JP2001268558A - Monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a monitoring system capable of monitoring a wide area by small number of cameras and by suppressing labor costs without requiring full-time personnel arrangement. SOLUTION: A control part extracts a peculiar image area (e.g. an image formed by a reflected infrared beam) from a photographing image VD of a monitoring camera 16 and controls the movement of a universal head 19 for installing the camera 16 so that the image area is arranged on a prescribed position (e.g. near the center) of the photographing image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surveillance system, for example, tracking and photographing the behavior of a suspicious individual for the purpose of preventing the capture of goods or mischief (mischief) on goods at a sales floor such as a supermarket or a mass retailer. Monitoring system to monitor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, supermarkets, mass retailers, and the like have been required to have a wide variety of products that meet the needs of consumers. It is getting. On the other hand, it is true that these store managers want to reduce expenses (especially labor costs) as much as possible, and the number of store clerks is actually decreasing.

[0003] When the number of clerks is reduced in a sales floor having such a large and complicated layout as described above, naturally, many blind spots that the clerks cannot keep an eye on appear, and illegal acts using the blind spots, for example, In some cases, a product is seized (so-called shoplifting) or mischief is performed on the product. Such an act not only causes economic loss to the store, but also the latter mischief leads to a loss of trust, and in the case of malicious acts such as the incorporation of dangerous materials (for example, sewing needles or toxic substances), May seriously harm a third party who has just purchased the product in advance, not only to prevent such fraudulent acts, but also to record images and to keep evidence even if such acts are performed It is indispensable to introduce a security system that can do this.

Conventionally, as such a security system, a surveillance camera having a fixed photographing direction is installed at a position covering a blind spot in a sales floor, and the image is displayed on a monitor in another room and simultaneously recorded on a recording device. It is well known to do. The disadvantage of this system is that, since the monitoring camera is of a fixed shooting direction, one monitoring camera cannot cover all the blind spots, and as a result, the number of monitoring cameras must be increased according to the number of blind spots For this reason, the system cost is too high, especially in a sales floor having a large and complicated layout.

As an improved known security system, a remote-controlled head is mounted at an appropriate position (for example, a ceiling of a sales floor) capable of covering a blind spot of a sales floor, and a surveillance camera is mounted on the head to provide a separate room. It is known to control the movement of the camera platform. According to this, the direction of the surveillance camera can be freely controlled in accordance with the movement of the suspicious person, and all blind spots can be covered by a small number of surveillance cameras, so that there is an advantage that the system cost can be reduced.

[0006]

However, although the above-mentioned improved known security system is advantageous in that the cost of the system can be reduced, an operator who stays in a separate room is required. This operator has a problem that human resources other than the clerk who serves customers at the store must be allocated, so that labor costs cannot be suppressed.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a surveillance system for monitoring images captured by cameras, in which a wide area can be monitored with a small number of cameras, and dedicated staffing is required. It is an object of the present invention to provide a monitoring system capable of suppressing labor costs without reducing the cost.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a surveillance system for photographing an entire area to be monitored by a camera, wherein a light emitting means and a light emitted by the light emitting means are provided. An area extracting unit that determines the region to be irradiated as a region of a unique image and extracts the region, and the camera of the camera so that the region of the unique image extracted by the region extracting unit comes to a predetermined position of an image to be captured. A photographing direction control means for controlling a photographing direction.

In a preferred aspect, the camera has a first camera having a wide angle of view over the entire area to be monitored and a narrower angle of view than the first camera, and is controlled by the photographing direction control means. And a second camera. In a preferred aspect, the predetermined position is near the center of the captured image.

