JP2001094977A - Video doorphone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily identify a visitor by surely recording an image of the visitor who operates a call button of a video doorphone system. SOLUTION: In the video doorphone system consisting of an entrance slave set 1, a master set 2, and a video recording unit 3, when the call button 15 is depressed while a visit mode is set, a JPEG codec 33 compresses a video signal outputted from a camera 12 of the entrance slave set 1 via a digital video CODEC 32 at a proper time interval and stores the compressed signal into a flash ROM 38. The processing above is repeated for a plurality of number of times that is set, a capturing function generates an n-split screen image, and it is compressed and stored in the flash ROM. When a reproduction button 39 is depressed, the images for n-times and the n-split screen image are read from the flash ROM, the JPEG codec expands them and the resulting image is displayed on a monitor 22.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television intercom apparatus capable of monitoring an image around an entrance slave unit in an indoor master unit, and more particularly to a television intercom apparatus which facilitates identification of visitors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, there has been a television door phone apparatus capable of monitoring an image of a visitor indoors, recording an image of a visitor who has performed a call while away from home, and reproducing the image after returning home.

As shown in FIG. 2, this type of TV intercom apparatus includes a main unit 200 installed indoors, a main unit 200 installed indoors, and a recording unit 300 connected to the main unit 200. It is configured. The entrance terminal 100 includes a camera 102 for photographing the periphery of the entrance device, and a base unit 20.
A speaker 103 and a microphone 1 for making a call with the room 0
04 and a call button 105 for notifying the visitor and calling the parent device 200 are provided, and an interface 101 is connected to these for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the parent device 200.

[0004] The master unit 200 is provided with an interface 101 of the entrance slave unit 100 and an interface 201 for transmitting and receiving signals. The interface 201 includes a monitor 202 for displaying an image captured by the camera 102 of the entrance device 100, a speaker 203 and a receiver 204 for communicating with the entrance device 100, and a CPU 205 for controlling these. Are connected.

[0005] The recording unit 300 is provided with an interface 201 of the master unit 200 and an interface 301 for transmitting and receiving signals. In the interface 301,
An A / D / D / A converter that converts an analog image signal sent from the camera 102 of the entrance cordless handset 100 into a digital signal for recording, and converts the recorded digital signal into an analog signal for display on a monitor. 311 is connected and the CPU 307 is connected. The CPU 307 has C
A timer 305 for measuring the elapsed time based on a signal from the PU 307, an outgoing button 310 for setting an “outing mode” for saving an image signal sent from the camera 102 of the entrance cordless handset 100, and an A / D D
Digital signal from the A / A converter 311 to the DRAM 304
And a memory controller 312 for outputting a digital signal stored in the DRAM 304 to the A / D / D / A converter 311, and displaying an image stored in the DRAM 304 on the monitor 202 of the parent device 200. Button 309 is connected.

[0006] In such a TV door phone apparatus, first, an outside button 310 of the recording unit 300 is pressed.
When the “out-of-home mode” is set, when the call button 105 of the entrance cordless handset 100 is pressed during the out-of-home mode, a call signal is input to the CPU 205 of the parent device 200 through the interface 101 and the interface 201, and
From 05, a call detection signal is input to the CPU 307 via the interface 301 of the recording unit 300, and a door call is detected. In the recording unit 300, C
The timer 305 is driven by the call detection signal from the PU 307 to start measuring the elapsed time, and the analog video signal output from the camera 102 of the entrance cordless handset 100 is A / D / D / D via the interface 101, the interface 201, and the interface 301. The data is sent to the A converter 311, digitized, and output to the memory controller 312. 3 seconds after the start of measurement from the timer 305, the CPU 30
7, a predetermined time lapse signal is output to the memory controller 31 from the CPU 307 which has received the predetermined time lapse signal.
2, the video signal digitized by the A / D / D / A converter 311 three seconds after the start of measurement of the elapsed time of the timer 305 is stored in the DRAM 304, and the video around the entrance terminal 100 is displayed. It is recorded.

[0007] When the playback button 309 of the recording unit 300 is pressed and a playback signal is input to the CPU 307, the playback signal is detected by the CPU 307 and the playback signal is detected by the CPU 301 through the interface 301 and the interface 201. The reproduced signal is output to As a result, the monitor 202 is turned on by the CPU 205.
Is done. The CPU 307 is a memory controller 312
To convert the digital video signal stored in the DRAM 304 into an analog video signal by the A / D / D / A converter 311, and the interface 301 and the interface 2
01 to the monitor 202. In this way,
The recorded video around the entrance is displayed on the monitor 202 and reproduced.

