JP2003009136A - Camera supervising system and video delivering server - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a camera supervising system capable of suitably displaying an imaging range even when the imaging range is changed due to revolving or zooming of the camera, and to provide a video delivering server. SOLUTION: The camera supervising system provides an image obtained by a revolvable camera 1 from a WWW server 50 to Web browsers 41-1 to 4-1n of clients 4-1 to 4-n. The WWW server 50 has a screen providing means 51 for providing the screen laminated with a thumb-nail screen of a plurality of directions for designating imaging on a panorama display region in the display screen, a selecting accepting means 52 for accepting corresponding revolving command when any of the thumb-nail screens is selected, and a range display means 53 for clarifying the imaging range for allowing displaying over the plurality of the thumb-nail screens based on present revolving position information to be sent from the camera 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera monitoring system and a video distribution server capable of controlling a camera by displaying a panoramic screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional camera control using a panoramic display screen, one of several predetermined directions is selected, and an arbitrary turn is not made.

Further, when the zoom is used in a camera equipped with a zoom mechanism, there is a problem that the imaging range changes, and it is difficult to know which range is being imaged on the panoramic display screen.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the conventional camera monitoring system as described above, and its purpose is to change the imaging range due to the turning or zooming of the camera. It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera monitoring system and a video distribution server that can appropriately display the imaging range even in the case.

[0005]

A camera monitoring system according to a first aspect of the present invention is a camera monitoring system for providing an image obtained by a rotatable camera from a WWW server to a Web browser of a client.
In the W server, a screen providing unit that provides a screen in which a plurality of thumbnail screens instructing imaging are attached to the panorama display area in the display screen, and a turning corresponding to any one of the thumbnail screens are selected. The present invention is characterized by comprising selection accepting means for accepting an instruction, and range clarifying means for demonstrating an imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information sent from the camera.

In the camera monitoring system according to a second aspect of the present invention, the range specifying means sets an image pickup range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information and zoom information sent from the camera. It is characterized by making explicit.

A video distribution server according to a third aspect of the present invention is a video distribution server including the WWW server in a camera monitoring system for providing a video obtained by a rotatable camera from a WWW server to a Web browser of a client. , The WWW server is provided with a screen providing means for providing a screen in which thumbnail screens in a plurality of directions for instructing imaging are attached to a panorama display area in the display screen, and when any one of the thumbnail screens is selected, Selection acceptance means for accepting a turning instruction that has been made, and range specifying means for clearly indicating an imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on current turning position information sent from the camera. To do.

In the video distribution server according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the range specifying means sets an image pickup range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information and zoom information sent from the camera. It is characterized by making explicit.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a camera monitoring system and a video distribution server of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a camera monitoring system of the present invention. The camera monitoring system uses the video collected by the camera 1 to collect the video captured by the camera 1.
And sends it to the video distribution server 5 via the network 3, and from the video distribution server 5 via the network 3 the Web browsers 4 of the clients 4-1 to 4-n.
The configuration provided to 1-1 to 41-n is adopted.

In the camera 1, the image pickup section 11 for obtaining a video signal
The zoom mechanism 12, the turning mechanism 13, and the operation unit 14 are connected to the camera control unit 10. The video signal is received by the camera control unit 10 and sent to the video collection server 2. The camera control unit 10 controls the zoom mechanism 12 and the turning mechanism 13 by the control signal sent from the video collection server 2 and the control signal input from the operation unit 14 to cause zooming and turning.

The video collection server 2 includes a control unit 20 and interfaces 21 and 22. The interface 22 receives a video signal and digitizes it, and also exchanges control signals and the like. The control unit 20 controls the distribution of signals to be transmitted and received. The interface 21 has a function of an interface through which the control unit 20 sends and receives signals to and from the network 3.

The video distribution server 5 is composed of a computer system, and the video distribution server 5 is provided with a WWW server 50, a camera video acquisition unit 54, a turning instruction unit 55, and a camera information acquisition unit 56. The WWW server 50 provides a web browser with a screen to be described later. The camera image acquisition unit 54 acquires the image acquired by the camera 1 and transfers it to the WWW server 50. The turning instruction section 55 gives a necessary turning instruction to the camera 1. The camera information acquisition unit 56 acquires current turning position information and current zoom ratio information from the camera 1.

