KR20120099916A - A real time omni-directional and remote surveillance system which is allowable simultaneous multi-user controls - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A real time remote 360 degrees image monitoring system is provided to efficiently monitor a monitoring region without a dead space and to perform multilateral simultaneous control through a wide angle image photographing unit. CONSTITUTION: A compensating image generating unit(120) compensates distortion of a wide angle image photographed in a wide angle image photographing unit(110). An image controlling unit(140) controls the image photographed in the wide angle image photographing unit according to control input of a user terminal. [Reference numerals] (100) Real time remote 360 degrees all directions monitoring image system for multiple simultaneous control; (110) Wide angle image photographing unit; (120) Compensation image generating unit; (130) Central managing unit; (140) Image controlling unit

Description

A real time omni-directional and remote surveillance system which is allowable simultaneous multi-user controls}

The present invention relates to a surveillance system, and more particularly, by connecting to a 360-degree omnidirectional simultaneous video surveillance camera using a smart phone or a wireless terminal and remotely controlling, thereby preventing a large number of users from blinding the indoor or outdoor space. The present invention relates to a monitoring system capable of simultaneous control. Here, the simultaneous control means that the control of the user's multiple parties is not performed sequentially but each person controls simultaneously without being influenced by the counterpart's control.

In general, when a surveillance system using a camera monitors a specific area, since the viewing angle of the camera is limited to about 90 degrees to 110 degrees, a blind area occurs outside the camera's shooting range. I had to install a camera.

As another method, in order to observe the direction desired by the operator, a pan / tilt driver device was installed separately from the camera to move and control the direction of the camera, partially solving the problem of blind spots.

However, such a monitoring method using a pan / tilt camera was not able to simultaneously monitor 360-degree omnidirectional directions but to monitor multiple directions sequentially, so that the entire surveillance area could not be simultaneously monitored. In other words, until now, there has been no technology for simultaneously controlling multiple users.

In addition, since a large number of cameras or expensive cameras with a pan / tilt driver device need to be installed to implement the surveillance system, it is difficult to popularize the surveillance system due to the increased system construction cost.

In addition, regarding the camera control method, when the camera is a public facility such as a camera installed in a park, a plaza, or a highway, only the operator of the monitoring center has control and the general user does not have the control authority to provide the camera unilaterally. Only video to say was available.

In addition, when the camera is a private facility such as a camera installed in a restaurant, a private house, or a convenience store, the camera has authority to control the camera. However, only the controller can be controlled by a controller located close to the camera. Remote control was not possible.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, a plurality of users can effectively monitor while simultaneously monitoring the surveillance area without blind spots using a single camera, even in a remote location in the direction desired by multiple users An object of the present invention is to provide a surveillance system using a camera that can simultaneously view images.

In order to achieve the above object, the real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system which permits multilateral simultaneous control according to the present invention includes a wide-angle image capturing unit, a corrected image generating unit, a central management unit, and an image control unit.

The wide-angle image capturing unit photographs a wide-angle image, more specifically, 360 degrees in all directions, and the corrected image generating unit corrects the distorted image of the wide-angle image captured by the wide-angle image capturing unit to generate a corrected image.

The central management unit provides an environment in which a user terminal can be connected through a wired / wireless communication network, and when a request input for a correction image is received from the connected user terminal, the central management unit transmits the correction image received from the correction image generation unit to the user terminal requesting the correction image. do.

The image controller controls software captured by the wide-angle image capturing unit according to a control input from the user terminal.

According to this configuration, rather than additionally using multiple cameras or pan / tilt driver devices to obtain the entire image of the surveillance area without blind spots, the wide-angle image of the entire surveillance area is corrected and used. In this way, it is possible to effectively monitor the entire surveillance area without using blind spots while using a single camera.

In addition, since it provides an environment in which a user terminal can be connected through a wired / wireless communication network and provides a correction image requested by the user terminal, the system can be easily accessed by simultaneously connecting a user even when the user is remotely located from a camera or when there are a plurality of users. Will be available.

In addition, when the user sends a control signal through the terminal, it is possible to simultaneously monitor the 360-degree omni-directional without the pan / tilt driver device. In other words, rather than mechanically controlling the cameras sequentially to obtain the necessary images, software controls the wide-angle images already taken, so even if multiple users are used together, each user needs the images Can be used.

In addition, since it provides a function to control the wide-angle image captured by the camera with the wide-angle lens in a remote location by using a wireless terminal, it is necessary to install an expensive pan / tilt drive device to see the blind spot with the camera. In addition, the camera configuration is inexpensive, and a wide angle image photographing unit that provides a very good image quality can be implemented using any kind of camera such as a popular web camera, and a user terminal can be implemented using a smartphone or the like in a remote place. As a result, the cost of implementing a surveillance system can be greatly reduced, thereby enabling the popularization of the surveillance system.

