JP2001251608A - Remote monitoring camera system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote monitoring camera system with enhanced convenience by which a detailed image of a specific concerned area where a change takes place or abnormity occurs while monitoring an entire area to be monitored. SOLUTION: The remote monitoring camera system uses a fixed camera 11 that photographs image of an entire monitoring range, divides the monitored image by the fixed camera 11 into a plurality of areas and allows a change detection section 14 to detect occurrence of a change in each division area. When the detection section 14 detects any change, a control camera 13 photographs an image of the area in detail. Display devices 19, 110 respectively display the photographed images by the fixed camera 11 and the control camera 13. Furthermore, the displayed image on the display device 19 displaying the image from the fixed camera 11 includes information detected by the change detection section 14 at the same time so that the area being photographed by the control camera 13 can be easily discriminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera system for remote monitoring, and more particularly to a camera system for remote monitoring having a motion (or change) detecting function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art TV (television) cameras are widely used as monitors for security systems and the like.
In the conventional remote monitoring field using a TV camera image, when monitoring a wide area such as off-premises, a fixed camera for monitoring a wide area is installed, and when an abnormality is detected, the camera is switched to a controllable camera. There is a way to check the detailed situation. There is also a method of performing monitoring by scanning a monitoring range at a constant period while switching a plurality of cameras. Furthermore,
A method has been proposed in which a monitoring range is scanned by a controllable camera at regular intervals to perform monitoring.

[0003] The prior arts in this technical field include, for example, "Remote monitoring system and remote monitoring method" in JP-A-11-75176, "Remote monitoring system" in JP-A-10-322885, and JP-A-10-274797. Publication "Video Information Collection Method and Apparatus", JP-A-9-30
7876, "Remote monitoring system"
This is disclosed in, for example, “Monitoring System” of JP-A-259775. For example, the last related art described above is configured to acquire an image of an important point registered in advance when an image of a wide-angle camera changes due to a combination of a wide-angle camera and a zoom camera.

[0004]

The prior art described above is
In any case, while monitoring the image by the control camera, there is a possibility that an abnormality occurring in a monitoring range other than that (a place other than the monitoring range) may be missed. Further, since the entire image of the monitoring range cannot be grasped, the burden on the monitor increases. In order to avoid this risk, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of lines or perform monitoring with a camera capable of constantly monitoring a wide area. However, preparing multiple lines has significant disadvantages in terms of operation (cost), and there are problems to be solved, such as difficulties in checking the detailed situation when an abnormality occurs in a camera that monitors a wide area. there were.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-259775 mentioned above
In the conventional configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-163, the information notified to the monitor is only the wide-angle image and the zoom image, and there is a disadvantage that it is difficult for the monitor to know in which region of the wide-angle image the abnormality has occurred. Further, no matter which part (position) of the wide-angle image is moved, an abnormality is detected, so that a false alarm is easily generated. Furthermore, the range that can be monitored by one wide-angle camera is limited, and there is a problem that a plurality of systems need to be installed when monitoring a wider area.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to construct a remote monitoring image system, which enables both overview monitoring in a wide range and detailed monitoring in a narrow range to be compatible, and generation of a false alarm by setting a monitoring location. An object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring camera system that prevents the occurrence of a problem and clearly identifies the location of occurrence when an abnormality occurs, thereby improving user convenience.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention has a control camera having a zoom function or the like and capable of photographing an arbitrary position in up, down, left, and right by controlling a photographing direction and a photographing range. One or more fixed cameras installed to capture a wide area covering the maximum shooting range of the control camera, a change detection unit that detects a change from an image captured by the fixed camera, and a change detection unit that detects the change. A first display device that displays an image of the fixed camera together with the detected signal, a camera control unit that controls the control camera based on the display image of the first display device, and a second display device that displays an image of the control camera. Prepare. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the range displayed by the fixed camera is displayed on the first display device that captures the entire monitoring range, and the range captured by the fixed camera is divided into a plurality of regions. Is photographed in detail by the control camera and displayed on the second display device. Further, the change detection unit detects the presence or absence of an image change for each of a plurality of divided areas of the image captured by the fixed camera, and notifies the first display device of the detection result for each area.

