JP2001325695A - Traffic flow monitoring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a traffic flow monitoring device which can eliminate the non-monitoring areas even with a small number of its installing places and can automatically track a fast mobile object by performing the switching of nearby panoramic images via a network and operating continuously the nearby turning zoom cameras. SOLUTION: A turning zoom camera 103b and a panoramic camera 104b are added to each of traffic flow monitoring devices 102 which are placed at both sides of a road and with a fixed space respectively. Then the switching is performed between a nearby traffic flow monitoring device 102a and a nearby panoramic image 105a via a network 101. Thus, the continuous distance images are produced and the difference of traffic flows is monitored for detect a singular point. This singular point is magnified by the camera 103b and transmitted to a monitor 108.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traffic flow monitoring device which is arranged along a road and monitors a running state of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows a service searching system for information on a road by a conventional camera monitoring system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-178448. This conventional camera monitoring system is constructed by connecting a monitoring monitor and a plurality of camera servers via a network. Such a conventional camera monitoring system will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, 201 is a network, 202a to 202c are camera servers, 203a to 203c are cameras, and 208 is a monitoring monitor.

In such a camera monitoring system, when the camera server 202a receives a video request in response to a command from the monitoring monitor 208, the camera server 202a determines based on the requested network address, and transmits the video to the request source if the own camera 203a. If it is not the camera 203a, the request is transferred to the other camera servers 202b and 202c connected to the other network, and the camera 203a itself becomes a relay device to relay the video, and the requesting monitor monitor 208 and the other camera server It mediates with 202b and 202c. Then, the camera server 202a, 202b, 202
When the network address of c is specified, a search is performed between the camera servers in the network 201, and the camera server can reach an arbitrary camera server and monitor the camera image.

[0004]

In the conventional camera monitoring apparatus as described above, camera images must be selected by selecting one of the camera servers 202a to 202c by a network address. In such an apparatus, when performing continuous monitoring of a moving vehicle on a road, the camera servers 202a to 202c may be used depending on the positional conditions of the vehicle as the subject.
There is no means for switching between the camera servers 202a-2
It was difficult to automatically track the vehicle by selecting 02c. In addition, even in the case of single shooting by the camera servers 202a to 202c, it is necessary to determine the position in three-dimensional coordinates and drive the revolving zoom camera, and it is difficult to track a high-speed moving object. Further, there is a problem that it is difficult to understand the connection between the locations of the images displayed on the monitoring monitor 208.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. A first object of the present invention is to supplement a turning zoom camera with a panoramic camera and exchange neighboring panoramic images via a network. The second object of the present invention is to create a continuous road image and operate a self-or nearby zoom camera based on the road image to continuously track a traveling vehicle that is a high-speed moving object. In response to a request from a traveling vehicle, the traveling vehicle marks the vehicle itself on the road image and provides the road information including the situation in front of the vehicle.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A traffic flow monitoring device according to the present invention is provided with a turning zoom camera and a panoramic camera in a traffic flow monitoring device disposed at a fixed interval on both sides of a road, and monitors traffic flow in a nearby traffic flow. The device and the panoramic video are exchanged via the network to create a continuous video of the route, and the difference of the traffic flow is monitored to detect the singular point of the traffic flow,
The singular point is zoom-enlarged by a revolving zoom camera and transmitted to a separately installed monitoring monitor.

[0007] In addition, a singular point detected from the road image is
If it is out of the monitoring range of its own turning zoom camera, it returns to the turning zoom camera of the traffic flow monitoring device of the panoramic image sending source, indicating the position of the singular point in the panoramic image,
The transmission request for the enlarged display by the turning zoom camera of the monitoring monitor is made.

For a singular point that moves at high speed, the next traffic panorama image is predicted by the traffic flow monitoring apparatus before the next panoramic image to appear next is predicted and the panorama camera enters the shooting range. By notifying the time when a singular point comes out of its own imaging range, and stopping the transmission to the monitoring monitor when a singular point comes out of its own imaging range, the notification itself is used as a transmission token to the monitoring monitor It is something to do.

The traffic flow monitoring devices are arranged at regular intervals on both sides of the road lane, and the panoramic image is transmitted by digitizing only the image portion related to the traffic flow, and the image on the opposite lane is inverted. After shaping the panorama image, the traffic flow monitoring devices are arranged in the order of the road arrangement positions to create a continuous road image.

