. The split screen 601 clearly shows the sub-areas 141 to 143 on the map of the entire wide area 140, and superimposes the positions of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 on it. Instead of the map, the split screen 601 may clearly show the sub-areas 141 to 143 on a previously prepared bird's-eye view image, and superimpose the positions of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 thereon.

A split screen 602 displays live images of a specific surveillance camera. Selection of the monitoring camera can be made by the input device 47 from the map display of the split screen 601 . After selecting a sub-area with an input device 47 such as a pointing device, the user enlarges and displays the sub-area, and further selects a monitoring camera within the sub-area. Through such an operation, the live image of the surveillance camera is displayed on the split screen 602 . In the example of FIG. 5, the subarea 141 is selected and the live image of the surveillance camera 131 is displayed. Note that the live video displayed on the split screen 602 may be video from a surveillance camera that meets a preset condition instead of being specified by the user. For example, when a specific monitoring target is detected, the integrated management device 121 may acquire and display the image of the monitoring camera from the sub-area monitoring device that detected the event.

A split screen 603 is an example of displaying event information and additional event information when a specific event occurs. A specific event is, for example, detection of a specific monitoring target (person) as described above. The event information and additional event information to be displayed are, for example, the registered name of the specified person, time, camera position, and monitoring camera parameters (focal length, exposure, image quality, etc.) at the time of shooting. The parameters of the monitoring camera may be changed from the split screen 603 according to the user's designation. The split screen 603 may display not only the parameters of a specific surveillance camera, but also the parameters of all surveillance cameras belonging to a specific sub-area. In this case, the parameters of all surveillance cameras belonging to a specific sub-area may be changeable according to the user's designation. When changing the parameters of the monitoring camera, the user selects a parameter item using the input device 47 and changes the parameter value by inputting a numerical value or the like. The integrated parameter determination unit 504 changes the parameters of the monitoring camera based on the parameter values thus input.

Surveillance cameras for which parameters are displayed and parameters are specified may be limited to surveillance cameras that match conditions specified by the user in advance. The conditions are input from the input device 47 and set in the information management unit 502 . For example, the user designates a surveillance camera placed outdoors and the type of subject (person, car, moving body, registered person, etc.) as a condition. The parameters of surveillance cameras that meet this condition are limited to those that can be displayed or specified. As a result, it is possible to reduce the user's trouble of checking and setting camera parameters individually.

The integrated management device 121 may determine the monitoring camera that displays the captured image according to the monitored object that has captured the image. For example, the information management unit 502 estimates and predicts the flow line of a specific person using face recognition technology or the like. The information management unit 502 can display and set the camera parameters of not only the surveillance camera that has shot a specific person, but also the camera parameters of a plurality of surveillance cameras whose shooting ranges include estimated and predicted flow lines.

(Surveillance camera imaging condition setting processing)
The monitoring system 1 of the present embodiment as described above changes the setting of the photographing conditions (camera parameters) of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 as the monitored object moves, thereby detecting and tracking the monitored object more preferably. It can be carried out. FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a process of generating setting information for setting shooting conditions and the like of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 when a predetermined event such as the entry of an object to be monitored occurs. Here, an example in which the management apparatus 101 performs processing for generating setting information for the surveillance cameras 131 to 134 will be described, but the management apparatus 102 or the integrated management apparatus 121 may perform the processing.

The management device 101 obtains from any of the subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 a notification indicating that an event that has occurred in the subareas 141 to 143 it is in charge of has been detected (S101). For example, the management device 101 acquires event information and additional event information as a notification indicating that an event has been detected. The management device 101 saves the acquired event information and additional event information.
The sub-area monitoring devices 111-113, for example, when a pre-registered monitoring target (person) appears in the sub-areas 141-143 they are in charge of, use human body detection and face image matching technology to detect whether the monitoring target has appeared. Detect the event. The sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 compare the images of the monitoring targets in the video acquired from the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 with the images of the monitoring targets registered in advance using known face recognition technology. When the comparison results reach a predetermined degree of similarity, the subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 determine that an event has been detected, and notify the management device 101 of the occurrence of the event.

When the monitored object is an automobile or the like, unique information is registered in advance for each monitored object such as a license plate. The sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 detect an event by comparing pre-registered information with images of monitored objects in video images acquired from the monitoring cameras 131-134.

The management device 101 that has received the notification of event detection groups a predetermined number of sub-area monitoring devices from the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 according to the content of the obtained event (S102). The management device 101 typically performs grouping based on the current location of the monitored object and the closeness in distance between the sub-areas 141-143. For example, the management device 101 groups sub-area monitoring devices in charge of sub-areas adjacent to the sub-area including the current position of the monitoring target. In addition, the management device 101 may group sub-areas according to conditions such as crowding of people in the images captured by the monitoring cameras 131 to 134, lighting conditions, and the like.

