JP2001145093A - Supervisory camera system and its controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To connect a plurality of cameras with each other with saved space and to facilitate display of video information acquired for each installed position of the cameras and each management number and storage of them in a database. SOLUTION: In order to attain the above purposes, the supervisory camera system is provided with a means that interconnects camera sections, an ID setting means that sets a specific ID to them, a means that attaches specific information, a means that transmits video information in the unit of frames, and a means that controls the video information in the unit of frames at an optional time interval, and also provided with a means that connects the camera sections one after another, a means that discriminates information specific to each camera, and a means or the like that stores data sent from the camera sections by each ID of the camera sections.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention simplifies connection of transmission lines for video information of cameras in a monitoring camera system for a game machine or the like in which a plurality of cameras are used to monitor multi-points. The present invention relates to a surveillance camera system that facilitates storage and database of video information obtained and obtained from cameras. Also, the present invention relates to a video information transmission technique for realizing synchronization control by packetizing video information of a plurality of cameras.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-223564, a video signal and a control signal are used one by one, but a switch for transmitting and synchronizing image information is required, and the capacity of the image information is increased. However, no consideration has been given to responding to transmission of video information to a remote place. Among the conventional devices, in the case of a multi-point monitoring system requiring a plurality of cameras, each has an individual image information transmission path, the cable is also long, and an area for laying is required. Was.

[0003]

The present invention makes it possible to connect a plurality of cameras in a space-saving manner with a cable and to easily display video information obtained for each camera installation position and management number and to create a database. In addition, by synchronizing the transmission of the video signal from a plurality of connected cameras with the data transmission in the in-connection and transmitting the video signal to the subsequent camera unit, the video information from the in-camera connected camera unit can be arbitrarily transmitted per unit time. The object is to enable acquisition for each frame number.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned object, means for connecting between camera units, IDs unique to each unit
Setting means, means for adding unique information, means for setting the number of frames per unit time of the video information, receiving the video information transmitted from the camera unit from the previous stage, and transmitting the video information to the subsequent camera unit A means for adding and transmitting information and a means for controlling video information in frame units at arbitrary time intervals are provided. It also includes means for connecting each other, means for determining information unique to each camera, means for accumulating data transmitted from the camera units for each ID of a plurality of camera units, and the like.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a surveillance camera system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1, 2, 3, and 4 denote a plurality of camera units A, B, and B for connecting an arbitrary number of cameras for monitoring arbitrary multipoints and acquiring video information. C, camera section D, 5 are video information related transmission paths connecting camera section A, camera section B, camera section C, and camera section D, and 6 is each camera collected from video information related transmission path 5. A video data control unit for controlling the video information; 7, a video data storage unit for storing the video information obtained by the camera unit; 8, a video data display control unit for displaying the video information obtained by the camera unit; Denotes a video data display unit which is a monitor for monitoring.

In a conventional apparatus, a cable is connected to each camera, and input is made to a frame switcher for switching frames of multiple inputs. It was necessary to bundle cables for the number of cameras to be connected, and depending on the scale of monitoring, the amount of cables alone was enormous. In the present invention, by controlling the number of frames in the camera unit, it is possible to set the number of frames of the captured image of a specific arbitrary camera, and to increase the number of frames of the captured image from the camera unit that has detected an intruder. Or the number of frames of video information captured from a camera unit without an intruder can be reduced. As can be seen from the figure, a cable for transmitting video information is simplified by providing a connection for each other and providing control means for video data, and the configuration and monitoring location of the monitoring system can be easily achieved by adding a camera unit to the end of the camera unit A1. Can be increased or decreased. The video-related information transmission path 5
It enables digital transmission, does not require high-speed A / D conversion from analog, can be realized at low cost, and has information related to video information, such as I
It is possible to add and transmit information such as D number, installation location, date, date and time. Further, for example, in a monitoring system and its control device connected to 30 camera units, it becomes possible to record the monitoring video data one frame at a time per second, and the camera units A1, B at regular time intervals.
It is also possible to acquire video information circulating in 2, C3, and D4. Thus, by discriminating the added information and storing it in the image data storage unit 7, it is possible to easily create a database based on the discrimination of the additional information to determine when, where, and which camera unit has acquired the video information. Can easily be searched. By adding a tamper-proof function to these additional information, it becomes possible to use it as an evidence photograph.

Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given with reference to the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a hardware block diagram showing connection of a plurality of cameras. Reference numeral 10 denotes a camera lens having an optical mechanism including an optical lens, and 11 denotes a camera lens 10 such as a CCD.
An image sensor that converts the video information captured from the camera into an electric signal; 12, a video information controller that adds the above-mentioned additional information to the video information from the image sensor 11; 13 connects a plurality of camera units A1 and B2 Connection control unit for
Reference numeral 4 denotes a microcontroller for setting the number of frames of video information per unit time, time interval and period to be transmitted from the connection control unit 13, and initial setting of the camera unit A1, and 15 for storing a control program of the microcontroller 14. A flash ROM 16 for storing unique information such as an ID for managing the camera unit A1, a memory 16 used as a buffer for transmitting video information from the image sensor from the connection control unit 13, 17, 18 Are connection port 1 and connection port 2 for connection. Image information is taken in from the camera lens 10 of the optical system, the information is digitized by the image pickup device 11, and the image information control unit 12 takes in the image information of all the frames into the memory 16, and controls the connection based on the setting and control information from the microcontroller 14. The video information is transmitted to the unit 13. The microcontroller 14 initializes the video information control unit 12 according to a program in the flash ROM 15, and controls the imaging device 1 in the video information control unit 12.
The video information control unit 1 instructs to add additional information such as a camera ID for management, date, and time to the video information from
Multiplex by 2. When an intruder enters the video information control unit 12, that is, when a video difference between the previous frame and the next frame occurs, an arbitrary number of frames is transmitted to the connection control unit as video transmission data, The data control unit 6 can also control the number of capture frames for each camera.

Further, the video controller 12 is controlled by the control information transmitted from the connection controller 13, and
The program in the flash ROM 15 can be changed.

[0010] Thus, the camera unit 1 can superimpose management camera ID, date, and time information on the video information. The superimposed video information is packetized and transmitted to the video data control unit 6. Further, when the number of frames to be sampled per second is set by the microcontroller 14, the video information control unit 12 extracts only desired frames from the memory 16 and packetizes them. Connection control unit 13
Can be used as a trigger signal to the subsequent camera section B2 if the information from the preceding camera section A1 is used as a synchronization signal. When the connection control section 13 receives video information from the preceding camera section A1 The operation is performed so as to transmit from the connection port A17 of the connection control unit 13 via the connection port B18, and also to immediately transmit the video information of the subsequent camera unit B from the connection port B18 immediately thereafter. As a result, the cables for connecting the camera sections can be connected in any manner, and independent transmission paths for each camera, which are conventionally required for each camera, are not required, and a space-saving and high-performance monitoring camera system can be constructed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of video information in the camera section B. Reference numeral 19 denotes a path of video information in the camera unit, and reference numeral 20 denotes a path of video information from the preceding camera unit.
The flow of the video information inside the former camera unit is the same as the flow 19 of the video information. The video information is taken in from the camera lens 10 of the optical system, the image information is signalized by the image pickup device 11, the video information control unit 12 takes in the video information of all the frames into the memory 16, and the connection control unit 13 is added together with the additional information such as the ID of the camera unit. To transmit video information. The capacity of the memory 16 depends on the number of frames to be captured per unit time, and can be changed according to the number of frames to be captured and the resolution. When all frames are to be captured, additional information is added when writing from the video information control unit 12 to the memory 16, and when read from the memory 16 and transmitted to the connection control unit 13, frame data of an arbitrary frame number is stored in the memory 1.
By reading from the inside, the video data of an arbitrary frame of the camera unit desired by the video data control unit 6 is transmitted to the transmission path. Further, by adding additional information only to an arbitrary frame and writing the additional information to the memory 16, the capacity of the memory 16 can be reduced.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of control information in the camera section A. Reference numeral 21 denotes a path for control information. The control information is transmitted from the video data control unit 6 and transmitted to the terminal camera unit A1 along the path shown in the figure. The control information can be transmitted by broadcast. The connection control unit 13 has an arbitration function of transmission of video information and transmission of control information. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating information transmission to a plurality of camera units. 2
Reference numeral 2 denotes a path for video and control information in the entire system. The camera units can be connected by only a connection cable between the camera units, which saves space for the connection cables and facilitates construction of a monitoring system. A flexible configuration is also possible for the camera unit to be connected. For example, an IEEE 1394 interface can be used to realize a shammy connection. At a transfer rate of 800 Mbps, that is, 100 MBps, a JPEG compressed file of about 30 KB per frame can provide a sufficiently high image quality, and thus can sufficiently transmit video data and control data. Further, in response to the incoming video information data from the previous camera, the video data of the next camera is sequentially packetized into video data, transmitted to the subsequent camera unit, and transmitted by the video data control unit 6 to the video data storage unit. 7, it is possible to programmably change whether to store video data as an archive for each time or to store video data as an archive for each camera. When monitoring video data in real time, video data displayed by the video data control unit 6 can be handled in the same manner.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information of each camera unit. An example is shown for the case of 30 frames per second. The number of frames per unit time is
It can correspond to any number of connected cameras and any number of captured video frames. 23 is a frame configuration of the video information of the camera unit A, 24 is a frame configuration of the video information of the camera B,
25 is video information for two frames transmitted by the camera unit A,
26 is image information for two frames transmitted by the camera unit D,
27 is one frame of video information transmitted by the camera unit A,
28 is one frame of video information transmitted by the camera unit D,
40 is a transmission video packet. In the present invention, as described above, an arbitrary number of frames per unit time can be extracted from an arbitrary time, transmitted, and monitored by the video data display unit 9 using a monitor. Since the frequency of monitoring differs depending on the system configuration, it is possible to extract two frames per second or one frame. The same applies to the video information stored in the video data storage unit 7. A feature is that video information of an arbitrary number of frames can be displayed or stored according to the system configuration. If the number of frames to be extracted per unit time is small, the hardware scale can be reduced and a low-cost system can be realized. In the present invention, the description is made in units of a frame in which the even field and the odd field are combined.