[0010] Further, the apparatus has a correspondence between GPS latitude / longitude information and a road image, and marks a position of the traveling vehicle in response to a request from the traveling vehicle, and provides a situation in a forward direction as a road image. It is.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a traffic flow monitoring device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, taking as an example a traffic flow monitoring device using a turning zoom camera and a panoramic camera. In the figure, reference numeral 101 denotes a network; 102a to 102c, a plurality of traffic flow monitoring devices provided in the network 101;
03a to 103c, panoramic cameras 104a to 104
c, compound eye processing functions 107a to 107c, respectively. Panoramic images 105a to 105c represent panoramic images. In the first embodiment, the compound eye processing function 107b connects the own and neighboring panoramic images 105a to 105c to the network 1
01 and exchange them to create a road picture 106. Reference numeral 108 denotes a separately provided monitoring monitor,
09b is a zoom enlarged image. Reference numeral 110 denotes a singular point detected as a result of monitoring the flow difference by the compound eye processing function 107b.

[0012] Such traffic flow monitoring devices 102a to 102a
2c, nearby panoramic cameras 104a-104
c are arranged such that there are no blind spots in road lanes to be monitored from each other, and panoramic images 105a to 105a near a certain range.
5c is replaced by the compound eye processing functions 107a to 107c. In the first embodiment, the compound-eye processing function 107b provided in a specific traffic flow monitoring device 102b includes panoramic images 105a to 1051 collected through the network 101.
05c are arranged in the order of the road, a road image 106 is created, a difference in the traffic flow of the road image 106 is monitored, and a changing portion is detected as a singular point 110. Generally, the traffic condition of a road has a characteristic that if there is no accident, the traffic flow is uniform, and if there is an accident, the uniformity of the traffic flow is broken. And panoramic video 1
05a to 105c have a small number of pixels because of wide angle, and it is difficult to detect a singular point in image processing on a single screen. However, this compound eye processing function 107b is used for the panoramic images 105a to 105a.
Since a plurality of 105c are collected at continuous points and the uniformity is monitored, it is easy to detect the singular point 110. Then, the compound-eye processing function 107b suppresses the turning zoom camera 103b, focuses on the singular point 110, and transmits an enlarged zoom image 109b to the monitoring monitor 108. As described above, according to the traffic flow monitoring device 102b of the first embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of panoramic cameras 104a to 104c are connected to the compound eye processing functions 107a to 107c via the network 101.
c, the singular point 110 is detected, and the turning zoom camera 103b is enlarged and displayed by automatic control. Therefore, there is no unmonitored area on the road, and the entire road can be easily monitored. Detection of the point 110 becomes easy.

Embodiment 2 FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the configuration of the traffic flow monitoring device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is connected to a network laid along a road. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 111 denotes a singular point detected in the panoramic image 105a. Reference numeral 109a denotes a zoom-in image.
In the second embodiment, the flow difference is monitored by the compound eye processing function 107b, and when the singular point 111 is detected in the neighboring panoramic image 105a, the information of the singular point 111 is added to the neighboring panoramic image 105a. It is returned to the compound eye processing function 107a of the traffic flow monitoring device 102a which is roughly equivalent. In the compound eye processing function 107a, the singular point 11
1 is decoded, the own zoom camera 103a is zoomed to the singular point 111, and the zoomed image 109a is enlarged.
Is transmitted to the monitoring monitor 108. The monitoring monitor 10
The case where it is desired to obtain a zoomed-in image of the traffic flow monitoring device 102a from FIG. 8 will be described. The road image 106 from any of the traffic flow monitoring devices 102a to 102c is read, and a desired enlarged portion is selected.
The information of the singular point 111 is written at an arbitrary position in the area 05a,
When the information is returned to the traffic flow monitoring device 102a, the operation is performed in the same manner as described above, and the information of the singular point 111 of the panoramic image 105a is sent to the compound eye processing function 107a to perform zooming. As described above, according to the traffic flow monitoring device of the second embodiment of the present invention, a singular point is detected and displayed on the monitor monitor in an enlarged manner even outside the monitoring range. That is, since a singular point can be detected at a plurality of places at the same time, the accuracy of the result can be improved by majority decision. The monitoring monitor 108
Since it is possible to instruct a partial enlargement of an arbitrary part from the road image 106, there is also an advantage that the image can be selected without considering the network address and the connection form.