The corrected image may be a corrected image of a portion of the wide-angle image selected according to a control input from the user terminal. This configuration allows the user to intensively monitor only the image of the specific area desired by the user from the entire surveillance area photographed at the wide angle.

The central management unit warns the user with the current real-time video with a preset user terminal number when an abnormal (emergency) situation, for example, an intruder, is detected in a preset Region of Interest (ROI) in the surveillance area. You can send a message. In this case, even if the user terminal is not directly connected to the system by wire, the user can remotely prepare for an emergency in the surveillance area.

According to the present invention, instead of using a separate camera to obtain images in all directions of the surveillance area without blind spots, the wide angle image of the entire surveillance area is corrected and used, so that there is no blind spot while using a single camera. The surveillance area can be effectively monitored.

In addition, since it provides an environment in which a user terminal can access the wired or wireless network through a communication network and provides a correction image requested by the user terminal, the system can be easily used even when the user is remotely located from the camera or there are many users. Will be.

In addition, since it provides a function to control the wide-angle image captured by the camera with the wide-angle lens in a remote location by using a wireless terminal, it is necessary to install an expensive pan / tilt drive device to see the blind spot with the camera. In addition, the camera configuration is inexpensive, and a wide angle image photographing unit that provides a very good image quality can be implemented using any kind of camera such as a popular web camera, and a user terminal can be implemented using a smartphone or the like in a remote place. As a result, the cost of implementing a surveillance system can be greatly reduced, thereby enabling the popularization of the surveillance system.

In addition, the user can intensively monitor only an image of a specific attention area of interest desired from the entire surveillance areas photographed at a wide angle.

In addition, when the user sends a control signal through the terminal, it is possible to simultaneously monitor the 360-degree omni-directional direction of the camera without the pan / tilt driver device.

In addition, instead of mechanically controlling the camera sequentially to obtain the necessary image, software controls the wide-angle image that has already been taken. You can use it.

In addition, even when the user terminal is not directly connected to the system by wire, the user can actively prepare for an abnormal (emergency) situation in the surveillance area.

1 is a schematic block diagram of one embodiment of a real-time remote omnidirectional monitoring system according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the state of use of the monitoring system of FIG. 1; FIG.
3 is a diagram showing an example of a curved image picked up by the wide-angle image capturing unit in FIG. 1;
4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a corrected image generated by the corrected image generator of FIG. 1.
5 is a schematic flowchart for performing an embodiment of the monitoring method of the monitoring system of FIG.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a real-time remote omnidirectional monitoring system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a state of use of the monitoring system of FIG.

In FIG. 1, the real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system 100 that allows multilateral simultaneous control includes a wide-angle image capturing unit 110, a corrected image generating unit 120, a central management unit 130, and an image control unit 140. 2, the real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system 100 that allows multilateral simultaneous control may be connected to a plurality of user terminals 300 through a communication network 200. .

Here, the communication network 200 may be any communication network including wired and wireless, but it is preferable that it is the most widely used internet network, and the user terminal 300 may also communicate with the system 100 through the communication network 200. Any type of terminal can be used, but a mobile communication terminal, especially a smart phone which is increasingly used in recent years will be preferable.

In addition, in FIG. 2, the central management unit 130 of the monitoring system 100 is implemented as a web server, is connected to the plurality of correction image generation units 120 and the image control unit 140, and each correction image generation unit ( 120, the image controller 140 is again connected to one or more wide-angle image capturing units 110, respectively.

In FIG. 2, the corrected image generating unit 120 and the image control unit 140 are implemented as a processor in an apparatus installed in each of a plurality of surveillance regions together with the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 implemented as a camera. The computer program may be implemented in software, or may be integrally implemented with the central management unit 130.

The wide-angle image capturing unit 110 captures a wide-angle image by using a camera to which a wide-angle lens is coupled. The wide-angle image capturing unit 110 refers to a 360-degree omnidirectional camera, and the camera lens is composed of a wide-angle lens such as a fisheye lens. The captured image is a curved image. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a curved image captured by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 of FIG. 1.

The wide-angle image capturing unit 110 may be implemented as any type of camera capable of capturing a wide-angle image. A camera that provides a zoomed image using a close-up function may be useful, but a zoomed-in image may be provided only by a limited distance in software, so a close-up function is not necessary.

The wide-angle image photographed using the wide-angle lens includes an image of the entire surveillance area to be monitored, but is useful for monitoring the entire region, but the image is distorted, and thus correction of the distorted curved image is required.

