JP2004129012A - Image encoding device with built-in storage memory - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image encoding device with built-in storage memory which is simple in system configuration hardly causing failure or the like, less in system stop, small in size and low in cost. <P>SOLUTION: The image encoding device 30 consists of an A/D converting part 31, an image compressing part 32, a transmission processing part 33 and an image storing part 34. The A/D converting part 31 encodes an analog image from a monitoring camera into a digital image and outputs the digital image to the image compressing part 32. The image compressing part 32 fetches and compresses the encoded image and outputs the encoded image to the transmission processing part 34 and the image storing part 34. The transmission processing part 33 transmits the compressed image as a compressed image 40 for real time distribution to a monitoring center. The image storing part 34 is composed of a RAM, obtains the image compressed by the image compressing part 32 and always stores the latest image for a fixed period of time. When the transmission processing part 33 receives a stored image transmission request 41 from the monitoring center, the transmission processing part 33 reads the image stored in the image storing part 34 and transmits the image to the monitoring center. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image encoding device with a built-in storage memory used for a remote monitoring system, for example.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a remote monitoring system that captures and monitors, for example, river conditions and traffic congestion on a highway using a monitoring camera, an analog image captured by the monitoring camera is encoded and compressed by an image encoding device, and the encoding is performed. -The compressed image is transmitted to the monitoring center via the transmission line and monitored.
[0003]
After the image captured by the surveillance camera is encoded and compressed by the image encoding device as described above, the image is transmitted to the monitoring center via the transmission line. And monitor the situation in remote locations in real time.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the above conventional image encoding apparatus, for example, a hard disk is provided as an auxiliary storage device, and the latest encoded / compressed image is always stored in the hard disk for a certain period of time, and the image stored in the hard disk is stored at the request of the monitoring center. Some have a function of reading and transmitting the data to a monitoring center via a transmission line.
[0005]
As described above, in the image encoding device including the auxiliary storage device, images for a certain period of time can be stored in the auxiliary storage device. Therefore, when an abnormal state occurs, the image at the time of occurrence of the abnormality is read from the auxiliary storage device and confirmed. be able to.
[0006]
However, since the conventional image encoding device stores images in an external auxiliary storage device, there is a problem that a place for installing the auxiliary storage device is required and the system configuration is complicated. In addition, when a hard disk is used as a storage medium, if writing is frequently performed for image storage, a failure is likely to occur, and the system will be stopped due to replacement of the hard disk, thereby causing a problem in monitoring. Furthermore, since the hard disk is easily affected by environmental conditions, there is a problem that temperature management or the like is required and the cost is increased.
[0007]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an image encoding apparatus with a built-in storage memory that has a simple system configuration, is unlikely to cause a failure or the like, has little system stoppage, and can be reduced in size and cost. The purpose is to provide.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An image encoding device with a built-in storage memory according to the present invention, an image encoding unit that encodes an analog image sent from the outside, an image compression unit that compresses an image encoded by the image encoding unit, An image storage unit for storing the latest compressed image compressed by the image compression unit for a certain period of time; transmitting an image compressed by the image compression unit to a host device in real time; And a transmission processing unit for transmitting the image stored in the image storage unit to a higher-level device according to the following.
[0009]
In the above configuration, the image encoding unit takes in an analog image sent from the outside, for example, an analog image captured by a surveillance camera, encodes the digital image, and outputs the digital image to the image compression unit. The image compression unit compresses the coded image converted by the image coding unit using, for example, an MPEG2 compression method, and outputs the compressed image to the transmission processing unit and the image storage unit. The transmission processing unit transmits the image compressed by the image compression unit to the host device as a compressed image for real-time distribution. On the other hand, the image storage unit uses, for example, a RAM as a storage memory, takes in the image compressed by the image compression unit, and performs an overwriting process so that the latest compressed image is always stored for a certain period of time. In addition, when the stored image transmission request is sent from the higher-level device, the transmission processing unit reads the image stored in the image storage unit and transmits the image to the higher-level device.
[0010]
By incorporating the image storage unit for storing the compressed image as described above, the system configuration is simplified, failures and the like are less likely to occur, and the monitoring operation of the monitoring system is stabilized by reducing the number of system stops. Can be. In addition, there is no need to provide an external auxiliary storage device, so that the size can be reduced, and the temperature management of the auxiliary storage device is not required, so that the cost can be reduced.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a remote monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of monitoring cameras 11 are provided in a monitoring area 10 such as a river or a highway to be monitored.
[0012]
As the surveillance camera 11, for example, a CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) camera having a zoom function is used, and the surveillance camera 11 is rotatably supported by a turning device (not shown). The turning device includes a driving device such as a motor, and rotates the monitoring camera 11 in the left and right and up and down directions according to a control command sent from a host device such as a monitoring center 20 described later.
[0013]
