EP2423894A1

EP2423894A1 - Frontier monitoring system

Info

Publication number: EP2423894A1
Application number: EP10174342A
Authority: EP
Inventors: designation of the inventor has not yet been filed The
Original assignee: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek TNO
Current assignee: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek TNO
Priority date: 2010-08-27
Filing date: 2010-08-27
Publication date: 2012-02-29

Abstract

A system for monitoring a frontier between two areas (1, 2) comprises detection means, control means (3) and display means (4). The detection means include scanning means (5) arranged for scanning a vertical frontier plane (6) coinciding with the frontier between the two areas, for detecting any object (8) present in or crossing that frontier plane and for reporting such detections to the control and/or display means. The frontier plane may coincide with the mooring edge (7) of a harbour quay (1), arranged for mooring ships (2). The control means may be arranged to direct remotely controllable cameras (9) towards the object (8) detected by the scanning means and display camera images of the detected object. Sensors (11) may be arranged for detecting the presence of said one or more moored ships and the control means may be arranged to restrict the making and/or display of camera images to areas where the presence of any moored ship at the harbour quay has been detected by said one or more sensors.

Description

The present invention relates to a frontier monitoring system for monitoring frontiers, borders or demarcations between countries, factory grounds, school grounds, prison grounds, and areas in general, but in particular frontiers that may be present at a waterfront, for example a harbour quay or beach.
In order to prevent that persons or goods move or are moved from one area to another by crossing the areas' common frontier, fences or other physic separation means may be placed at that frontier. However, in some situations such physic separation means cannot be used, e. g. the frontier between a moored (e.g. foreign) ship and a (e.g. domestic) harbour quay. The present invention aims to offer a system and a method for monitoring such a frontier.
Japanese patent application JP 2005-145602 (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) discloses a harbour monitoring system capable of detecting the intrusion of persons on the quay side of a container terminal and a container crane. This known monitoring system comprises a monitoring camera and a laser sensor positioned at a point above the quay on a container crane so as to monitor the quay from above. This known system has the disadvantage that it is arranged for monitoring the whole quay area, even when there is no ship moored and the chances of detection intruders is negligible. As a result, an undesirably and unnecessarily large quantity of monitoring data (such as video images) is produced and processed. If video images produced by such a system are watched by human observers (e.g. security personnel), an unnecessary large number of observers is necessary.
It is therefore desirable to provide a frontier monitoring system which reduces the amount of irrelevant monitoring data.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a system for monitoring a frontier between two areas, the system comprising:

detection means which comprise scanning means for scanning a mainly vertical frontier plane which mainly coincides with the frontier between the two areas,
display means for displaying detection data, and
control means for receiving detection data from the detection means and sending detection data to the display means,

By detecting the presence of transportation means, such as ships, adjacent the frontier plane and for producing corresponding second detection data
The transportation means the presence of which can be detected may be ships, cars, trucks, trains, airplanes, airships and other transportation means.
The scanning means may be laser scanning means, e.g. including one or more laser range finders. Laser range finders can be defined as a device which uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by sending a laser pulse in a narrow beam towards the object and measuring the time taken by the pulse to be reflected off the target and returned to the sender.
In a preferred application, the frontier plane substantially coincides with the mooring plane or edge of a harbour quay, arranged for mooring one or more ships.
It may be preferred that the detection means include one or more remotely controllable image cameras and the display means being arranged for displaying images made by the relevant image cameras. The control means may be arranged to direct and/or focus at least one of said one or more remotely controllable image cameras towards the object detected by the scanning means in order to display at the display means one or more images of the detected object made by the relevant cameras.
In order to use the monitoring/surveillance capacity optimally by only pointing the attention of watchmen (watching display means such as TV monitors) to relevant areas, i.e. areas where actually a ship is moored, the detection means may include one or more sensors arranged for detecting the presence of any moored ship at the harbour quay and for reporting such presence to the control means and/or display means. It is preferred then that the control means are arranged to restrict the making and/or displaying of camera images to areas where the presence of a moored ship at the harbour quay has been detected by said one or more sensors.
The present invention also provides a method for monitoring a frontier between two areas, the method comprising the steps of:

scanning a mainly vertical frontier plane which mainly coincides with the frontier between the two areas,
detecting objects and/or persons present in or crossing the frontier plane and producing corresponding first detection data,
detecting the presence of transportation means adjacent the frontier plane and producing corresponding second detection data, and
using the second detection data to select, from the first detection data, detection data corresponding to a section of the frontier plane where a transportation means is present, so as to display only selected detection data.