To this end, the corrected image generator 120 corrects the distortion of the wide-angle image photographed by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 to generate a corrected image. The corrected image generator 120 selects an unwrapping region of the distorted image data to form a region of interest (ROI), and converts a required curved region of the ROI into a planar image by a look up table. After that, the corrected image is generated by restoring the planar image to an original image through an image calibration process.

According to such a configuration, instead of using a separate camera to obtain the entire image of the surveillance area without blind spots, the wide angle image of the entire surveillance area is corrected and used. The surveillance area can be effectively monitored.

In addition, according to such a configuration, a 360-degree omnidirectional image acquisition camera unit can use any kind of camera, such as an inexpensive fisheye lens and a web camera that is easily used and popularized by people. It is economical and simple to implement.

As such, being able to view very high quality images using the cheapest and most popular web camera means that any camera can be implemented as a system. Even when used, 360-degree omnidirectional images can be obtained very easily.

In other words, by applying the technology of the present invention to a popular web camera, it can be said that the practicality and economics are maximized.

The central management unit 130 provides an environment in which the user terminal 300 can be connected through the communication network 200, and when there is a request input for the correction image from the connected user terminal 300, the user terminal requesting the correction image ( The corrected image transmitted from the corrected image generator 120 is transmitted to 300.

In this case, when there are a plurality of users accessing the corrected image generating unit 120 through the central management unit 130, an account may be created for each user, and two or more people may create one account and share the same account.

For example, the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 may be a public camera. In this case, by being assigned an individual account, the wide angle image photographing unit 110 may freely control and monitor the viewing angle.

The image controller 140 software-controls the image captured by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 according to a control input from the user terminal 300.

Accordingly, when the user sends a control signal through the terminal, it is possible to monitor by moving the viewing angle of the camera without the pan / tilt driver device. In addition, instead of controlling the cameras sequentially to obtain the necessary images, software controls the wide-angle images that have already been taken. Therefore, even if multiple users use them simultaneously, each user needs their own images. Can be used.

That is, when two or more users send a control signal through the terminal, the image controller 140 decomposes the wide-angle image captured by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 to a desired angle according to the control signal, and again corrects the image generator ( 120, and transmits the image to the central management unit 130 to transmit an image of a desired viewing angle.

According to the present invention, through the image control unit 140, a plurality of users can simultaneously control the image of the desired viewing angle at the same time for the same monitoring area.

The reason for this is that in the present invention, the image of the particular viewing angle is not divided by the mechanical sequential control of the pan / tilt / zoom driver device of the pan / tilt / zoom camera, but divided by the software in the 360 degree omnidirectional camera. This is because the control method provided.

In addition, as shown in Figure 2, the central management unit 130 may be implemented as a web server. In this case, the surveillance system can be used through various user terminals including wired and wireless internet. In other words, the central management unit 130 functions as a web server connected to the user terminal 300 such as a smart phone or a wireless Internet terminal, and a plurality of user terminals may be simultaneously connected.

The user may create an account in the central management unit 130 and access the corrected image generation unit 120. Since the account of the central management unit 130 is matched (corresponds to) with the account of the corrected image generation unit 120 in a one-to-one manner, The account of the central management unit 130 may be generated for each user similarly to the account of the corrected image generating unit 120, or two or more users may create one account and jointly use the account.

As such, since the central management unit 130 provides an environment in which the user terminal can be connected to the user terminal through a communication network and provides a correction image requested by the user terminal, the central management unit 130 can be easily located even when the user is remote from the camera or there are many users. The system becomes available.

This configuration allows the surveillance system of the present invention to be used by multiple users at the same time.

The corrected image generating unit 120 may generate a corrected image for the entire wide-angle image as set, or may generate the corrected image only for a specific partial region.

In addition, the corrected image may be a corrected image of a portion of the wide-angle image selected according to a control input from the user terminal 300. This configuration allows the user to intensively monitor only the image of the specific area desired by the user from the entire surveillance area photographed at the wide angle.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a corrected image generated by the corrected image generator of FIG. 1.

4 illustrates a wide-angle image photographed by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110. On the right side, the wide-angle image photographed by the wide-angle image capturing unit 110 is divided into four regions, respectively.

In other words, an example is shown in which a 360 degree omnidirectional image (left) is converted into a corrected image (right) by dividing the angle by 1 to 4 software by a 360 degree omnidirectional camera.

 As can be seen in Figure 4, the present invention, it is possible to convert the 360-degree omnidirectional image as if four cameras are installed. Therefore, while attaching a fisheye lens to the camera to obtain images in each direction without blind spots, users can check the direction of the general image generated through the transformation so that users can easily see the distorted image and understand the situation on the spot. Do it.