Further, the remote monitoring camera system of the present invention captures an image of the entire monitoring range and displays it on a display device, and captures and displays a detailed image of a range where a change is detected in the display image of the display device. A system having a control camera to display on the device, the image of the fixed camera is divided into a plurality of regions, a change is detected by a change detection unit for each region,
The detection signal is sent to the monitoring center via a line together with the images of the fixed camera and the control camera, and the control camera is controlled by a control signal from the monitoring center based on the image of the fixed camera and the change detection signal. According to a preferred embodiment example,
An image selection unit is provided for selecting an image from a fixed camera or a control camera based on a control signal from a monitoring center.
The image processing apparatus further includes an encoding unit that encodes the image signal from the fixed camera or the image signal from the control camera selected by the image selection unit.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration and operation of a preferred embodiment of a camera system for remote monitoring according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of a remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention and an example of an image displayed by each camera. As shown in FIG. 1, the basic structure of the remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention is a fixed camera 11 for overview monitoring.
And a detailed monitoring control camera 13. The fixed camera 11 captures an image of the entire area to be monitored. on the other hand,
The control camera 13 has a control function of photographing an arbitrary portion in the monitoring area in detail. These two cameras 11 and 1
The use of 3 enables an overview monitoring covering the entire monitoring range and a detailed monitoring of a specific portion where an abnormality (or change) has occurred, thereby enabling detailed monitoring. Preferably, the image of the fixed camera 11 capturing the entire monitoring range is divided into a plurality of regions, and the presence or absence of a change in each region is constantly determined.
The area where the change is detected is explicitly notified on the display screen.

The observer can confirm the presence or absence of the above-mentioned occurrence based on the display state, and can obtain a detailed image of an arbitrary area by controlling the camera 13 with a control function (or control) on the display. It is. Whether the presence or absence of the change is detected or not is set for each area by a monitor, and information unnecessary for monitoring is excluded. By controlling the control camera 13 so as to capture the divided individual areas of the fixed camera 11, the area where the change has occurred can be controlled by the control camera 13.
Can be displayed in more detail. In this way,
By combining the notification of the occurrence state of the change on the image of the overview fixed camera 11 and the detailed display by the detailed monitoring control camera 13, it is possible to confirm the detailed state on the image of the control camera while grasping the entire image of the monitoring range. Remote surveillance camera system that can be realized.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a preferred embodiment of a remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention. 2 includes fixed cameras 11a and 11b (hereinafter, both fixed cameras are collectively referred to by reference numeral 11), a camera with a control function (hereinafter, referred to as a control camera) 13, an image synthesizing unit 17, Detector 14,
It comprises a control instruction input unit 15, a camera control unit 16, a detection result multiplexing unit 18, and display monitors 19 and 110.

The fixed camera 11 is a camera for overview monitoring of the entire monitoring area. The control camera 13 is a fixed camera 1
This is a camera for monitoring in detail a specific region selected from the range photographed in 1. The change detection unit 14 divides the overview monitoring image captured by the fixed camera 11 into a plurality of regions and detects a change in each region. Control instruction input unit 1
Reference numeral 5 designates manual control of the control camera 13 and ON / OFF of change detection. The camera control unit 16 receives the change detection result from the change detection unit 14 or the control instruction input unit 1.
5 to control the control camera 13.
The image combining unit 17 combines the monitoring image of the fixed camera 11 into one image. The detection result multiplexing unit 18 includes the change detection unit 1
The change detection result in 4 and the state of the control instruction from the control instruction input unit 15 are multiplexed on the overview monitoring image output of the image synthesis unit 17. The display monitor 19 displays an overview and a detailed monitoring image for monitoring (monitoring).

The image inputs 1a and 1b input from the fixed camera 11 shown in FIG. 2 are synthesized in the image synthesizing unit 17, and synthesized into one overview display image as shown in FIG. obtain. This overview monitoring image 1d is:
The change is input to the change detection unit 14, and as shown in FIG. 4, a change in the image is detected for each of a plurality of regions having a predetermined size, and a detection result 1g is output.

Various known techniques can be used for detecting a change in an image in the change detecting section 14, and therefore are not specifically described here. The detection result 1g is the detection result multiplexing unit 1.
The determination result is multiplexed on the overview monitoring image 1d so as to be able to determine the changed area as shown in FIG. Here, the control camera 13 is a camera capable of moving the shooting position up and down, left and right and zooming in and out, and outputs a detailed monitoring image 1c under the control of a camera control signal 1e from the camera control unit 16. The control instruction input unit 15 sends a control signal 1f for controlling which area is to be displayed in detail by the control camera 13 to the camera control unit 1.
6 is output. The control signal 1f is also input to the detection result multiplexing unit 18, and is used as information for specifying which area the control camera 13 is displaying on the overview monitoring image 1d as shown in FIG. At this time, a pointer or the like is displayed on the overview monitoring image, and the area selected and indicated by the user with the pointer or the like is notified to the camera control unit 16 and the detection result multiplexing unit 18.

The camera control unit 16 includes a control instruction input unit 15
It outputs a camera control signal 1e for controlling the control camera 13 based on the control instruction output 1f from the camera. The camera control signal 1e controls the vertical and horizontal movement amounts of the control camera 13 and the zoom-in / zoom-out amounts as shown in FIG. 5, and captures an image of the area selected by the control instruction input unit 15. The detection result multiplexing unit 18 determines how the image is divided with respect to the overview monitoring image 1d, the area where the change is detected and the area where the detailed image is displayed, the ON / OFF status of the change detection, and The pointer and the like for the user to select a detail display area are multiplexed, and the control image 1h is output to the display monitor 19. The display monitor 19
The control image 1h is displayed. On the other hand, the display monitor 110
Displays the detailed monitoring image 1c from the control camera 13.

FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the divided area of the fixed camera image taken by the fixed camera 11 and the image taken by the control camera 13. In this specific example, the fixed camera image is divided into a total of 24 regions, three in the vertical direction and eight in the horizontal direction. In the case of this specific example, the detailed display image captured by the control camera 13 displays the fifth region from the left in the center column in the vertical direction in the horizontal direction in an enlarged manner (zoomed up). The detailed display image by the control camera 13 can be displayed by selecting an arbitrary area from among the 24 areas according to the camera control signal 1e from the camera control unit 16.

[0018]

Next, another embodiment of the camera system for remote monitoring according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a remote camera in remote monitoring, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a monitoring center connected to the system of FIG. 6 by a line. 6 includes a fixed camera 21, a control camera 22, a change detection unit 23, an image selection unit 24, an image encoding unit 25, a multiplexing unit 26, a line interface 27, and a camera control instruction unit 28. . The overview monitoring fixed camera 21 outputs the overview monitoring image 2a obtained by capturing the entire monitoring range to the change detection unit 23 and the image selection unit 24. The control camera 22 for detail monitoring outputs the detail monitoring image 2c obtained by capturing an arbitrary area of the divided overview monitoring image to the image selection unit 24.

The change detecting section 23 divides the overview monitoring image 2a into a plurality of areas and detects a change in each area.
When a change is detected in any of the regions, a change detection result 2b is output. The image selection unit 24 selects the overview monitoring image 2a and the detail monitoring image 2c according to an instruction from the monitoring center based on the image selection information 2h, and outputs the transmission image 2d to the image encoding unit 25. The image encoding unit 25 performs an encoding process on the transmission image 2d, performs a band compression process,
The coded image data 2 e is output to the multiplexing unit 26. By using the image encoding unit 25, it is possible to efficiently construct a system for performing monitoring images using a public line network or the like. The multiplexing unit 26 multiplexes the change detection result 2b, the encoded image data 2e, and the image selection information 2h to obtain multiplexed data 2f. The multiplexing unit 26 preferentially transmits the change detection result 2b so that the monitoring center side can always check the state of occurrence of the change. Multiplexed data 2f
Is transmitted by the line interface 27 to the monitoring center side. Data 2j sent from the monitoring center side is received by the line interface 27 and becomes received data 2i.

The received data 2i is supplied to the camera control instruction section 28 by the camera control signal 2g and the image selection information 2.
h and the control camera 22 and the image selection unit 2 respectively.
4 and output to the multiplexer 26. Image selection information 2
“h” is a signal that determines which of the overview monitoring image 2a and the detail monitoring image 2c is to be transmitted to the monitoring center, and is selected and designated by a monitoring person on the monitoring center side. The image selection information 2h is transmitted together with the encoded image data 2e, and is used to determine whether the image being decoded at the monitoring center side is from the fixed camera 21 or the control camera 22. Camera control signal 2g
Controls the up, down, left, and right movements of the control camera 22 and the zoom-up / zoom-down.

Next, the monitoring center will be described with reference to FIG. This monitoring center has a line interface 31,
Separation unit 32, decoding unit 33, overview monitoring image memory 3
4. Detailed monitoring image memory 36, detection result multiplexing unit 35,
It comprises an image multiplexing unit 37, a display monitor 38, and a control instruction input unit 39. Data sent from the remote camera side is received by the line interface 31 and becomes received data 3b. The received data 3b is transmitted to the separation unit 32
Is separated into a change detection signal 3g, encoded data 3c and image selection information 3i. The coded data 3c is subjected to a decoding process in the decoding unit 33 to obtain the decoded image data 3c.
d is output to the memory 34. At this time, an overview update signal 3e and a detail update signal 3j for controlling whether to update the overview monitoring image storage memory 34 or the detail monitoring image storage memory 36 based on the image selection information 3i are output. The decoded image data 3d is stored in the overview monitoring image storage memory 34 or the detail monitoring image storage memory 36 by the overview update signal 3e and the detail update signal 3j, respectively, and is sequentially updated.