[0008]

In such a television intercom apparatus, the call button 10 of the entrance cordless handset 100 is used.
An image shot by the camera 102 is recorded three seconds after the operation of the camera 5. Thus, the call button 105
Is recorded only once three seconds after the operation of the camera, so that the visitor moves his / her face at that time.
In other words, the user moved out of the shooting range and did not always exist in the shooting range, and could not always record from the front.
For this reason, there are cases where a visitor cannot be easily identified even when the recorded video is reproduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned difficulties, and there is provided a television door phone apparatus which can increase the probability that a visitor is photographed by a camera of a front-end slave unit and can easily identify the visitor. The purpose is to provide.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a video door phone apparatus according to the present invention provides an image of an entrance button from a camera when a call button is operated on an entrance slave unit. A video doorphone device for recording on a non-volatile memory of a recording unit by an operation, and reproducing a video of the entrance recorded on the recording unit by a monitor of a base unit by an operation of a play button of the recording unit. And a timer for setting the time for recording the video at a later time, and n (n is 2)
A counter for setting the number of recordings to be recorded (the positive integer above), and a video of the entrance recorded after a while, and image data of each time and n-divided screen image data by a capture function are recorded in a nonvolatile memory. And a codec capable of image compression and decompression for displaying image data recorded in the dynamic memory as video on a monitor.

According to such a TV door phone apparatus,
Since the visitor's image is recorded multiple times at appropriate intervals, there is a high probability that any of the multiple images contains an image that can easily identify the visitor's face, and the visitor cannot be identified. Can be significantly reduced.
Also, by dividing the monitor screen and displaying it at the same time,
Because you can check the video recorded multiple times at once,
It can be easily and efficiently recognized.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the television door phone apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a TV door phone apparatus includes an entrance unit 1 installed outdoors, a main unit 2 installed indoors, and a recording unit connected to the entrance unit 1 and the main unit 2. And 3.

The entrance slave unit 1 has a camera 12 for photographing the periphery of the entrance slave unit, a speaker 13 and a microphone 14 for making a call between the master unit 2 and a call for notifying the visitor and calling the master unit 2. Buttons 15 are provided, and an interface 11 to which these are connected to transmit and receive signals to and from the parent device 2 is provided.

The base unit 2 has an interface 11 for transmitting and receiving signals with the interface 11 of the entrance slave unit 1.
Is provided. The interface 21 includes the entrance slave 1
A monitor 22 for outputting an image photographed by the camera 12, a speaker 23 and a receiver 24 for communicating with the entrance device 1, and a CPU 25 for controlling these are connected.

The recording unit 3 is provided with an interface 11 for transmitting / receiving signals to / from the interface 11 of the entrance device 1 and the interface 21 of the parent device 2. The interface 31 includes the camera 1 of the
2 is connected to a digital video codec 32 for converting an analog image signal sent from the digital video signal into a digital signal for storage and for converting a recorded digital signal into an analog image for display on a monitor, and a CPU 37 is connected. . The CPU 37 measures a predetermined elapsed time set as an appropriate time for capturing an image of a visitor based on a measurement start signal from the CPU 37, and outputs a progress signal to the CPU 37. A JPEG codec 33 which is a codec for compressing a digital signal from the digital video codec 32 and storing the compressed digital signal in the DRAM 34 under the control of the CPU 37 is connected. Further, the CPU 37 is connected to a flash ROM 38 which is a non-volatile memory for reading and storing data stored in the DRAM 34, and for recording the video of the entrance device 1 n times (n is a positive integer of 2 or more). A counter 36 for setting the number of times is connected. Also, CPU
An outgoing button 30 for setting an “outing mode” for saving an image signal sent from the camera 12 of the entrance slave unit 1 is provided at 37.
And a play button 39 for outputting the stored video to the monitor 22 of the base unit 2 are connected.

The operation of the above-described video doorphone device will be described.