The WWW server 50 has a screen providing means 5
1, a selection receiving means 52 and a range specifying means 53 are provided. The screen providing unit 51 provides a screen in which thumbnail screens in a plurality of directions for instructing imaging are attached to a panorama display area in the display screen. The selection receiving means 52 receives a corresponding turning instruction when any one of the thumbnail screens is selected. The range specifying means 53 specifies the imaging range that allows the display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information sent from the camera 1, and the result is provided to the web browser by the screen providing means 51. To be done.

For the above, the range specifying means 53 includes the imaging range acquisition table shown in FIG. The imaging range acquisition table is indicated by a number indicating what percentage of the screen the imaging range information occupies in correspondence with the turning angle shown by adding a plus sign to the right turn and a minus sign to the left turn. . In the table of FIG. 2, “+1
"5" indicates a case where the player makes a right turn of 15 degrees from the home position (0 degree). The "Screen A70 screen B30" stored corresponding to this "+15" is a screen with 70% screen A. It is shown that the part where B is 30% is the imaging range. It should be noted that when the zoom ratio information is obtained, the imaging range is reduced by a value obtained by multiplying the value in the table by a predetermined value (1/100) and the zoom ratio, for example. For example, if the zoom ratio is “30” at “+15”, the screen A is reduced by 30/100 = 0.3, which is 49%, and the screen B is 21%.

Each of the clients 4-1 to 4-n is composed of a computer system and has a Web browser 41.
-1 to 41-n. Web browser 41-1
41-n access the WWW server 50 and display a screen based on the HTML screen information including the video data obtained by the camera 1 based on the provided file, as shown in FIG. 6, for example.

In the camera monitoring system configured as described above, the Web browsers 41-1 to 41-n of the clients 4-1 to 4-n operate according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, and the WWW server 50 operates as shown in FIG. The operation shown in FIG.
The operation will be described below based on these flowcharts. Since the web browsers 41-1 to 41-n of the clients 4-1 to 4-n perform the same operation, the web browser 41-1 of the client 4-1 will be described below.
Will be described only.

Web browser 41 of client 4-1
-1 is started up, and a request for a panoramic screen is made to the WWW server 50 (S11). In response to this, the screen providing means 51 in the WWW server 50 causes the camera image acquisition unit 5 to capture the image captured by the camera 1 obtained from the image collection server 2.
4 has a moving image display area at the center of the screen and screens A to H at the bottom as shown in FIG.
A screen to which the thumbnail screen is attached is created and provided to the web browser 41-1 (S1).

In step S1, the range indicating means 53 takes in the current turning position information and the current zoom ratio information of the camera 1 obtained by the camera information acquisition section 56 and obtains the image pickup range of the camera 1 as described above. Information to be displayed across a plurality of thumbnail screens is passed to the screen providing means 52.

As a result, in the thumbnail screens of the screens A to H, the shaded portion over the screens C and D as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed as the imaging range. The portion extending over the screens C and D corresponds to the case where the camera 1 turns right to reach between the screens C and D as shown in FIG.

Web browser 4 which received the above screen information
1-1 displays a screen based on the above information on the display (S
12) It is detected whether or not the thumbnail screen is operated (clicked by the mouse) (S13). If no operation is performed in step S13, step S1
Returning to step 2, the display of the screen as shown in FIG. 6 is continued, and when it is detected in step S13 that an operation has been performed, a turning request to the operated thumbnail screen is issued W
The image is sent to the WW server 50 (S14), the process returns to step S12, and the screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed based on the screen information that continues to arrive.

On the other hand, the WWW server 50 acquires information from the camera information acquisition unit 56 and detects arrival of new current turning position information and current zoom ratio information (S2). When new current turning position information and current zoom ratio information have arrived in step S2, the range specifying means 53 obtains the image capturing range of the camera 1 as described above and displays information to be displayed over a plurality of thumbnail screens. The information is passed to the providing means 51 and provided (S5).