[0010]

According to the present invention, for example, a unique image area irradiated with light rays (for example, a reflection image of a beam light ray by infrared rays) is extracted from an image photographed by a camera mounted on a camera platform, and this image area is extracted. The movement of the camera platform is controlled such that the camera comes to a predetermined position (for example, near the center) of the captured image.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the specification or examples of various details and examples of numerical values, character strings, and other symbols are merely reference for clarifying the idea of the present invention, and all or some of them Obviously, the spirit of the invention is not limited.
In addition, well-known methods, well-known procedures, well-known architectures, and well-known circuit configurations (hereinafter, “known matters”) will not be described in detail, but this is also for the purpose of simplifying the description. It does not intentionally exclude all or some of the matters. Such well-known matters can be known to those skilled in the art at the time of filing the present invention, and therefore are naturally included in the following description.

First, an overview of the monitoring system according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of application to a sales floor (hereinafter, referred to as a “seller floor”) such as a supermarket or a mass retail store. Here, it is assumed that a plurality of targets A to E, such as clerks and customers, stop or walk around in the sales floor 1 (corresponding to the “area” described in the gist of the invention). Although various fixed objects such as a merchandise display shelf, a cash register counter, and a display for promotion are placed in the counter 1, all of them are omitted for the sake of illustration.

A monitoring system is provided at an appropriate position overlooking the entire sales floor 1 (in most cases, near the center of the ceiling 2 but may be any other appropriate position). The monitoring unit 3 is installed.
Although the details will be described later, the head comprises a remote control head and a surveillance camera mounted on the head (corresponding to the camera of the present invention). The imaging direction can be freely moved, images of the characteristics of each of the targets A to E scattered in the counter 1 can be captured, and the image signals can be sent to the control unit in another room.

At least one of the targets A to E is a person related to the sales floor 1 (a clerk, a manager, a manager, a security guard, or the like). In the figure, assuming that the target E is the relevant person, the relevant person E holds a beam ray 4 in a predetermined wavelength range in his / her hand.
The light emitting means 4 for emitting a is held. Beam beam 4a is one of the other targets (target D in the figure)
And an image of the target D including the reflected light 4b is captured by the monitoring unit 3.

[0015] The target D is one of the customers who have entered the sales floor 1, but is a customer who has been regarded as a suspicious person by the related person E (hereinafter referred to as a "special customer"). Here, the special customer D at this stage has not performed any wrongdoing. It was merely thought by the concerned person E to be "noisy" from such actions. Therefore, at this stage, it is not necessary to realize that no special action can be taken for the special customer D, or even that the special customer D is being monitored. This is because if you make a mistake, you will be in trouble.

In this respect, it is desirable that the beam 4a of the beam emitting means 4 is a beam (typically "infrared ray") outside the visible light region. However, the present embodiment is not limited to light rays outside the visible light region. This is because the presence of the beam 4a may be made “not easily detected” by the special customer D. For example, by narrowing down the beam 4a very thinly and minimizing the irradiation spot area on the special customer D, the visible light may be reduced. This is because the rays of the area can also be used. In this case, the wavelength of the visible light (in other words, the “color” of the light) must have a wavelength component unique to the wavelength included in the background image for the reason described later.

Next, the configuration of the monitoring unit 3 will be described. FIG. 2 is an external view of the monitoring unit 3 attached to the ceiling 2,
(A) is a view from the front, (b) is a view from the side,
(C) is a diagram viewed from below. In these figures,
The monitoring unit 3 includes a camera platform 19 and a monitoring camera 16. The camera platform 19 includes an azimuth drive unit (for example, an electric motor) 12 and an azimuth detection unit (for example, an optical motor) inside the base 5 fixed to the ceiling 2. And an azimuth driving unit 12 and an azimuth detecting unit 10 which are connected to a rotational motion transmitting mechanism (a center gear 8 which rotates integrally with a shaft 7 in the figure, and which is interlocked with the center gear 8). The rotation movement of the shaft 7 is transmitted through a pair of rotating sub-gears 9 and 11).