The "outing mode" is set by operating the outing button 30 of the recording unit 3. When the call button 15 of the entrance device 1 is pressed during the setting of the outside mode, the CPU 25 of the access device 2 detects the call via the interface 11 of the entrance device 1 and the interface 31 of the access device 2, and
Interface 11 of entrance cordless handset 1, interface 31 of parent device 2, interface 21 of recording unit 3
, The CPU 37 of the recording unit 3 detects the call. Upon detecting the call, the CPU 25 of the master unit 2 drives the camera 12 of the entrance slave unit 1, and the CPU 37 of the recording unit 3 outputs a measurement start signal to the timer 35, starts the timer 35, and sets the counter 36 to 0. I do. The analog signal output from the camera 12 is output to the digital video codec 32 via the interface 11 of the entrance device 1 and the interface 31 of the recording unit 3, and is converted into a digital video signal in the digital video codec 32. After a lapse of the set time from the timer 35, a measurement signal is output to the CPU 37, and a digital video signal is output from the digital video codec 32 to the JPEG codec 33 under the control of the CPU 37 that has input the measurement signal. The digital video signal is compressed in the JPEG codec 33 and stored in the DRAM 34 as 1 / 1-size image data. At this time,
Using the capture function of JPEG codec 33,
Also create divided image data reduced to 1 / n size,
The data is stored in the DRAM 34. Thereafter, under the control of the CPU 37, the 1 / 1-size image data is read out from the DRAM 34 by the JPEG codec 33, transferred through the CPU 37, and stored in the flash ROM 38 in a single video image captured by the camera 12 of the entrance device 1. Will be saved. Here, n is a positive integer of 2 or more. At this time, the CP
U37 checks the count number of the counter 36, and if the count number has not reached n-1, increases the counter number by 1, outputs a measurement start signal to the timer 35 again, and starts measuring the set time. The above operation is counter 3
As long as the count number of 6 does not reach n-1 times, the repetition is performed, and n-divided screen image data in which 1 / n-sized divided image data are arranged in a tile form is created in the DRAM 34. Thereafter, the JPEG codec 33 is controlled by the CPU 37.
, The n-divided screen image data is read out from the DRAM 34 and transferred via the CPU 37 to the flash RO.
In M38, image data of n times photographed by the camera 12 of the entrance slave device 1 is stored as n-divided screen image data. When the count number of the counter 36 has reached n−1,
The CPU 37 does not output the measurement start signal of the timer 35. Further, the driving of the camera 12 is stopped by a control signal from the CPU 25 of the master unit 2, and the photographing of the periphery of the entrance slave unit 1 is stopped.

The reproduction of the n-divided screen image data stored in the flash ROM 38 is performed by pressing the reproduction button 39 of the recording unit 3 and detecting a reproduction signal in the CPU 37. When a reproduction signal output from the CPU 37 is input to the CPU 25 via the interface 31 and the interface 21 of the base unit 2, the CP
The monitor 22 is turned on under the control of U25. Further, in the recording unit 3, the flash R
N divided screen image data and 1/1 stored in the OM 38
The image data of the size is taken out and transferred to the DRAM 34, and a data decompression command is output to the JPEG codec 33. In the JPEG codec 33, DR
Data is read from the AM 34, expanded to the original digital video signal, and output to the digital video codec 32. In the digital video codec 32, one-screen image data is converted into analog one-screen image data, and the interface 31 and the interface 21
Is transmitted to the monitor 22 via the PC, and the recorded video around the handset 1 is reproduced.

The above description is an explanation of an embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this, and the time interval of recording is not limited to this, and is suitable for photographing a visitor. The recording may be performed after a lapse of a set time, such as after 1 second, 3 seconds, 6 seconds, or the like, if the time interval is not a fixed interval.

[0021]

As is clear from the above description, according to the television door phone apparatus of the present invention, when the user goes out, the visitor presses the call button of the entrance slave a plurality of times (n times) after pressing the call button of the entrance cordless handset. ), The video around the entrance cordless handset is recorded, and the video recorded n times is divided into n screens and simultaneously displayed on the monitor, so that the visitor who operates the call button is out of the shooting range of the camera. It is possible to prevent a situation where the information is not displayed on the screen, and the visitor can be easily identified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a television door phone apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional TV door phone apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ··················································································································································································· · ······························································································· dimration [dimsec. ······················································ JPEG codec (codec) 35 ···················· Counter 38 ······ Flash ROM (non-volatile memory) 39 ······· Reproduction button

Claims (1)

[Claims] When a call button (15) is operated on an entrance cordless handset (1), an image of an entrance from a camera (12) is operated by operating an outside button (30) of the recording unit (3). A video doorphone device for recording on a non-volatile memory (38) and playing back an image of the entrance recorded on the recording unit on a monitor (22) of a base unit (2) by operating a play button (39) of the recording unit The recording unit includes a timer (35) for setting a time for recording the image of the entrance at a time interval, and a recording for recording the image of the entrance n (n is a positive integer of 2 or more) times. A counter (36) for setting the number of times, and recording the image of the entrance recorded at the time interval with the image data of each time and n-divided screen image data by the capture function in the nonvolatile memory. And a codec (33) capable of image compression and decompression for displaying image data recorded in the nonvolatile memory as video on the monitor.