JP2002077879A - Image-monitoring method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image-monitoring method for reproducing the same image pickup environment as the case where an image to be monitored has been picked up in the past when picking up the image to be monitored, and an image-monitoring system using the image-monitoring method. SOLUTION: The setting information of image pickup environment that is set when picking up an image to be monitored is added to the image to be monitored for recording at a recording means along with the image, and image pickup environment is set when picking up the image to be monitored based on the setting information that is added to the image being recorded by the recording means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image monitoring system for monitoring an object to be monitored by its image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, by remotely operating a camera having a turning and zooming function, a desired object to be monitored can be converted into an image by using an image (either a still image or a moving image) taken by the camera. In a video surveillance system, the camera itself turns, zooms in,
Zoom out and zoom in and out of the monitored object,
You can shoot from any direction and angle. However, it is not easy to confirm at a later date environmental setting values such as a camera position, a direction, and an enlargement ratio at the time of photographing a certain recorded video.

[0003]

When comparing the past state and the present state of a monitored object with an image captured by such a camera, it is necessary to read the change of the monitored object accurately in order to accurately read the change of the monitored object. It is desired that the current state of the monitoring target be photographed with the same environment settings as when the photographing was performed. However, since it is not clear what kind of camera position was shot from which direction and at what magnification the video recorded in the past was recorded, when shooting the current state, There is a problem that it is difficult to compare the past and present state of the monitoring target only from the video because it is not possible to reproduce a shooting environment of a past state.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an image capable of reproducing exactly the same shooting environment (camera position, enlargement ratio, etc.) as when a video to be monitored was shot in the past when shooting the video to be monitored. It is an object to provide a monitoring method and a video monitoring system using the same.

[0005]

According to a video surveillance method of the present invention, setting information of a shooting environment set at the time of shooting a monitoring target is added to the monitoring target video and recorded together with the video by a recording means. The photographing environment for photographing the monitoring target is set based on the setting information added to the video recorded by the recording means.

According to the present invention, when photographing a video to be monitored, it is possible to reproduce exactly the same photographing environment (camera position, magnification, etc.) as when the video to be monitored was photographed in the past.

A video surveillance system according to the present invention adds photographing means for photographing a monitoring target and setting information of a photographing environment set when the monitoring target is photographed by the photographing means to a video photographed by the photographing means. Recording means for recording and setting, based on the setting information added to the video recorded by this recording means,
Setting means for setting a photographing environment when photographing the monitoring target by the photographing means.

According to the present invention, when capturing a video to be monitored, it is possible to reproduce exactly the same capturing environment (camera position, magnification, etc.) as when capturing the video to be monitored in the past.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a main part of a video surveillance system according to the present embodiment.

The camera 1 is for acquiring a video image to be monitored. The camera 1 rotates the camera 1 within a limited range in advance or moves the camera 1 up, down, left, and right. Is mounted on a support base 2 for positioning.

The operation unit 6 is connected to the control unit 3, and mainly instructs the camera 1 to zoom in, zoom out, and the like via the control unit 3, and to the support base 2 in the rotation direction and the rotation angle, and up, down, left and right. This is for inputting an instruction such as a moving amount of the camera.

The control unit 3 controls the camera 1 and the support base 2 (outputs a control signal to the camera 1 and the support base 2) based on an instruction input from the operation unit 6 at the time of recording, and In addition to setting the positioning of the camera 1 and the enlargement ratio, etc., the video signal input from the camera 1 is subjected to predetermined processing,
A value used for setting the position of the camera 1 and setting of the enlargement ratio and the like (as additional information) is added to generate image data for recording, and is recorded on the recording medium 4 such as a CD-ROM.
In addition, at the time of reproduction, the image data already recorded on the recording medium 7 such as a CD-ROM is read, and the additional information and the video signal are separated. Then, the camera 1 and the support base 2 are controlled based on the separated additional information, and the separated video signal is subjected to predetermined reproduction processing and displayed on the monitor 8. Note that the control unit 3 can simultaneously reproduce the image data recorded on the recording medium 7 and record the image data on the recording medium 4. That is, a current video image captured by the camera 1 in which positioning and enlargement ratio are set based on the additional information separated from the image data at the time of reproduction is displayed on the monitor 5, and the positioning and enlargement ratio and the like at this time are displayed. The value used for the setting is added as additional information to the currently acquired video signal to generate image data for recording, which is recorded on the recording medium 4, and at the same time, the video signal separated from the image data is reproduced. The past video obtained by the above is displayed on the monitor 8. This allows the operator of the system to compare the past video recorded on the recording medium 4 with the current video currently being shot by the camera 1.

Here, the control unit 3 performs, for example, video coding and decoding processing according to the MPEG-1 standard on the video signal input from the camera 1, and performs video signal multiplexing processing according to the MPEG-1 standard. , The additional information is, for example, G
A case where the data is added as user data (user data) defined in an OP (group of picture) layer will be described.

Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 2, the processing operation of the video surveillance system shown in FIG. 1 during recording will be described.