A turntable 6 is attached to the shaft 7, and a pair of stays 13 and 14 are erected on the turntable 6 so as to face each other at a predetermined interval. Between the stays 13 and 14, these two stays 1
Lateral member 15 rotatably supported by 3, 14
A surveillance camera 16 having a photographing lens 16a is fixed substantially near the center of the lateral member 15. An elevation drive unit (for example, an electric motor) 18 is attached to one end of the lateral member, and an elevation detection unit (for example, an optical direction sensor) 17 is attached to the other end. These elevation drive unit 18 and elevation detection unit 17
Is the rotation angle of the lateral member 15, that is, the monitoring camera 1
Elevation Angle (Elevation Angle) in the direction in which the photographing lens No. 6 faces (hereinafter referred to as the “photographing direction”).
e), and the value of the elevation angle is detected. Further, the azimuth angle drive unit 12 and the azimuth angle detection unit 10 detect the rotation angle of the turntable 6, that is, the monitoring camera 1
Azimuth Ang among the shooting directions of No. 6 (Azimuth Ang)
le) and detects the value of the azimuth angle.

Next, functional blocks of the entire monitoring system will be described. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the monitoring unit 3 constituting the monitoring system and a signal system diagram between the monitoring unit 3 and the control unit 20. In this figure, an azimuth drive signal P _AZM and an elevation drive signal P _ELV from a control unit 20 are input to a pan head 19 of a monitoring unit 3, and the pan head 19 controls the control unit 2.
The azimuth angle detection signal φ _AZM and the elevation angle detection signal φ _ELV are output to 0, and two types of image signals VD 1 and VD 2 are output from the monitoring camera 16 to the control unit 20. The first image signal VD1 is a normal visible image signal, for example,
The image signal (including the date and time of photographing) captured by a general imaging device is a signal. The second image signal VD2 is an image signal in the wavelength range of the light beam 4a.
When the wavelength range includes a frequency component outside the visible range, such as infrared light, it is an image signal formed by the frequency component. The first image signal VD1 is typically a single-panel type or a multi-panel type color CCD (Charge Coupled De).
and the second image signal VD2 can be generated by a single-chip CCD having an optical filter in a specific wavelength range. Although power is also input to the monitoring unit 3 and the control unit 20, they are not shown and will not be described because they are natural. The monitoring unit 3 includes the camera platform 19 and the monitoring camera 16 as described above, and the functions required of these units are as follows.

<Head Head 19> The functions required for the head 19 are the function of holding the surveillance camera 16 and the shooting direction of the surveillance camera 16 according to the drive signals (P _AZM and P _ELV ) from the control unit 20. There are three functions: a moving function, and a function of detecting the azimuth and elevation of the monitoring camera 16 and outputting detection signals ( _φAZM , _φELV ) to the control unit 20. It should be noted that the third function (the function of outputting azimuth and elevation angle detection signals) does not necessarily need to be provided. A function required when performing a so-called closed-loop controlled by the control unit 20, drive signals (P _AZM, P _{E LV)} when performing the open loop control only is because a feature becomes unnecessary. In the present embodiment, in view of the fact that closed loop control is generally performed in terms of control accuracy, it is merely added to one of the "necessary functions".

<Monitoring Camera 16> A first function required for the monitoring camera 16 is a function of shooting a subject and outputting a first image signal VD1 including the shooting date and time. Note that the image signal VD1 is a moving image signal (typically, a video signal or an audio video signal composed of several tens of frame images per second), but is also a still image that is updated every predetermined time. There may be. However, it is needless to say that a moving image signal is the best in view of the nature of the security system, and even if a still image is adopted, it is of course better that the update time be as short as possible. The subject to be photographed by the surveillance camera 16 is exclusively a person for the purpose of the security system. Therefore, the first function includes having the ability to identify the clothes, body characteristics, or skeleton of a person (hereinafter, referred to as “characteristics”) of the person as the subject. The performance in this case, for example,
Color resolution, resolution or angle of view (Angle of Vi
ew: A photographable range represented by an angle. It is determined by the focal length of the taking lens. Normally, when the focal length of the taking lens is made infinite, it refers to the angle formed with respect to the principal point of the taking lens.
Is included.