The image data stored in the memories 34 and 36 described above are used as an overview monitoring image 3f and a detail monitoring image 3k, respectively, as the detection result multiplexing unit 36 and the image multiplexing unit 3
7 is output. The control instruction input unit 39 is a user interface for controlling the control camera 22 on the remote camera side, and is a control for moving the control camera 22 up, down, left and right and performing zoom-in / zoom-down based on an instruction from the user. The information is determined and a control instruction signal 3m is output. The control instruction signal 3m is transmitted to the remote camera by the line interface 31. The detection result multiplexing unit 35 multiplexes the information indicated by the change detection signal 3g and the control instruction signal 3m with the overview monitoring image 3f, and outputs a control image 3h. The control image 3h and the detailed monitoring image 3k are multiplexed in the image multiplexing unit 37 to become a display image 3ι. Display monitor 38
Displays this display image 3ι.

The system shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 includes a storage device capable of storing and reading out processing procedures and data,
The present invention can be realized by using a computer system and a computer program having a display for displaying an image and the like and input means such as a mouse, and performing control and processing based on a predetermined procedure. In this case, a program for executing the function, procedure, or algorithm is stored in a CD-RO which can be read by a computer system.
It can be provided by a recording medium such as M and a floppy (registered trademark) disk.

The configuration and operation of the preferred embodiment of the remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention have been described above. However, it should be noted that such exemplary embodiments are merely examples of the present invention and do not limit the present invention in any way. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0025]

As described above, according to the camera system for remote monitoring of the present invention, an image for performing overview monitoring and an image for performing detail monitoring are provided without using a plurality of lines for overview monitoring and detail monitoring. Thus, both the overview monitoring in a wide range and the detailed monitoring in a narrow range are compatible, eliminating oversight of occurrence of an abnormality and facilitating monitoring when an abnormality occurs. In particular, while monitoring the detailed image, by displaying the presence or absence of a change on the overview monitoring image at all times, the burden on the observer can be reduced and the convenience can be significantly improved. Effects can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of a remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of the remote monitoring camera system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a fixed camera for overview monitoring in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of dividing the overview camera fixed camera image illustrated in FIG. 3 and detecting a change area.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of correspondence between a divided area of a fixed camera and a captured image of a control camera.

FIG. 6 shows a second example of the camera system for remote monitoring according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a remote camera according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a second example of the remote monitoring camera system according to the present invention.
It is a block diagram showing composition on the side of a monitoring center in an example of an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 21 Fixed camera 13, 22 Control camera 14, 23 Change detection unit 15 Control instruction input unit 16, 28 Camera control unit 17 Image synthesis unit 18, 26 Detection result multiplexing unit 19, 38, 110 Display monitor (display device) 24 Image selector 25 Image encoder

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 5/232 H04N 5/232 Z H04Q 9/00 311 H04Q 9/00 311K F term (reference) 5C022 AA03 AB61 AB62 AB66 AC01 5C054 AA05 CA04 CC03 CF05 CG06 CH08 DA09 EG05 EH01 FA09 FC12 FE12 FE26 FF02 HA18 5K048 AA00 BA00 DA01 DC07 EB02 EB15 FB00 HA02 HA21 5K101 KK11 KK13 LL01 MM07 NN06 NN18 NN21 TT06

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A control camera having a zoom function or the like and capable of photographing an arbitrary position in up, down, left and right by manipulating a photographing direction and a photographing range, and photographing a wide area covering the maximum photographable range of the control camera. A single or a plurality of fixed cameras installed as described above, a change detection unit that detects a change from an image captured by the fixed camera, and a second display that displays an image of the fixed camera together with a detection signal detected by the change detection unit. A remote monitoring camera, comprising: a first display device; a camera control unit that controls the control camera based on a display image of the first display device; and a second display device that displays an image of the control camera. system. 2. An image of an entire monitoring range is taken by the fixed camera and displayed on the first display device, and a range taken by the fixed camera is divided into a plurality of regions, and an arbitrary region in the divided region is divided into a plurality of regions. 2. The remote monitoring camera system according to claim 1, wherein the control camera shoots in detail and displays the image on the second display device. 3. The change detection unit detects whether or not there is a change in an image in each of a plurality of divided areas of an image captured by the fixed camera, and notifies a detection result of each area on a display image of the fixed camera. 3. The remote monitoring camera system according to claim 2, wherein 4. A remote monitoring camera having a fixed camera for capturing an image of the entire monitoring range and displaying it on a display device, and a control camera for capturing and displaying a detailed image of a range in which a change is detected in the display image of the display device. In the system, the image of the fixed camera is divided into a plurality of regions, a change is detected by a change detection unit for each region, and a detection signal is sent to a monitoring center via a line together with the images of the fixed camera and the control camera, A remote monitoring camera system, wherein the control camera is controlled by a control signal from the monitoring center based on the image of the fixed camera and the detection signal. 5. The remote surveillance camera system according to claim 4, further comprising an image selection unit that selects an image from the fixed camera and the control camera based on a control signal from the monitoring center. 6. The remote surveillance camera system according to claim 5, further comprising an image encoder for encoding image signals from the fixed camera and the control camera selected by the image selector. .