Further, an image encoding device, which will be described in detail later, is provided on the surveillance camera 11 side. For example, a video signal of the NTSC (National Television System Committee) system output from the surveillance camera 11 is encoded by an image encoding device described in detail later, and is transmitted to the monitoring center 20 via the network 13 by the transmission device 12. .
[0014]
In the monitoring center 20, a terminal device 23 is connected to an internal network 21 via a management server 22. The terminal device 23 sequentially selects images transmitted from the plurality of monitoring cameras 11 via the network 13 in a preset order, and displays the images on the monitor device 24.
[0015]
The observer monitors the image displayed on the monitor device 24, and performs an operation of selecting a specific screen or an operation of reading a screen a predetermined time ago as necessary, for example, when an abnormality occurs.
[0016]
Next, details of an image encoding device that encodes an image captured by the monitoring camera 11 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0017]
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 30 denotes an image encoding device having a built-in storage memory, which is constituted by an A / D (analog / digital) conversion unit 31, an image compression unit 32, a transmission processing unit 33, and an image storage unit. The A / D conversion unit 31 takes in an analog image output from the monitoring camera 11, encodes the digital image into a digital image, and outputs the digital image to the image compression unit 32. The image compression unit 32 takes in the coded image (digital image) converted by the A / D conversion unit 31, compresses the image using, for example, a compression method of MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) 2, and forms a transmission image as a compressed image. 33 and to the image storage unit 34.
[0018]
The transmission processing unit 33 transmits the image compressed by the image compression unit 32 as a compressed image 40 for real-time distribution to the monitoring center 20 via the network 13 in real time.
[0019]
On the other hand, the image storage unit 34 uses a semiconductor memory such as a RAM as a storage memory, takes in the image compressed by the image compression unit 32, and performs an overwriting process so that the latest compressed image is always stored for a certain period of time. That is, the image storage section 34 keeps storing the old stored image while always overwriting the old stored image by overwriting it with the latest image, and has a capacity capable of storing the compressed image for several tens minutes, for example, for about 20 minutes.
[0020]
The monitoring center 20 normally displays the compressed image 40 for real-time distribution transmitted from the transmission processing unit 33 on the monitor device 24 and monitors the compressed image 40. When an image stored in the image storage unit 34 is required, for example, when a traffic congestion or an accident occurs on a highway, the observer operates the terminal device 23 to request the stored image transmission request 41. Is output to the transmission processing unit 33 of the image encoding device 30 via the network 13.
[0021]
Upon receiving the stored image transmission request 41 sent from the monitoring center 20, the transmission processing unit 33 outputs a stored image output request 42 to the image storage unit 34. Upon receiving the stored image output request 42 from the transmission processing unit 33, the image storage unit 34 outputs the stored image 43 to the transmission processing unit 33.
[0022]
The transmission processing unit 33 transmits the stored image 43 received from the image storage unit 34 to the monitoring center 20 as a stored image 44 via the network 13.
[0023]
That is, when receiving the stored image transmission request 41 sent from the monitoring center 20, the transmission processing unit 33 reads the image stored in the image storage unit 34 and transmits the image to the monitoring center 20.
[0024]
The monitoring center 20 displays the accumulated image 44 sent from the image encoding device 30 on the monitor device 24, so that the cause of the occurrence of the abnormality can be examined in detail. In this case, the storage image 44 sent from the image encoding device 30 to the monitoring center 20 can be recorded by the recording device.
[0025]
As described above, by using a semiconductor memory as a storage medium for storing a compressed image and incorporating the semiconductor memory in the image encoding device 30, the system configuration is simplified, failures and the like hardly occur, and system stoppage is reduced. Thus, the monitoring operation of the monitoring system can be stabilized. In addition, there is no need to provide an external auxiliary storage device, so that the size can be reduced, and the temperature management of the auxiliary storage device is not required, so that the cost can be reduced.
[0026]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the present invention, an image storage unit using a semiconductor memory is built in an image encoding device, and a captured image of, for example, a surveillance camera is compressed and stored in the image storage unit. There is no need to provide an auxiliary storage device externally, the system configuration is simple, failures and the like are less likely to occur, system downtime is reduced, downsizing and cost reduction can be achieved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall schematic configuration of a remote monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of an image encoding device according to the embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 10 monitoring area 11 monitoring camera 12 transmission device 13 network 20 monitoring center 21 network 22 management server 23 terminal device 24 monitor device 30 image encoding device 31 A / D (analog / digital) Conversion unit 32 ... Image compression unit 33 ... Transmission processing unit 34 ... Image storage unit 40 ... Compressed image 41 for real-time distribution ... Storage image transmission request 42 ... Storage image output request 43, 44 ... Storage image

Claims (2)

Image encoding means for encoding an analog image sent from the outside, an image compression unit for compressing the image encoded by the image encoding means, and a latest compressed image compressed by the image compression unit. An image storage unit that stores the image for a certain period of time, and transmits the image compressed by the image compression unit to a higher-level device in real time, and stores the image stored in the image storage unit according to a stored image transmission request from the higher-level device. An image encoding apparatus with a built-in storage memory, comprising: a transmission processing unit for transmitting the image to an apparatus. 2. The image coding apparatus with a built-in storage memory according to claim 1, wherein said image storage unit is constituted by a semiconductor memory.

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