The second function necessary for the monitoring camera 16 is that the reflected light 4a of the beam 4a emitted from the beam emitting means 4
b can be received, converted into a second image signal VD2, and output together with the image signal (VD1) of the subject. That is, in the example at the beginning, the reflected light 4b of the beam 4a applied to the special customer D is received and converted into a second image signal VD2, and the image signal (VD1) of the special customer D is received.
It must have a function that can be output together with.

Here, the function of the light emitting means 4 closely related to the second function of the monitoring camera 16 will be described. The ultimate function required of the light beam emitting means 4 is, in short, to irradiate a light beam that is hardly perceived by human eyes to a distant place (to every corner of the monitoring area) with suppressed attenuation. Therefore,
The beam light beam 4a may be visible light in a predetermined wavelength range narrowed down to a very small point at a point that is hardly perceived, and may be a light beam other than visible light at a point that is not reliably detected,
In any case, the beam must be a beam that does not spread as far as possible at the point where it travels far away with reduced attenuation. In view of the above, the light beam emitting means 4 only needs to have a function of emitting a light beam (beam light beam 4a) that is a beam light beam and includes visible light in a predetermined wavelength range or a wavelength range other than visible light. The second function of the surveillance camera 16 only needs to output an image signal (VD2) covering the frequency range of the light beam (beam light beam 4a).

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the control unit 20. The control unit 20 includes an image display device 21 and an image recording device 2
2. Image extraction unit ("region extraction means" described in the summary of the invention)
) 23, a position identification unit 24, and a drive signal generation unit (corresponding to “photographing direction control means” described in the gist of the invention) 25, and the functions required of these units are as follows.

<Image display device 21> Image display device 21
Displays the first image signal VD1 (including data of the shooting date and time) from the monitoring camera 16, and the necessary function is a function of displaying an image. Incidentally, the first image signal V
If D1 is a moving image, the moving image must be able to be displayed smoothly. If D1 includes an audio signal, the audio signal must be reproduced and output as an audible sound. It is. Note that, for the security system of the present embodiment, this image display device 21
Is not a required component. Although details will be described later, it is not necessary to track the suspicious person while monitoring the image display device 21.

<Image Recording Device 22> Image Recording Device 22
Records the first image signal VD1 (including data of the shooting date and time) from the monitoring camera 16, and the necessary function is a function of recording an image. It is also desirable to have an image reproduction function. The storage device may be a magnetic tape, a hard disk, a semiconductor storage device, or the like.

<Image Extraction Unit 23> The image extraction unit 23 expands the second image signal VD2 from the surveillance camera 16 for each screen in an image buffer (not shown), and extracts a unique image area from the developed image. Is what you do. The peculiar image area is an image area formed by the reflected light 4b of the light beam 4a emitted from the light beam emitting means 4. For example, if the light beam 4a is an infrared ray other than visible light, for example, red This is an image region mainly composed of color components in the outer region.

<Position Identifying Unit 24> The position identifying unit 24 identifies the position of the unique image area extracted by the image extracting unit 23, and outputs information indicating the position. Here, “position” refers to the second image signal VD2 from the monitoring camera 16.
Is a position in one screen in which is developed, and has a concept described as follows. That is, the image extraction unit 2
The unique image area extracted by 3 locally exists somewhere in the developed image corresponding to one screen of the second image signal VD2. The location of this locally existing portion is determined by the relative relationship between the shooting direction of the monitoring camera 16 and the reflection point of the light beam 4a. For example, when the shooting direction and the reflection point exactly match, FIG. As shown in the explanatory diagram of a), the unique image area 26 exists near the center point P _{O of the} image 27 (the intersection of the two diagonal lines 27a and 27b of the image 27) (corresponding to the above “position”). . Central point P _O corresponds to the "predetermined position" described in the gist of the invention. In this case, the error ΔL between the center point and the representative point of the peculiar image area 26 (for example, the center of gravity of the value of each pixel constituting the image area 26) becomes zero or a value close to zero. On the other hand, when the reflection point and the imaging direction is not the same, as shows the explanation diagram in FIG. 5 (b), specific image region 26 central point P _O of the image 27
Exists in a predetermined direction and by a predetermined amount from the
). The error ΔL in this case is represented by a vector amount having the value of the direction of the shift and the degree of the shift. As described above, the vector amount corresponds to the information indicating the position of the unique image area extracted by the image extracting unit 23, and the position specifying unit 24 has a function of outputting the vector amount to the drive signal generating unit 25.