The operator of the video surveillance system firstly
In order to capture a video to be monitored, a predetermined operation is performed from the operation unit 6 to input an instruction such as a rotation direction and a rotation angle of the support base 2 and an amount of up, down, left, and right movements. An instruction such as zoom-in or zoom-out is input. Based on this instruction input, the control unit 3 outputs a control signal to the camera 1 and the support base 2 to set the positioning of the camera 1, the magnification, and the like (step S1). Camera 1 at this time,
The set value of the support 2 is used as additional information.

Thereafter, when the operation unit 6 instructs the camera 1 to acquire an image, the input of an image signal from the camera 1 starts (step S2).

The control unit 2 outputs the video signal input from the camera 1 to the monitor 5 as it is and displays it on the monitor 5. The control unit 2 applies, for example, an arithmetic processing (DCT) for compressing the information amount to the video signal. (Discrete Cosine Tran
sform), quantization, motion compensation, bidirectional prediction, etc.) (step S3), and MPE is performed on the compressed data.
Performs hierarchical coding and variable length coding of G1 video, and
Generate an image data format for PEG1 video.
At this time, the additional information is represented by G in the hierarchical structure of the image data.
The user data is set in the OP layer (step S4). The generated image data is recorded on the recording medium 4 (step S5).

When the position of the camera or the enlargement ratio is changed even after the input of the image from the camera 1 is started, the set value is used as additional information each time the camera is changed in step S4. Set as data.

Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, the processing operation at the time of reproduction of the video monitoring system of FIG. 1 will be described. At the time of this reproduction, the processing at the time of recording shown in FIG. 2 is simultaneously performed in order to compare the previously recorded video with the current video.

The operator of the video surveillance system firstly
In order to play back the monitoring target video recorded in the past, the recording medium 7 storing the past video is set in the present system. When the operator performs a predetermined operation from the operation unit 6, the control unit 3 starts reading image data recorded thereon from the recording medium 7 (step S1).
1). The control unit 3 performs hierarchical structure decoding and variable length decoding on the read image data (step S12), and extracts the compressed data and additional information, respectively (step S15). The extracted compressed data is subjected to expansion processing such as inverse DCT, inverse quantization, motion compensation, and bidirectional prediction (step S13), and the resulting video signal is output to the monitor 8 (step S13). S14). on the other hand,
The control unit 3 outputs a control signal based on the extracted additional information to the camera 1 and the support 2, and performs positioning of the camera 1 and setting of the magnification (step S16). The control unit 3 records the video signal input from the camera 1 for which the positioning and the enlargement ratio have been set as described above on the recording medium 4 in the same manner as in FIG.

As described above, according to the above embodiment, the setting information of the photographing environment such as the position of the camera 1 and the enlargement ratio set when photographing the monitored object is added to the monitored image as additional information. And the recording media 4
At the time of shooting the current video, by setting the shooting environment such as the position of the camera 1 and the enlargement ratio based on the additional information added to the video recorded on the recording medium 4, The same position and magnification of the camera 1 can be reproduced when capturing the video of the past, so that the monitoring target in the past video and the monitoring target in the current video can be easily compared. I can do it.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to an example of video monitoring using moving images, video monitoring using still images can also be performed on the recording medium 4 by embedding the additional information in JPEG compressed data, for example. After that, in the same manner as described above, the camera 1 based on the additional information added to the previously recorded video when the previously recorded video is reproduced.
The camera 1 and set the magnification, etc.
By acquiring the current video of the monitoring target in, when shooting the current video, the same camera position and magnification as when shooting the past video can be reproduced, so the monitoring target in the past video And the monitoring target in the current video can be easily compared.

In the above embodiment, the position information and the enlargement ratio of the camera 1 are mainly described as the setting information of the photographing environment to be added to the video as the additional information. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Various parameters used for setting the environment may be used as additional information.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified in an implementation stage without departing from the gist thereof. Furthermore, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriate combinations of a plurality of disclosed configuration requirements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment, (at least one of) the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved, and the effect of the invention can be solved. If at least one of the effects described in (1) is obtained, a configuration from which this component is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When capturing a video to be monitored, exactly the same capturing environment (camera position, magnification, etc.) as when capturing the video to be monitored in the past can be reproduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a video surveillance system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the video monitoring system during recording.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation during reproduction of the video monitoring system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Camera 2 ... Support base 3 ... Control part 4, 7 ... Recording media 5, 8 ... Monitor 6 ... Operation part

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 5/225 H04N 5/225 C 5/232 5/232 Z F term (reference) 5C022 AA01 AB62 AB66 AC01 AC27 5C054 AA02 CA04 CC02 CF06 CF07 EA05 FE17 FF02 FF03 GA02 GB02 GB06 HA05 HA18 5D044 AB07 DE03 DE12 DE49 EF05 GK12 HL14 5D110 AA29 BB20 BC05 CA56 DA06 DA17 DB02 DC16

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image capturing environment setting information set when capturing an image of a monitoring target is added to the video of the monitoring target, and is recorded together with the video by a recording unit, and is added to the video recorded by the recording unit. A video surveillance method comprising setting a shooting environment when shooting the monitoring target based on the setting information. 2. A photographing means for photographing an object to be monitored, and a recording means for adding setting information of a photographing environment set when photographing the object to be monitored by the photographing means to an image taken by the photographing means for recording. And setting means for setting a shooting environment when shooting the monitoring target by the shooting means based on setting information added to the video recorded by the recording means. Monitoring system.