When there is no intruder in the video of the surveillance camera, it is possible to transmit one field data video, and when there is an intruder, it is possible to transmit both fields, that is, one frame of video data. Good video data transmission can be realized.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information when additional information is added for each frame. Reference numeral 29 denotes camera ID information for managing which camera the video information is, and reference numeral 30 denotes camera unit A transmission data 1 when additional information is added.

The figure shows frames 1, 2, 7, 8 of the camera section A.
Shows the camera unit A transmission data 130 in the case where is extracted. With this configuration, it is possible to add date and time information in addition to the ID for each frame. Further, the packet length can be made variable according to the protocol and physical specifications of the video information transmission path, and the format of the camera unit A transmission data to be packetized can be arbitrarily set by the video information control unit 12. . The video data control unit 6 that has received the packetized camera unit A transmission data 130 can also control the packetized transmission data from each camera unit on a frame-by-frame basis. 8 can be transmitted. In the video data display section 9, it is also possible to switch the tabular data for each unit time in frame units.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information when a plurality of frames are collectively packetized and additional information is added. Reference numeral 31 denotes packet ID information when a plurality of frames are converted into one packet, and reference numeral 32 denotes transmission data 2 of the camera unit A when additional information is added. FIG.
9 shows the camera unit A transmission data 232 when frames 1, 2, 7, and 8 of the camera unit A are extracted. With this configuration, by adding the extracted frame number, camera ID, and the like to the packet ID information 31, the video data display unit 9 corresponding to the camera ID indicates that the transmission to the camera unit A transmission data 232 is to be performed. It operates so that a control part may control. Video data control unit 6
Can easily construct a system in which the video data display unit 9 processes only by transmitting video information to the video data display control unit 8. By realizing the frame configuration of the data to be transmitted by the camera unit as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the video data control unit 6 determines the additional information and stores it in the video data storage unit 7 as storage data, The data can be displayed on the data display unit 9.

FIG. 9 is a hardware block diagram of the video data control unit. A transmission control unit 33 controls transmission data transmitted from a plurality of camera units and controls the transmission of control information. A transmission unit 34 transmits the transmitted video information to the video data storage unit 7 and controls the video data display. A video information control unit to be transmitted to the unit 8; When not adopting the part of the extracted frame configuration described above, if all the frames from all the camera units are transmitted from the camera units,
The video data storage unit 7 stores all frame data,
All the frame data can be displayed on the video data display unit 9.