In addition, the central management unit 130 may transmit a message to the preset user terminal 300 when a preset abnormal situation occurs in the monitoring area. In this case, even in a situation where the user terminal 300 does not directly access the system through wired or wireless, the remote user can prepare for an emergency situation in the monitoring area.

The preset abnormal situation is automatically detected when an image signal different from the normal background image signal is generated in a part of the wide-angle image, for example, intruder detection, and alerts a remote user to the warning signal through the terminal. I can send it.

In this case, it is preferable that the user terminal 300 be a mobile communication terminal which can be always carried by the user. For example, a smart phone which has recently increased in utilization.

The present invention is based on the 360-degree surveillance technology, by applying a commonly used web camera and smartphone 'many cameras can be viewed at different directions while controlling a number of people at the same time, and furthermore to the smartphone It is a breakthrough and differentiated technology in that it can be easily seen from anywhere by connecting.

At this time, the web camera is not limited to the web camera, it means that 'does not stick to a specific camera as low-end web camera possible', smart phones are not limited to the smart phone, but to illustrate the most representative wireless terminal It is only.

However, as in the present invention, in order to allow a plurality of users to view their desired directions, the processing speed may be a problem because the image processing server needs to make and send each processing image. To solve this problem, we need to increase the number of servers, and the cost can be a problem again.

However, according to the present invention, it is possible to solve the problem of lowering the expected server processing speed by improving the processing speed of the system without additional server by improving the algorithm on the server.

5 is a schematic flowchart for performing an embodiment of a monitoring method of the monitoring system of FIG. 1.

First, the real-time remote omnidirectional monitoring system captures a wide-angle image, more accurately, a 360-degree omnidirectional image (S110), and corrects the distortion of the photographed wide-angle image to generate a corrected image (S120).

Subsequently, when there is a request input for the corrected image from the user terminal connected through the communication network, the corrected image is transmitted to the user terminal requesting the corrected image (S130).

Finally, when a preset abnormal situation occurs in the monitoring area, a message is transmitted to the preset user terminal (S140).

According to the present invention, a real-time surveillance camera can be controlled and monitored remotely through a smartphone or a wireless Internet terminal, and by connecting to a 360 degree omnidirectional camera, 360 degree omnidirectional is different from monitoring only the viewing angle region of a conventional camera. Can be monitored.

In addition, by controlling the camera through a smartphone or a wireless Internet terminal, individual control and simultaneous remote control are possible from both a public camera and a private camera.

In addition, if the camera can be connected to the Internet as well as any cheap camera such as a web camera running on the desk, the software technology can be used to monitor 360 degree 'simultaneous' monitoring simply by simply attaching a fisheye lens in front of it. In contrast to the pan / tilt cameras being sequential surveillance, four-way planar images can be obtained with excellent image quality, just as the cameras see each direction fixedly.

Also, touch one of the four screens and touch the panning and tilting on the touch screen of the wireless terminal (smartphone) as if one pan / tilt camera is installed in that direction. By doing so, you can see the various directions of space.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of some preferred embodiments, the scope of the present invention should not be limited thereby, but should be construed as modifications or improvements of the embodiments supported by the claims.

100: Real-time remote 360 degree omnidirectional video surveillance system to allow multilateral simultaneous control
110: wide-angle video recording unit
120: correction image generating unit
130: Central Administration
140: image control unit
200: network
300: user terminal

Claims (7)

A wide angle image photographing unit for photographing a wide angle image;
A corrected image generator configured to correct a distortion of the wide-angle image photographed by the wide-angle image photographing unit to generate a corrected image;
Provides an environment in which a user terminal can be connected through a communication network, and when a request input for the corrected image is received from the connected user terminal, transmits the corrected image received from the corrected image generator to the user terminal that requested the corrected image. Management; And
And a video controller for controlling the image captured by the wide-angle image photographing unit in software according to a control input from the user terminal. The method of claim 1,
The video controller is a real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system for allowing multi-party simultaneous control, characterized in that for simultaneously controlling the control input from a plurality of user terminals that are simultaneously input. The method of claim 1,
And the corrected image is a corrected image of a part of the wide-angle image selected according to a control input from the user terminal. The method of claim 3, wherein
And the central management unit transmits a message to a preset user terminal when an abnormal situation occurs in a pre-set attention area of the surveillance area. The method of claim 4, wherein
And the user terminal is a wireless terminal. The method of claim 1,
The wide-angle image capturing unit comprises a wide-angle lens, real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system that allows for multilateral simultaneous control. The method according to claim 6,
The wide-angle image capturing unit is a real-time remote 360-degree omnidirectional video surveillance system that allows multi-party simultaneous control, characterized in that the web camera combined with a wide-angle lens.

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