<Drive signal generator 25> Drive signal generator 2
5 receives a vector amount from the position specifying unit 24, calculates a correction value for setting the vector amount to zero, and based on the correction value, generates a required drive signal (azimuth drive signal _PAZM and elevation drive signal _PAZM). P _ELV ) and outputs it to the monitoring unit 3. When calculating the above-mentioned correction value, by taking into account information of the current shooting direction of the surveillance camera 16 (azimuth detection value φ _AZM and elevation detection value φ _ELV ), a so-called closed-loop control is configured to achieve control accuracy. This is preferred because

Next, an operation sequence in the security system of the present embodiment will be outlined. FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of the operation sequence. This flowchart shows a monitoring process (step S1) and a tracking process (step S1).
2). Monitoring process is suspicious person in sales floor 1 (special customer D)
This is a normal process that is repeatedly executed when no is seen. In this monitoring processing, first, the driving direction (azimuth driving signal P _AZM and elevation driving signal P _ELV ) output to the monitoring unit 3 is changed to search the shooting direction of the monitoring camera 16 (step S1a). This search may be a search of a fixed pattern (constant change of the drive signal) or a search of a random pattern (random change of the drive signal). It suffices if the entire store 1 can be searched evenly. Note that the search speed needs to be suppressed to such a degree that the captured image of the monitoring camera 16 is not disturbed. Next, the first image signal VD1 and the second image signal VD2 from the monitoring camera 16 are acquired (step S1b), and the first image signal VD1 is displayed on the image display device 21 one screen at a time (step S1c). At the same time, the image is recorded in the image recording device 22 (step S1d). Then, it is determined whether or not a unique image area exists in the image of the second image signal VD2 by, for example, a threshold determination method (step S1e). "" Is the reflected light 4 of the beam 4a from the beam emitting means 4.
b, which is not extracted unless the special customer D is irradiated with the light beam 4a by the related person E, the determination result of step S1e is always obtained during the normal processing in which no suspicious person (special customer D) is seen. Keep "NO".
As a result, search processing (step S1a), image acquisition processing (step S1b), image display processing (step S1)
c) The loop of the image recording process (step S1d) and the determination process (step S1e) is repeated.

On the other hand, the tracking process (step S2) is executed when the result of the determination process (step S1e) is "YES". That is, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), an example of the display screen 21a of the image display device 21 is shown. Is irradiated, and the reflected light 4b
Is executed when is monitored by the monitoring camera 16. When the tracking processing is executed, first, the position of the unique image area included in the second image signal VD2 from the monitoring camera 16 is specified (step S2a), and then the information (the above-described vector amount) indicating the position is specified. After generating drive signals (azimuth drive signal P _AZM and elevation drive signal P _ELV ) based on them and outputting them to monitor 3 (step S2b), the process returns to the image acquisition process (step S1b) of the monitor process. As a result, the monitoring unit 3 tracks the special customer D by moving its shooting direction so as to capture the reflected light 4b of the beam light beam 4a at the center of the angle of view of the monitoring camera 16. FIG. 7B is a display example of the screen 21a showing the tracking result, showing a state where the center of the screen 21a (the center point of the center mark 21b) coincides with the position of the shoulder of the specific customer D by the tracking operation. I have. Then, the process shifts to the monitoring process again. However, as long as the beam 4a is continuously emitted to the special customer D, the determination process (step S1e) continues "YES", and thus the tracking operation is continued as it is. . Therefore, special customer D
Can be controlled in accordance with the movement of the surveillance camera 16, and the action of the special customer D can be continuously recorded in the image recording device 23.