Further, it is possible to store all the frame data in the video data storage unit 7 and display a part of the frame data on the video data display unit 9.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data stored in the video data storage unit 7 is stored for each camera. 35 is a camera part A image, 36 is a camera part B image, 3
Reference numeral 7 denotes a camera unit C image, and reference numeral 38 denotes a camera unit D image. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to separate images for each camera unit and to use a different recording device. It is also possible to reproduce based on the additional information for each video to be reproduced. It is also possible to accumulate as time elapses, and by replaying for each camera, it becomes easy to search for an image at a time when a crime or the like occurs or an image of a specific camera unit.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data stored in the video data storage unit 7 is collectively stored.
Reference numeral 39 denotes a centrally stored video for centrally managing the video acquired by the camera unit. The hardware scale of the storage unit can be reduced, and D
It can be constructed with a VD-RAM drive device or the like. In this case, a database of accumulated data, such as displaying the images of the cameras at the same time, can be performed well.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration for displaying data displayed on the video data display section 9 on a plurality of monitors.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data displayed by the video data display section 9 is displayed in a plurality of windows on one monitor.

As described above, the frame configuration of the video information data can be made flexible, and the video information can be easily extracted by the additional information.
Video information of a plurality of camera units shown in FIG. 13 can be displayed on a plurality of monitors corresponding to the respective camera units.

Further, it is also possible to specify only for video information from a specific camera unit for emergency monitoring. This makes it possible to select a camera unit to be monitored in an emergency, and to construct a high-resolution monitoring system with a high resolution or a clear monitoring system with enlarged images.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the structure of a transmission video data packet. 3 shows a frame configuration per unit time. Reference numerals 41 and 42 denote a transmission video data packet 1 and a transmission video data packet 2 when the video data of the cameras A1, B2, C3, and D4 is transmitted to the video data control unit 6 every two frames. The transmission video data packet 1 indicates a packet when two frames are transmitted from the camera unit A1, the camera unit B2, the camera unit C3, and the camera unit D4. Transmission video data packet 2
Indicates video packets when three frames, one frame, three frames, and one frame are transmitted, respectively. As described above, the configuration of the packet can be arbitrarily selected, and by adding ID information and time information corresponding to each camera unit and packetizing it as video data, it is possible to efficiently accumulate as a monitoring camera video.

[0027]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

(1) It is possible to unify the video information and control information of the physical quantity of the connection cable of a plurality of camera units into one, thereby saving space and flexibly supporting the number of installed cameras.

(2) Further, the monitor video information is set to an arbitrary number of frames per unit time, the information of the subsequent stage is packetized into the information of the former camera unit, and the control of the number of frames for each camera is remotely controlled. In addition to being able to carry out, it becomes possible to create a database of surveillance videos and search at high speed.

(3) Additional information from the camera unit is added,
It can be provided as video information having a frame configuration corresponding to a display and storage system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a monitoring camera system showing a system configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram showing connection of a plurality of cameras.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of video information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of control information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information transmission to a plurality of camera units.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information of each camera unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information when additional information is added for each frame.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a frame configuration of video information when additional information is added after a plurality of frames are collectively packetized.