Embodiment 3 FIG. 3 shows an example of connecting the configuration of the traffic flow monitoring device according to the third embodiment of the present invention to a network laid along a road. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 112 denotes a predicted point at which the moving singular point 111 will appear in the next panoramic image 105a. Traffic flow monitoring device 102a according to the third embodiment
In Examples 102 and 102c, the distance image 106 is created by the compound eye processing functions 107a through 107c as in the first and second embodiments, and a portion where the traffic flow changes is detected as a singular point.
Further, in the compound eye processing function 107b, the movement amount of the singular point 111 is calculated to deviate from the self-monitoring range and the panorama image 1
The position information appearing at 05a is calculated. Before the departure time, the departure time and the position information of the predicted point 112 of the panoramic video 105a are transmitted to the compound eye processing function 107a of the traffic flow monitoring device 102a which is to be monitored next. The traffic flow monitoring device 102a that has received the position information of the prediction point 112
Then, the turning zoom camera 103a waits in accordance with the predicted point. At this time, the multiple processing function 107a
Starts transmission of the zoomed-in image 109a, and the compound-eye processing function 107b stops transmission. As described above, according to the traffic flow monitoring device of the third embodiment of the present invention, the turning zoom camera can zoom in and wait before the singular point enters the visual field, so that the singular point moving at high speed can be continuously detected. Tracking becomes easy.

Embodiment 4 FIG. 4 shows a panoramic video processing operation of the compound eye processing function implemented in the traffic flow monitoring device according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. Note that description with a network diagram is omitted here. 401 is an optical image,
Reference numeral 402 denotes a panoramic image, and 403 denotes a road image. 4
Numeral 04 denotes a panoramic camera which is arranged at regular intervals on both sides of the road lane together with the traffic flow monitoring device. In general, since the panoramic camera 404 captures an image with a wide-angle lens or a curved mirror, the peripheral portion of the required image of the optical image 401 is largely distorted. In the fourth embodiment, the compound eye processing function digitizes only a necessary portion of the optical image 401 to correct the distortion, and in the traffic flow monitoring device located in the opposite lane, inverts the panorama as shown in the road image 403. An image 402 is created. The panoramic images 402 are exchanged between the plurality of compound eye processing functions to form the road image 403, and are arranged in consideration of the road arrangement position order. By making the opposite lane an inverted image in this way, the flow of traffic flow can be aligned up and down indicating the up line and down line, making it easy to detect singular points, and display that is easy to grasp for monitoring Becomes Further, the number of traffic flow monitoring devices including the panoramic camera 404 can be reduced to half the number of traffic flow monitoring devices installed on one side of the road. As described above, according to the traffic flow monitoring device of the fourth embodiment of the present invention, the cost is low because the number of installed traffic flow monitoring devices is half,
There is an advantage in that the image of the road is vertically up and down, and the flow of the traffic flow is uniform, so that the image processing for detecting the singular point is easy and the display is easy to grasp for monitoring.

Embodiment 5 FIG. 5 shows a road image transmitted from the traffic flow monitoring device according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention to car navigation. In the fifth embodiment as well, description with a network diagram is omitted. In the figure, reference numeral 501 denotes a vehicle position. In the compound eye processing function shown in the fifth embodiment, the route GP
Embed S latitude longitude information. The in-vehicle car navigation has a function of requesting an image to the monitoring monitor 108. The current position is read from the GPS, a traffic flow monitoring device installed on the road side is selected based on the latitude and longitude information, and the road image is displayed. Request. In the traffic flow monitoring device, the latitude of the request source,
The vehicle position 501 is marked from the longitude and transmitted. Then, in the car navigation system mounted on the vehicle, the road image transmitted from the traffic flow monitoring device is displayed. As described above, according to the traffic flow monitoring device of the fifth embodiment of the present invention, the vehicle position is described in the road image, and the state of the preceding route of the own vehicle can be understood at a glance.

[0017]

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

[0018] A panoramic image projected by a plurality of panoramic cameras is created via a network through a compound eye processing function to create a continuous image of the road, and a singular point of a traffic flow is detected and enlarged by a turning zoom camera under automatic control. Since there is no unmonitored area on the road, it is easy to monitor the entire road, and furthermore, it is possible to easily detect a singular point where the uniformity of the traffic flow is lost.