As described above, according to the security system of the present embodiment, all persons involved in the sales floor 1 or specific persons E are provided with the light emitting means 4, and when a special customer D is found, By irradiating the special customer D with the light beam 4a, the shooting direction of the monitoring camera 16 can be directed to the special customer D. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform remote control from a separate room, and security monitoring can be performed only by persons involved in the sales floor, so that a dedicated operator is not required and labor costs can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the person E in the sales floor 1 irradiates the beam 4 directly, but a natural behavior (irradiation operation) that the specific customer D does not realize is considerable. There is some room for improvement in this regard, as it is difficult without training.

FIG. 8 shows a modified example of the above embodiment in which this point is improved. Note that for constituent elements common to the above embodiment, the drawings, reference numerals, and the like of the above embodiment will be referred to as appropriate. In FIG. 8, a light emitting unit 30 is installed on the ceiling 2 of the sales floor 1. This installation position is a position corresponding to an appropriate position overlooking the entire counter 1 similarly to the above-described monitoring unit 3 (if there is another appropriate position, it may be that position. Is the same as the monitoring unit 3). The light emitting unit 30 includes a head 31 and a light emitting unit 4 having a configuration similar to that of the head 19 (see FIG. 2) of the monitoring unit 3 described above, and an azimuth driving unit 32 and an elevation driving provided in the head 31. The emitting direction of the beam 4a of the beam emitting means 4 can be freely moved by the section 33. Although not shown in the figure, this pan head 3
1 may include an azimuth angle detection unit and an elevation angle detection unit similar to the camera platform 19 of the monitoring unit 3 described above.

The azimuth drive unit 32 and the elevation drive unit 33 of the camera platform 31 drive signals (φa
h, φbh), the beam 4a of the beam emitting means 4
The launch direction (azimuth and elevation) of. The light emission control unit 34 includes a monitoring camera direction calculation unit 35, an image display device with a touch panel (corresponding to “display means” and “pointing device” described in the gist of the invention) 36, and a beam direction calculation unit (the gist of the invention). The function required of each of these units is as follows.

<Monitoring camera direction calculation unit 35> The monitoring camera direction calculation unit 35 _converts the shooting direction information (azimuth angle detection signal φ _AZM and elevation angle detection signal φ _ELV ) of the monitoring camera 16 output from the monitoring unit 3 described above. Based on this, the photographing direction information (φ) in the camera coordinate system (the coordinate system of the monitoring camera 16) is calculated.

<Image Display Device with Touch Panel 36> The image display device with touch panel 36 displays the first image signal VD1 output from the surveillance camera 16, and displays the touch coordinate information of the touch panel attached on its screen ( Xh, Yh). The image display device with a touch panel 36 is the same as the image display device 2 described above.
1 (see FIG. 4). Further, a pointing device such as a mouse or a light pen may be used instead of the touch panel. The point is that the special customer D projected on the screen is pointed to the screen coordinate system (the screen coordinate system (φag, φb of the image display device 36 with a touch panel).
g)), the coordinate information (X
h, Yh) can be generated.

<Beam Direction Calculation Unit 37> The beam direction calculation unit 37 converts the coordinate information (Xh, Yh) of the pointing point in the screen coordinate system (φag, φbg) into the coordinate information (φah, φbh) in the absolute coordinate system. For example, the following conversion formula can be used. (Φah, φbh) = {(θag, θbg) + φ} (Xh, Yh)} (1) where Ψ is an operator for converting the camera coordinate system into the screen coordinate system.

According to the above-described improved example, by pointing the special customer D displayed on the screen of the image display device 36 with a touch panel, the camera platform 31 of the light emitting unit 30 moves and the beam light of the light emitting unit 4 is moved. The launch direction of 4a can be directed to the special customer D. Therefore, there is an advantage that an operation that is easily understood by the special customer D (an operation of directly irradiating the beam beam 4 by the person concerned E) is not required, and the special customer D can be secretly monitored.
Moreover, if the image display device 36 with a touch panel is installed at a cashier counter or the like, it can be operated only by the person concerned E,
This eliminates the need for a dedicated operator in a separate room, thereby reducing labor costs.