FIG. 9 is a hardware block diagram of a video data control unit.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data to be stored is stored for each camera.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data to be stored is collectively stored.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration for displaying data to be displayed on a plurality of monitors.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which data to be displayed is displayed in a plurality of windows on one monitor.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transmission video data packet.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Camera part A, 2 ... Camera part B, 3 ... Camera part C, 4
... Camera unit D, 5 ... Video related information transmission path, 6 ... Video data control unit, 7 ... Video data storage unit, 8 ... Video data display control unit, 9 ... Video data display unit, 10 ... Camera lens,
11: Image sensor, 12: Video information controller, 13: Connection controller, 14: Microcontroller, 15: Flash ROM, 16: Memory, 17: Connection port A, 18 ...
Connection ports B, 19: path of video information, 20: path of video information from the preceding camera unit, 21: path of control information, 2
2 ... Video and control information paths in the whole system, 23
... frame configuration of video information of camera A, 24 ... camera B
25: video information of two frames transmitted by camera unit A, 26: video information of two frames transmitted by camera unit D, 27: video of one frame transmitted by camera unit A Information, 28: video information for one frame transmitted by the camera unit D, 29: camera ID information, 3
0: Camera unit A transmission data 1, 31 when additional information is added Camera unit A transmission data 1, 32: Camera unit A
Transmission data 2, 33: Transmission control unit, 34: Video information control unit, 35: Camera unit A image, 36: Camera unit B image,
37 ... Camera part C image, 38 ... Camera part D image, 39 ...
Centralized accumulated video, 40: transmission video packet, 41: transmission video data packet 1, 42: transmission video data packet 2.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G08B 25/01 G08B 25/01 D 25/04 25/04 E H04L 12/28 H04L 11/00 310A (72) Inventor Tokai Morino 1099 Ozenji Temple, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Hitachi, Ltd. System Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Tomohisa Kohiyama 1099 Ozenji Temple, Aso-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in the Hitachi, Ltd. System Development Laboratory (Reference) 5C054 CH10 DA01 EA03 EC03 EC07 EG04 EG06 EH07 FE02 GB01 GB04 GB05 HA18 5C084 AA02 AA07 AA08 AA13 BB25 CC16 CC19 DD12 EE01 FF03 FF08 FF11 FF16 FF27 GG07 GG09 GG17 GG20 A GG42 AGG GG42 A BB46 BB48 BB55 BB65 BB74 DD05 DD20 EE13 EE16 FF01 FF04 FF20 GG02 GG03 GG11 GG18 GG21 GG22 GG24 GG30 GG37 GG51 GG54 GG70 GG71 5K033 AA01 AA09 BA08 BA11 CA13 CB01 DA11 CC01

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of camera units having means for connecting the camera units, each of the camera units having a unique ID setting means, and taking in an ID set by the ID setting means from the camera. Means for adding unique information such as date and time to the video information, means for transmitting the video information by an arbitrary number of frames in frame units, and means for controlling the video information in frame units by an arbitrary time interval and the number of frames. A surveillance camera system and a control device thereof. 2. A surveillance camera system and a control device therefor according to claim 1, further comprising: a means for connecting a plurality of camera units together; receiving video information and control information from a preceding stage; A surveillance camera system for transmitting video information to a camera unit, and a control device therefor. 3. The surveillance camera system and the control device according to the above, wherein the camera unit at the subsequent stage which receives the video information transmitted through the connection for the plurality of camera units synchronizes with the data reception, and A surveillance camera system and a control device therefor, comprising: 4. The surveillance camera system according to claim 3, wherein means for discriminating information unique to each camera added to the video information and IDs of a plurality of camera units are transmitted from the camera units. A control device comprising means for managing and storing data. 5. The surveillance camera system according to claim 2, further comprising means for transmitting image information only when motion is detected in the surveillance video, and a control device therefor. 6. The surveillance camera system and the control device thereof according to claim 6, further comprising means for arbitrarily remotely setting the number of transmission frames per unit time of the video information to be transmitted according to the number of the plurality of camera units. A surveillance camera system and a control device thereof. 7. The surveillance camera system and the control device therefor, further comprising means for extracting and storing video information data of an arbitrary number of frames per unit time,
A surveillance camera system comprising a means for converting video information data of an extracted frame into video information data to be continuously reproduced, and a control device therefor. 8. The surveillance camera system according to claim 1, further comprising: means for displaying video information corresponding to an arbitrary camera unit; and means for extracting video information data for each ID and transmitting the data to a display means. A surveillance camera system and a control device therefor. 9. The surveillance camera system according to claim 1, further comprising: means for packetizing video information corresponding to an ID of an arbitrary camera unit for each ID, and means for transmitting the video information to a display means. A surveillance camera system characterized by the following. 10. In the surveillance camera system and the control device therefor, when there is an intruder, means for transmitting video data of one frame in both fields is provided. A surveillance camera system, comprising: means for transmitting video data, wherein data to be transmitted is controlled in accordance with surveillance video data.