The step of selecting may be embodied by a software program product which is preferably provided on a data carrier such as a DVD. Instead of a tangible software program product provided on a data carrier, an intangible software program product downloadable from a remote server, such as an Internet server, may be provided.
In the following detailed description the invention will be elucidated with reference to a figure.

Figure 1: shows schematically an exemplary embodiment of a system according to the invention.

Figure 1 shows a harbour area including a quay 1 where two (foreign) ships 2 have been moored. To prevent that persons or goods move or are moved to/from such ship (area) 2 from/to the (domestic) quay (area) 1 via the areas' common frontier without any monitoring, the use of fences or other physic separation means at that frontier is not easy of feasible in practice. For that reason the novel system according to the invention for monitoring such a frontier can be applied.
For the sake of clarity the interconnections between the various system components (e. g. made by a standard wired and/or wireless network and/or bus configuration) are not shown in the figure.
The system comprises detection means, control means 3 and display means 4. The control means, which preferably comprise a microprocessor and/or a computer, are connected preferably wirelessly (although wired connections are also possible) to the detection means and the display means.
The detection means include scanning means 5 arranged for scanning a mainly vertical frontier plane 6 mainly coinciding with the frontier 7 between the areas 1 and 2. The scanning means 5 are arranged for detecting any object and/or person 8 present in or crossing that frontier plane 6 and for reporting such detections to the control means 3 and/or display means 4.
The scanning means 5 may be laser (based) scanning means, e. g. including one or more laser range finders 5. The frontier plane 6 mainly coincides with the mooring plane or edge 7 of the harbour quay 1 arranged for mooring ships 2.
The detection means include remotely controllable image cameras 9, e. g. surveillance dome cameras. The display means 4 include one or more image/video monitors arranged for displaying images made by the image cameras 9. Preferably, the control means 3 are arranged to direct and/or focus the cameras 9 towards the object 8 detected by the scanning means 5 in order to display images of the detected object 8 made by the relevant cameras 9.
In order to use the monitoring/surveillance capacity/manpower optimally by only pointing the attention of watchmen 10 (watching display means 4 such as TV monitors) to relevant areas, i.e. areas where actually a ship 2 is moored, the system includes (e. g. ultrasonic) sensors 11 arranged for detecting the presence of any moored ship 2 at the harbour quay (edge) 7 and for reporting such presence to the control means 3 and/or display means 4. It is preferred that the control means 3 are arranged to restrict the making and/or displaying of camera images 9 to areas where the presence of a moored ship 2 at the harbour quay has been detected by the sensors 11. Thus, the presence of e. g. fishermen at the quay edge 7 (crossing the detection plane 6) picked up by the cameras 9 will not be presented via the monitor(s) 4 to the watchmen 10.
It noted that is may be preferred that the control means 3 comprise sensor fusion means for combining and/or analyzing the various sensor output signals. In addition, the control means 3 may comprise camera control means for controlling the cameras 9 and/or display control means for controlling the display means 4. The sensor fusion means can be arranged - as indicated above - to select only relevant detections, i.e. crossings of the detection plane 6 within an areas where the sensors 11 detect the presence of a moored ship 2. Furthermore, the sensor fusion means, and hence the control means, may be arranged for outputting only such relevant detections to the camera control means, which are enabled to - possibly under control of the watchman. Non-relevant detections - e.g. due to the presence of fishermen etc. outside areas of moored ships 2 - will not trigger the camera control means. In this way the making and/or displaying of camera images is restricted to only areas where the presence of moored ships 2 at the harbour quay has been detected by the sensors 11. In other words, the control means are configured for using the second detection data to select, from the first detection data, detection data corresponding to a section of the frontier plane where a transportation means (such as a ship 2) is present, such that the display means display only selected detection data pertaining to relevant sections of the frontier.
It is further noted that the display means 4 are arranged to enable watchmen etc. to inspect/monitor remotely the relevant quay areas (of moored ships). The display means 4, however, may include (additional) interface means, enabling the user (watchman) to input (e.g. via keyboard, touch screen, mouse) his/her information need, and/or serving as an interface to a further (computer) system like e.g. a content management system, which may be arranged to store/process camera images.
Finally it is noted that the control means 3 may be implemented as a distributed processor/computer network.
It is noted that any terms used in this document should not be construed so as to limit the scope of the present invention. In particular, the words "comprise(s)" and "comprising" are not meant to exclude any elements not specifically stated. Single elements may be substituted with multiple elements or with their equivalents.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated above and that many modifications and additions may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appending claims.