The management device 101 determines setting information to be set for each monitoring camera connected to the grouped sub-area monitoring devices, based on the event information and the additional event information (S103). The management device 101 transmits the setting information to the grouped sub-area monitoring devices. The sub-area monitoring device sets shooting conditions and the like of the monitoring camera based on the acquired setting information. The setting information is typically camera parameters. For example, the setting information includes shooting direction, focal length, resolution, shutter speed, aperture (F value), photometry mode, focal length, exposure correction step value, color space, frame rate, and the like.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of correspondence between events and setting information. The management device 101 stores such a table in advance in the RAM 32, for example, and determines setting information by referring to this table when an event occurs. In this table, the focal length, exposure correction, and image quality to be set for the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 as setting information are determined according to the type of event information.

Note that the setting information may be parameters for the subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 to perform video analysis. Specifically, the setting information may be parameters for detecting a face, such as parameters for changing the size and orientation of a face to be detected. The sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 analyze the images obtained from the monitoring cameras 131-134 based on the setting information.

The setting information may include reflection conditions such as the time and criteria for actually reflecting the settings on the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 and the monitoring cameras 131-134. This is because the setting information may be the optimum setting for tracking the monitored object, and may not be the preferred setting for general shooting situations. The subarea monitoring devices 111 to 113 change the setting based on the setting information when the reflection condition is satisfied. When a monitored object exists in the sub-area it is in charge of, or when the possibility of its existence becomes higher than a predetermined value, the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 actually reflect the setting information. The management device 101 determines the time and criteria for reflecting the setting information based on, for example, event information and additional event information. For example, when tracking a monitored object, the management device 101 measures the movement direction and speed of the monitored object based on the event information, and predicts the time when the monitored object will appear in each of the sub-areas 141-143. Based on this prediction result, the management device 101 includes the prediction result in the setting information so that each of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 reflects the setting information. As a result, the setting based on the setting information is reflected by the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 at the predicted result time.

In this manner, the management device 101 updates setting information such as camera parameters for each sub-area according to the situation of the event that has occurred. As a result, the monitoring system 1 can monitor the monitoring target under more suitable conditions. The management device 101 can collectively perform calculations related to the setting information in order to determine the setting information after grouping the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113. In addition, since the parameters of the monitoring cameras controlled within the same group can be set in association with each other, it is possible to realize advanced monitoring of the monitoring target. Therefore, setting information can be reflected more quickly.

By switching the settings of the sub-area monitoring devices 111-113 and the monitoring cameras 131-134 depending on whether or not a monitoring target appears in the sub-areas 141-143, the following effects can be obtained.
In normal situations, when not tracking a particular target, a surveillance camera may, for example, use the settings necessary to determine whether an abnormal situation is occurring, typically the entire screen at roughly the same brightness. Any setting that allows this is acceptable. However, when distinguishing and tracking a specific person's face in a backlight condition or in the evening when there is a significant change in luminance in the screen, the sub-area monitoring device may not even be able to detect the face correctly under normal settings. be. In such a case, the surveillance camera shoots the position where the surveillance object is likely to appear even if the background is slightly overexposed by setting the white balance so that the human face can be easily distinguished. As a result, the sub-area monitoring device can improve the detection accuracy of the monitored object. However, such extreme settings should be limited to cases where there is a high possibility that the monitored object exists within the sub-area. Therefore, such settings are dynamically determined according to the event occurrence situation.

(Modification)
In the above description, the monitored object is a physical object such as a person, but the monitored object may be in an abnormal state. Here, an example in which the monitoring system 1 detects and analyzes an abnormal state will be described. The management devices 101 and 102 and the integrated management device 121 switch settings of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 and the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 according to abnormal states detected as events.

The monitoring system 1 treats, as an abnormal state, a sign of the occurrence of a congestion level close to a dangerous state higher than the normal congestion level, or a group movement different from usual, for example, a group running away. Here, a sign of the occurrence of a congestion degree close to a dangerous state is called a "prediction of a dangerous congestion state", and a state of running away in a group is called a "group escape".

A sign of a dangerous congestion state is detected from the degree of congestion in the video and the rough flow of people. In this case, a sign of dangerous congestion is detected by integrating not only the result within one sub-area but also the images within a plurality of sub-areas. The sub-area monitoring device acquires images from other sub-area monitoring devices and performs event detection processing. Note that the management devices 101 and 102 or the integrated management device 121 may acquire images from a plurality of sub-area monitoring devices and detect events. In this case, the event detection unit 202 is provided in the management apparatuses 101 and 102 or the integrated management apparatus 121 .

If the congestion is above a certain level and the flow of people is heading toward a predetermined location, a sign of dangerous congestion is detected. In this case, the settings of the sub-area monitoring device and the monitoring camera that are in charge of the sub-area where the dangerous congestion situation is expected to occur are changed to the settings for detecting the dangerous congestion situation. For example, the setting of the surveillance camera is changed so that the angle of view is widened so that a wider area can be photographed.