Further, even if a singular point is detected outside the self-monitoring range, a zoom-enlarged image is displayed on the monitoring monitor.
Video selection can be performed without considering the network address and connection form.

Further, since the turning zoom camera can zoom in and wait for a singular point of a traffic flow before the singular point of the traffic flow enters the visual field, continuous tracking of the singular point moving at high speed becomes easy.

[0021] Further, in the transmission of the panoramic image, only the necessary image is digitized and transmitted, and the opposite lane side is a road image arranged in the order of road arrangement as an inverted image. The flow of the traffic flow is uniform on the line and the down line, and image processing for detecting a singular point becomes easy.

Further, the vehicle has a function of correlating the latitude and longitude information of the route with the road image, and marks the position of the own vehicle together with the road image in the car navigation of the vehicle at the request of the vehicle, so that the state of the preceding route of the own vehicle can be seen at a glance. Can be understood.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a traffic flow monitoring device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a traffic flow monitoring device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of a traffic flow monitoring device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a panoramic image processing operation of a compound eye processing function provided in a traffic flow monitoring device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a road image transmitted from a traffic flow monitoring device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention to a car navigation system.

FIG. 6 shows a conventional camera monitoring system.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 201 network, 102a-102c
Traffic flow monitoring device, 103a-103c Turning zoom camera, 104a-104c, 404 Panoramic camera, 1
05a-105c, 402 Panoramic video, 106, 4
03 Road image, 107a-107c Compound eye image processing function, 108, 208 Monitoring monitor, 109a-109
b Zoomed image, 110, 111 Singular point, 112
Predicted point, 401 optical image, 501 car position.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/18 H04N 7/18 DF term (Reference) 5B047 AA19 AB02 BB06 BC23 CA01 CA12 CA14 CB09 CB22 DC09 5B057 AA16 BA02 BA11 CA08 CC01 CD05 CE08 DA07 DB03 DB09 DC01 5C054 AA01 AA05 CA04 CC03 CE12 EA01 EA03 EA05 FA00 FC12 FE02 FE13 HA18 5H180 AA01 CC04 DD01 FF05 FF27

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A traffic flow monitoring device for a traveling vehicle provided with a turning zoom camera, a panoramic camera, and a compound eye processing function, wherein a plurality of the traffic flow monitoring devices are arranged at fixed intervals on a road side. The compound eye processing function of a specific traffic flow monitoring device creates a continuous road image by exchanging a panorama image projected by a panoramic camera with a nearby traffic flow monitoring device to create a continuous road image, and A traffic flow monitoring device, wherein a traffic flow difference is monitored to detect a traffic flow singularity, and the turning zoom camera is controlled to zoom in on the singularity and transmit it to a monitoring monitor. 2. When the singular point of the traffic flow detected from the road image is out of the monitoring range of the own turning zoom camera, the panorama image is sent to the turning zoom camera of the traffic flow monitoring device of the panorama image sending source. 2. The traffic flow monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising a compound eye processing function for indicating and returning the singular point in the step (a) and requesting the monitor monitor to send an enlarged display. 3. For a singular point moving at a high speed on a road, predict a panoramic image of a traffic flow monitoring to appear next in the vicinity, and monitor the traffic flow in the vicinity before entering the shooting range of the panoramic camera. The zoom position of the panoramic video on the device,
It is provided with a compound eye processing function that notifies the time when the singular point goes out of the shooting range of the own panoramic camera and stops transmission to the monitoring monitor when the singular point goes out of the shooting range of the own panoramic camera. The traffic flow monitoring device according to claim 1. 4. A plurality of traffic flow monitoring devices are arranged at regular intervals on both sides of a road lane, and a panoramic video transmission has a function of digitizing and transmitting only a video related to a traffic flow, and a panorama video transmission device. 2. The traffic flow monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising a compound-eye processing function that creates a continuous road image by arranging the video of the traffic flow monitoring device as an inverted image in the order of the road arrangement positions of the traffic flow monitoring device. 5. It has a function of associating latitude / longitude information with a road image, and in response to a request from a vehicle on the road, marks the requested vehicle on the road image, and displays the situation ahead of the vehicle with the road image. The traffic flow monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising a compound eye processing function provided to a vehicle.