In the above embodiment, a unique image area (an image area due to the reflected light 4b of the light beam 4a) is obtained from the second image signal VD2 output from the monitoring camera 16.
Is determined, but the present invention is not limited to this mode. For example, it may be modified as follows.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modification example common to the above embodiments. In this figure, a first monitoring unit (corresponding to the “first monitoring camera” described in the gist of the invention) is located at an appropriate position (the ceiling 2 in the figure) overlooking the entire counter 1.
40 and a second monitoring unit (corresponding to the “second monitoring camera” described in the gist of the invention) 42 are provided. First monitoring unit 4
Reference numeral 0 denotes a monitoring camera having a fixed angle of view having a wide angle of view (at least an angle of view 41 that covers the entire sales area 1), and the second monitoring unit 42 includes the monitoring unit 3 (FIG. 2). ). Explaining the functions necessary for each unit, first, the first monitoring unit 40 has a second function equivalent to that of the monitoring camera 16 in the above embodiment. That is, the first monitoring unit 40 has a function of receiving the reflected light 4b of the light beam 4a emitted from the light emitting unit 4 and converting it into the second image signal VD2 and outputting it. On the other hand, the surveillance camera 16 of the second monitoring unit 42 has a first function equivalent to the surveillance camera 16 in the above-described embodiment (a first image signal VD including an image of an object and including the date and time of the image capture)
1 (function to output 1) (however, the second function is not provided).

According to this modification, a unique image area can be extracted from the second image signal VD2 output from the first monitor 40. Therefore, since the first monitoring unit 40 is constituted by a monitoring camera having a fixed angle of view with a wide angle of view, a unique image area is extracted while searching for the monitoring camera 16 with a narrow angle of view as in the above embodiment. There is an advantage that a unique image area can be extracted in real time without causing a blind spot due to a search, as compared with the case of performing the search.

[0043]

According to the present invention, a unique image area (an image of the irradiation area of the light beam emitted by the light beam emitting means) is extracted from the image captured by the camera (or the first camera), and this image area is extracted. A predetermined position of the photographed image (preferably,
The shooting direction of the camera (or the second camera) is controlled so as to come near the center. Therefore, it is possible to provide a monitoring system that can monitor a wide area with a small number of cameras (or the second cameras) and can suppress labor costs without requiring dedicated staffing.

Alternatively, the camera is constituted by a first camera having a high angle of view and a second camera having a narrow angle of view, and the first camera extracts a specific image area and based on the extraction result. By controlling the shooting direction of the second camera, a specific image area can be captured with a wide angle of view of the first camera, and a real-time extraction of the specific image area can be performed without camera search. Can do it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an application example of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a monitoring unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a monitoring unit and a signal system diagram between the monitoring unit and the control unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a control unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic flowchart of an operation sequence according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example of the image display device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a partial configuration diagram showing an improved example of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a partial configuration diagram showing a modification of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

_PO central point 1 sales floor (area) 4 light beam emitting means 4a beam light 16 surveillance camera 19 pan head 23 image extraction unit (region extraction unit) 24 position specification unit 25 drive signal generation unit (imaging direction control unit) 26 unique image Area 27 Image 36 Image display device with touch panel 37 Beam direction calculation unit 40 First monitoring unit (first camera) 42 Second monitoring unit (second camera)

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a surveillance system for photographing an entire area to be monitored by a camera, a light emitting unit and a region irradiated with a light beam emitted by the light emitting unit are determined and extracted as a unique image region. Region extracting means; and a photographing direction control means for controlling a photographing direction of the camera such that a peculiar image region extracted by the region extracting means comes to a predetermined position of an image to be photographed. And monitoring system. 2. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the first camera has a wide angle of view over the entire area to be monitored, and the second camera has a narrower angle of view than the first camera, and is controlled by the imaging direction control means. The surveillance system according to claim 1, comprising a camera. 3. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined position is near a central portion of the captured image.