Estimation of the degree of congestion includes processing for analyzing video and counting the number of people. When changing the setting, the parameter for counting the number of people set in the subarea monitoring device is changed. For example, in situations where people are abnormally dense, the people in the video overlap. Therefore, when detecting a human body, many people are not detected. By changing the settings, it will be possible to accurately determine the number of people by detecting the head instead of the human body. Under general conditions (when the density of people is low), the number of people can be detected more accurately from the human body than from the head. However, in a situation where the density of people is expected to increase or is increasing, switching to head detection enables more accurate detection of the number of people. Therefore, in situations where the density of people is expected to increase or is increasing, switching to head detection is preferable for detecting dangerous congestion.

Mass escapes are detected by human detection and tracking. Collective escape is detected by detecting that a plurality of human bodies have moved together at a predetermined speed or higher. For example, when a certain accident occurs, more people want to leave the place, resulting in mass evacuation.

In this case, the following two types of setting information are conceivable. One is setting information for zooming a surveillance camera in the vicinity of an accident to the point of occurrence of the accident to obtain a more detailed image. The other is setting information for setting a surveillance camera in a sub-area away from the accident occurrence point to track a person who was present at the event occurrence point when the event occurred. By changing the settings of multiple surveillance cameras in this way, it is possible to grasp the behavior of people involved in an accident.

The monitoring system 1 of this embodiment as described above changes the shooting conditions of the monitoring cameras 131 to 134 and the video analysis conditions of the sub-area monitoring devices 111 to 113 according to the situation of the monitoring target. can be monitored under suitable conditions. In such a monitoring system 1, a large number of monitoring cameras and sub-area monitoring devices can be set so that the monitoring of the monitoring target can be automatically performed in conjunction with each other under suitable conditions.

The present invention supplies a program that implements one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device reads and executes the program. It can also be realized by processing to It can also be implemented by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that implements one or more functions.

Claims (9)

An information processing device that generates setting information for a plurality of imaging devices corresponding to a plurality of sub-areas obtained by dividing a wide area,
acquisition means for acquiring event information indicating that a monitoring target has been detected from at least one image among images captured by each of the plurality of imaging devices;
determining means for determining a group of one or more imaging devices corresponding to a second sub-area adjacent to the first sub-area including the position where the monitored object has entered;
camera parameters for the imaging device determined based on table information that presets the relationship between the event information and the camera parameters; and actual imaging devices included in the group determined based on the event information. a generation means for generating the setting information including a reflection condition indicating a time at which the camera parameter is to be reflected ;
An information processing apparatus, wherein the camera parameters are set for the imaging apparatus that satisfies the reflection condition. further comprising transmitting means for transmitting the generated camera parameters to the imaging device;
2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting of said imaging apparatus is changed according to said transmitted camera parameters. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring target is detected by template matching using an image of the monitoring target. 4. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein said generating means generates said camera parameters for imaging said monitoring target. The obtaining means obtains the monitoring target when the monitoring target detected in the adjacent sub-area by the monitoring device that detects the monitoring target is associated with the video imaged by each of the plurality of imaging devices. Acquiring the event information further including information about the position of the imaging device that captured the detected image, the imaging time, or the camera parameters set in the imaging device;
5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said generating means generates said camera parameters based on said event information. 6. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , further comprising notifying means for notifying by outputting notification information indicating that said monitoring target has been detected to a predetermined output device. . a plurality of imaging devices each imaging a plurality of sub- areas obtained by dividing a wide area ;
a monitoring device that detects a monitoring target from images captured by each of the plurality of imaging devices;
and a management device that controls the imaging device or the monitoring device based on setting information set according to the monitoring target when the monitoring device detects the monitoring target from at least one video. A processing system,
The management device
Acquisition means for acquiring event information indicating that the monitoring target has been detected;
determining means for determining a group of one or more imaging devices corresponding to a second sub-area adjacent to the first sub-area including the position where the monitored object has entered;
camera parameters for the imaging device determined based on table information that presets the relationship between the event information and the camera parameters; and actual imaging devices included in the group determined based on the event information. a generation means for generating the setting information including a reflection condition indicating a time at which the camera parameter is to be reflected;
The information processing system, wherein the imaging device is characterized in that the camera parameters are set when the reflection condition is satisfied. An information processing method for generating setting information of a plurality of imaging devices corresponding to a plurality of sub-areas obtained by dividing a wide area,
an acquiring step of acquiring event information indicating that a monitoring target has been detected from at least one image among images captured by each of the plurality of imaging devices;
a determination step of determining a group of one or more imaging devices corresponding to a second sub-area adjacent to the first sub-area containing the location where the monitored object has entered;
camera parameters for the imaging device determined based on table information that presets the relationship between the event information and the camera parameters; and actual imaging devices included in the group determined based on the event information. a generation step of generating the setting information including a reflection condition indicating a time to reflect the camera parameter ;
and a setting step of setting the camera parameters for the imaging device that satisfies the reflection condition. A program for causing a computer to function as each unit included in the information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6 .

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