JP2004201248A - Surveillance camera system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a surveillance camera system by which a network is easily built and which is capable of improving system security. <P>SOLUTION: A surveillance camera system 2 has a server 16 that is connected to a communication network 15 and stores images photographed by a surveillance camera 10 and operation control command (CMD). A personal computer (PC) 11 is indirectly connected to the communication network 15 via a telephone line 14, and repeats connection/disconnection with the communication network 15 with a constant interval. The server 16, when transmitting the CMD to the PC 11, offsets/organizes an overlapped portion between a CMD<SB>n-1</SB>previously transmitted to the PC 11 and a CMD<SB>n</SB>to be transmitted, and transmits the CMD. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a surveillance camera, a control means for controlling the operation of the surveillance camera, and an information transmission / reception means for transmitting an operation control command of the surveillance camera to the control means via a communication network and receiving an image taken by the surveillance camera. The surveillance camera system comprised from these.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Currently, surveillance cameras are widely used not only for crime prevention purposes installed at financial institutions and convenience stores, but also for elderly care and automatic production management at factories. Conventionally, images taken with such a surveillance camera are displayed on the display screen of a personal computer or portable information terminal, etc., and the shooting position (pan, tilt, zoom, etc.) of the surveillance camera is remotely monitored while observing this display screen. Systems to operate are known.
[0003]
In order to quickly cope with a remote operation instruction command, a system including a server that manages a request for acquiring a control right of a monitoring camera from a plurality of remote operation devices has been proposed (patent) Reference 1). This server queues the acquisition request issued from each remote control device until the remote control device having the current control right gives up the control right, and assigns the control right of the surveillance camera according to the queued information. It is given to the remote control device.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-93855
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the system described in Patent Document 1, a control device that controls the operation of a surveillance camera, or a server connected to the control device, is always connected to a network in order to receive control commands from a remote control device, and always It is necessary to be able to respond to connection requests from the network. For this reason, the construction work of the network has to be complicated, and there is a problem in the safety of the system.
[0006]
It is an object of the present invention to provide a surveillance camera system that can easily construct a network and can improve the safety of the system.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention transmits a monitoring camera operation control command to a control unit via a communication network, a control unit that controls the operation of the monitoring camera, and a control unit that controls the operation of the monitoring camera. And a monitoring camera system comprising information transmitting / receiving means for receiving an image taken by the surveillance camera, comprising a server connected to the communication network and storing the image taken by the surveillance camera and the operation control command. It is characterized by.
[0008]
The control means is preferably intermittently connected to the communication network. Moreover, it is preferable that the server cancels and arranges an overlapping portion between the operation control command transmitted to the control unit last time and the operation control command transmitted this time, and transmits the same.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In FIG. 1, the monitoring camera system 2 includes a monitoring camera 10, a personal computer (PC) 11, and first and second portable information terminals (P _A and P _B ) 12 and 13. The surveillance camera system 2 is transmitted from the P _A 12 and P _B 13 owned by the system administrator, and in accordance with an operation control command (CMD) for designating the imaging direction and imaging range of the surveillance camera 10. Is remotely controlled.
[0010]
The surveillance camera 10 is controlled in operation by the PC 11 and shoots a still image to be monitored at a predetermined shooting interval. This surveillance camera 10 has a swing function and a zoom function that can be swung up and down and left and right, and can change a shooting direction and a shooting range. An image taken by the monitoring camera 10 is displayed on the monitor 11a of the PC 11 and stored in a memory (not shown). Note that the connection method between the monitoring camera 10 and the PC 11 may be a wired connection using a cable or the like, or may be a wireless connection.
[0011]
The PC 11 is intermittently connected to the communication network 15 via the telephone line 14 and repeatedly connects and disconnects from the communication network 15 at regular intervals. The PC11 is an image captured by a surveillance camera 10 stored in the memory, and transmits to the P _A 12, P _B 13 via a communication network 15, via the server 16 to be described later from P _A 12, P _B 13 The CMD is received, and the operation of the monitoring camera 10 is controlled based on the received CMD.
[0012]
The P _A 12 and P _B 13 are provided with antennas 12a and 13a, monitors 12b and 13b, and operation units 12c and 13c. The P _A 12 and P _B 13 can wirelessly communicate with the communication network 15 through the antennas 12a and 13a, and can be connected to the communication network 15 asynchronously regardless of the operation of the monitoring camera 10. Images captured by the monitoring camera 10 are displayed on the monitors 12b and 13b. The operation units 12c and 13c are operated when inputting CMD.
[0013]
A server 16 is connected to the communication network 15. The server 16 stores the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 transmitted from the PC 11 and the CMD transmitted from the P _A 12 and P _B 13.
[0014]