Claims

System for monitoring a frontier between two areas (1, 2), the system comprising:
- detection means which comprise scanning means (5) for scanning a mainly vertical frontier plane (6) which mainly coincides with the frontier between the two areas,

- display means (4) for displaying detection data, and

- control means (3) for receiving detection data from the detection means and sending detection data to the display means (4),
wherein the detection means are arranged for detecting objects and/or persons (8) present in or crossing the frontier plane (6) and for producing corresponding first detection data,
wherein the detection means are further arranged for detecting the presence of transportation means (2) adjacent the frontier plane (6) and for producing corresponding second detection data, and
wherein the control means (3) are arranged for using the second detection data to select, from the first detection data, detection data corresponding to a section of the frontier plane (6) where a transportation means (2) is present, so as to send only selected detection data to the display means (4).
System according to claim 1, wherein the scanning means (5) are laser scanning means.
System according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the laser scanning means includes one or more laser range finders.
System according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the frontier plane (6) substantially coincides with the mooring plane or edge (7) of a harbour quay (1), arranged for mooring one or more ships (2).
System according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the detection means include one or more remotely controllable image cameras (9) and the display means (4) are arranged for displaying images made by the relevant image cameras.
System according to claim 5, wherein the scanning means (5) are arranged for detecting any object present in or crossing the frontier plane and for reporting such detections to the control means, and wherein the control means (3) are arranged to direct and/or focus at least one of the one or more remotely controllable image cameras (9) towards the object (8) detected by the scanning means in order to display at the display means one or more images of the detected object made by the relevant cameras.
System according to any of the preceding claims, the detection means including one or more sensors (11) arranged for detecting the presence of said one or more moored ships at the harbour quay and for reporting such presence to the control means and/or display means.
System according to claim 7, wherein the one or more sensors (11) arranged for detecting the presence of said one or more moored ships at the harbour quay are arranged for reporting such presence to the control means, and wherein the control means (3) are arranged to restrict the making and/or displaying of camera images to areas where the presence of any moored ship at the harbour quay has been detected by said one or more sensors.
Method for monitoring a frontier between two areas (1, 2), the method comprising the steps of:
- scanning a mainly vertical frontier plane (6) which mainly coincides with the frontier between the two areas,

- detecting objects and/or persons (8) present in or crossing the frontier plane (6) and producing corresponding first detection data,

- detecting the presence of transportation means (2) adjacent the frontier plane (6) and producing corresponding second detection data, and

- using the second detection data to select, from the first detection data, detection data corresponding to a section of the frontier plane (6) where a transportation means (2) is present, so as to display only selected detection data.
Method according to claim 9, wherein a transportation means is constituted by a ship (2), one of the two areas preferably comprising a harbour quay (1).
Method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the step of scanning the frontier plane (6) is carried out using laser scanning means, and/or wherein the step of detecting the presence of transportation means (2) is carried out using ultrasonic sensors.
Method according to claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein in the step of selecting is embodied by a software program product, preferably provided on a data carrier such as a DVD.