If new information does not arrive in step S2, it is detected whether a turning request by thumbnail selection has arrived (S3). If no new information arrives, the process returns to step S1 to continue the processing, and the turning request by thumbnail selection In response to the arrival of, the delivery of the turning position information previously assigned for each thumbnail screen is passed to the turning instruction unit 55, and the turning instruction is sent (S4).

The turning position information sent from the turning instruction unit 55 is sent to the video collection server 2 and finally received by the camera control unit 10 of the camera 1 to control the turning mechanism 13. Further, when such turning is performed or when turning or zooming is performed by a manual operation from the operation unit 14, the camera control unit 10 outputs the current turning position information and the current zoom ratio information via the video collection server 2. It is sent to the camera information acquisition unit 56. Thus, in step S2, Y
The information is displayed by branching to ES, the imaging range obtained by the camera 1 is obtained as described above, and displayed over a plurality of thumbnail screens to the screen providing means 51 (S).
5).

As described above, since the image pickup range is displayed on the thumbnail screen, the image obtained by the camera 1 displayed in the moving image display area can be monitored while visually recognizing the monitoring direction and range. It can be carried out.

A still image or a moving image can be attached to the thumbnail screen. In this case, the imaging range may be displayed by changing the tone of brightness from other parts or changing the color, instead of being indicated by the diagonal lines.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image pickup range that allows display over a plurality of thumbnail screens is specified based on the current turning position information sent from the camera. It is possible to monitor the camera by grasping it.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of an imaging range acquisition table provided in the camera monitoring system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of a WWW server in the camera monitoring system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of a Web browser in the camera monitoring system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an image pickup range of a camera in the camera monitoring system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a screen showing an image pickup range of a camera in the camera monitoring system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 camera 2 Video collection server 3 network 4-1 to 4-n client 5 Video distribution server 10 Camera control unit 11 Imaging unit 12 Zoom mechanism 13 Turning mechanism 14 Operation part 20 Control unit 21,22 interface 41-1 to 41-n Web browser 50 WWW server 51 Screen providing means 52 means for accepting selection 53 Range clarification means 54 Camera image acquisition unit 55 Turning instruction section 56 Camera information acquisition unit

Front page continuation (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI theme code (reference) H04N 5/225 H04N 5/225 C 5E501 5/232 5/232 B 5/765 7/173 610Z 5/915 5/91 L // H04N 7/173 610 K F term (reference) 5B057 AA14 BA11 BA24 CC03 CD02 CH11 CH14 5C022 AA01 AB61 AB62 AB65 AB66 AC27 5C053 FA11 FA12 FA30 HA29 JA21 JA30 LA01 LA06 LA11 LA14 5C054 AA02 CD03 CE15 CE01 CF06 CG06 CF06 CF06 CF06 EA03 EA05 ED07 FC12 FD02 GB11 HA14 5C064 BA01 BA07 BB03 BB10 BC16 BC20 BD02 BD08 BD09 5E501 AB15 AC15 BA03 BA05 CB09 CB14 DA02 DA11 EA05 EA13 EB05 FA14 FB22 FB24

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A camera monitoring system for providing an image obtained by a rotatable camera from a WWW server to a Web browser of a client, wherein the WWW server has a plurality of directions for instructing imaging in a panoramic display area in a display screen. Screen providing means for providing a screen with a thumbnail screen attached, selection accepting means for accepting a corresponding turning instruction when any one of the thumbnail screens is selected, and based on the current turning position information sent from the camera, A camera monitoring system, comprising: a range specifying means for clearly specifying an imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens. 2. The range specifying means specifies the imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information and zoom information sent from the camera. The described camera surveillance system. 3. A video distribution server comprising the WWW server in a camera monitoring system for providing a video obtained by a rotatable camera from a WWW server to a Web browser of a client, wherein the WWW server has a panorama in a display screen. A screen providing unit that provides a screen in which thumbnail screens of a plurality of directions for instructing imaging are attached to a display area, a selection receiving unit that receives a corresponding turning instruction when any one of the thumbnail screens is selected, and a camera A video distribution server, further comprising: a range specifying means for specifying an imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information sent. 4. The range specifying means specifies the imaging range that allows display over the plurality of thumbnail screens based on the current turning position information and zoom information sent from the camera. The described video distribution server.