FIG. 2 shows an operation flowchart of the server 16. In the initial state, the server 16 waits for access from the PC 11, P _A 12, and P _B 13. If there is an access from the PC 11 and the CMD is stored in the server 16, the CMD is transmitted to the PC 11. In this case, the server 16 includes a CMD _n-1 that was previously transmitted to the PC 11, and transmits the offset and organize overlap with CMD _n to be transmitted this time. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, CMD _n-1 is panned to the left by one step (−1, the reference shooting position and shooting range are set to 0), and zoomed to the wide side by one step (+1), CMD _n. Is a command for changing the panning to the left side (-1) and zooming to the telephoto side (-1) (-1), canceling the pan change and changing the zooming to the wide side (+2) Is transmitted to the PC 11. In this way, the amount of CMD data and the number of operation steps when executing CMD can be reduced.
[0015]
In FIG. 2, the server 16 stores the image transmitted from the PC 11 after deleting the transmitted CMD. When the CMD is not stored, the image transmission waiting state immediately from the PC 11 is entered, and the image transmitted from the PC 11 is stored. After the image is stored, the process is returned to again wait for access.
[0016]
When there is an access from P _A 12 and P _B 13 and the transmitted signal is an acquisition request for an image captured by the monitoring camera 10, the stored image is transmitted to P _A 12 and P _B 13. If the transmitted signal is CMD, the CMD is stored. After the image transmission or after saving the CMD, the process returns to wait for access again.
[0017]
Next, the operation procedure of the surveillance camera system 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the PC 11 instructs the monitoring camera 10 to shoot the monitoring target at a predetermined shooting interval. Further, the PC 11 connects to the communication network 15 at regular intervals via the telephone line 14, transmits an image captured by the monitoring camera 10 to the server 16, and then disconnects from the communication network 15.
[0018]
When the server 16 stores the image transmitted from the PC 11 and receives an acquisition request for an image captured by the monitoring camera 10 from the P _A 12 and P _B 13, the server 16 stores the most recently stored image as P _A 12 and P _B. 13 to send. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, when CMD is received from P _A 12 and P _B 13, the CMD is stored, and when the PC 11 is accessed next, the stored CMD is transmitted to the PC 11. To erase.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 6, when CMD is transmitted from both P _A 12 and P _B 13, the server 16 stores CMD _A and CMD _B transmitted from P _A 12 and P _B 13, respectively. After saving CMD _A and CMD _B , the first access from the PC 11 sends CMD _A to the PC 11. The PC 11 changes the shooting position and shooting range of the monitoring camera 10 based on CMD _A , and instructs the monitoring camera 10 to shoot. The surveillance camera 10 shoots the monitoring target at the photographic position and photographic range controlled by the PC 11 and transmits the photographed image to the PC 11.
[0020]
After the transmission of CMD _A , the server 16 cancels and arranges the overlapping portions of CMD _B and CMD _A, and deletes CMD _A. Then, in the next access from the PC 11, CMD _B is transmitted to the PC 11 and deleted. Similarly to the case where CMD _A is transmitted, the PC 11 changes the shooting position and shooting range of the monitoring camera 10 based on CMD _B , and instructs the monitoring camera 10 to perform shooting. The surveillance camera 10 shoots the monitoring target at the photographic position and photographic range controlled by the PC 11 and transmits the photographed image to the PC 11. With such a configuration, even if the PC 11 is not always connected to the P _A 12 and P _B 13 via the communication network 15, it is possible to reliably transmit and receive images and CMDs.
[0021]
In the above embodiment, the system is composed of one surveillance camera and two portable information terminals. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of surveillance cameras and two or more portable information terminals are used. It can be applied to the system. Further, as the operation control command transmitted from the portable information terminal, it is possible to appropriately add the presence / absence of strobe light emission, the recording size of the photographed image, and the like. Furthermore, the image transmission from the server to the portable information terminal may be automatically performed periodically.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the surveillance camera system of the present invention, the server is connected to the communication network and stores the images taken by the surveillance camera and the operation control commands, so that the network can be easily constructed and the system is safe. Can be improved.
[0023]
In addition, since the server cancels and arranges the overlapping part of the operation control command transmitted to the control means last time and the operation control command transmitted this time, the data amount of the operation control command and the operation control command are executed. The operation step can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a surveillance camera system of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the server.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example when canceling and organizing operation control commands.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the surveillance camera system.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the surveillance camera system.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the surveillance camera system.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 Surveillance camera system 10 Surveillance camera 11 Personal computer (PC)
12 first portable information terminal (P _A)
13 Second portable information terminal (P _B )
15 Communication network 16 Server

Claims (3)

Information transmission / reception for transmitting monitoring camera operation control commands to the control means via the communication network and receiving images taken by the monitoring camera, and a monitoring camera for capturing the monitoring target, a control means for controlling the operation of the monitoring camera A surveillance camera system comprising:
A surveillance camera system comprising a server connected to the communication network and storing an image taken by the surveillance camera and the operation control command. The surveillance camera system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is intermittently connected to the communication network. 3. The surveillance camera according to claim 1, wherein the server transmits the operation control command transmitted to the control unit last time and the overlapping portion of the operation control command transmitted this time after offsetting and organizing. system.

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