JP2004236211A - Image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing system in which a desired image is rapidly searched for, when image retrieval is performed by focusing the attention on the variation of a specified region of an image. <P>SOLUTION: An image to be processed is divided into a plurality of regions. The image is compared with a reference image for each region, to discriminate the presence of variations. The discriminated presence of variations is recorded on a variation table, by associating with the image to be processed. The variation table is stored in a storage means, together with the image to be processed. On this variation table, an image number and a date-and-hour information for identifying the image to be processed is recorded, and further the presence of variations in at least one region and the number of regions which are discriminated that there is variations are recorded, in addition. At image retrieval, by making reference to the variation table, time required for the image retrieval is shortened. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention belongs to the technical field of an image processing system that processes an image for the purpose of image search and image display, and in particular, divides an image to be processed into a plurality of regions and compares each region with a reference image for each region. This belongs to the technical field of an image processing system that performs a process of determining whether there is a change.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image processing systems that store a large amount of image data and select and display a predetermined image have been widely used. As one form of the image processing system, there is known a surveillance system having a function of recording a large number of images photographed at predetermined time intervals by a surveillance camera and searching for a desired image for the purpose of crime prevention or the like. In such a monitoring system, there is a demand to find out and refer to an image determined to have an abnormality from among a large number of images existing in time series. Therefore, there is known a method of comparing an obtained image with a reference image to determine whether or not there is a change (image motion determination). For example, when a moving object such as a person is present in the shooting range, it is determined that there is a change in the image, so this method can be used to determine an image in which an abnormality has occurred.
[0003]
On the other hand, in the case of a surveillance system, since a large number of images exist, performing a search by focusing on the entire image may increase the burden on the user. Therefore, it is desired to search for an image in which an abnormality has occurred by focusing on a part of the image capturing range. For example, there is a case where attention is paid to the movement of a person at a specific location in an image captured by a monitoring camera installed in a store or the like. As an image search in such a case, a method of dividing an image into a plurality of regions and determining whether or not there is a change in each region has also been proposed. (For example, see Patent Document 1). According to this method, the user only has to specify the area of the image to be searched, and determine whether or not there is a change only in the specified area. Therefore, the burden of the search on the user is reduced.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2000-132669
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional image processing system employing the above method, when a region of an image of interest is designated by a user, it is necessary to perform a series of image processing on the region to determine whether there is a change. In other words, it takes time until a search result is obtained. In particular, when handling a large number of images as in a surveillance system, it takes a considerable amount of time to search for a desired image, which causes a problem of lowering work efficiency.
[0006]
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and a user can quickly search for a desired image by generating a change table that records whether or not there is a change in each region in the image to be processed in advance. It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing system capable of reducing the time required for processing.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problem, the image processing system according to claim 1 divides an image to be processed into a plurality of regions, and compares each region with a reference image to determine whether there is a change. Means, change table generating means for generating a change table for recording the presence or absence of a change determined by the change determining means in association with the image to be processed, and storage means for storing the image to be processed and the change table And the following.
[0008]
According to the present invention, when processing an image in the image processing system, the image is divided into a plurality of regions, each region is compared with a reference image to determine whether there is a change, and the determination result is recorded in association with the image. Generate a change table. Then, by storing the generated change table in the storage unit, the change table can be appropriately referred to together with the image as needed, for example, by image search. Therefore, when a search is performed by focusing on a specific area of an image, it is not necessary to perform a process of determining whether or not there is a change in the specific area at that time, and it is only necessary to refer to a change table prepared in advance. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time until an image search result is obtained, and it is possible to improve convenience.
[0009]
The image processing system according to claim 2 is the image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the change table indicates whether at least one or more areas of the processing target image have been determined to have changed. The information is recorded.
[0010]
According to the present invention, in the image processing system, it is possible to refer to whether or not there is a change in one or more regions of the image by using the change table. Therefore, it is desired to identify whether or not there is a change in the entire image without paying attention to a specific region of the image. Even in this case, a desired image can be accurately searched for.
[0011]
The image processing system according to claim 3, wherein in the image processing system according to claim 1, the number of areas determined as having a change in the image to be processed is recorded in the change table. I do.
[0012]
According to the present invention, the image processing system can refer to the number of areas determined to have a change in the image from the change table, so that a desired image can be found by focusing on the magnitude of the change in the image.
[0013]
The image processing system according to claim 4, wherein in the image processing system according to claim 1, a search condition for an image stored in the storage unit is generated in accordance with a predetermined input operation, and the search condition is referred to by referring to the change table. The image processing apparatus further includes an image search unit that searches for an image that matches the search condition, and an image display unit that displays the image searched by the image search unit on a display screen.
[0014]
According to the present invention, in an image processing system, a search condition is generated when an input operation for searching for an image stored in a storage unit is performed, and an image that matches the search condition is searched for with reference to a change table. The image is displayed on the display screen. Therefore, an image search is instructed, a search based on the change table is executed, and a series of operations for displaying the searched image can be quickly performed, thereby improving the operation efficiency.
[0015]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing system according to the fourth aspect, the image search means sets a temporally continuous image meeting the search condition as an image group, and sets a predetermined image. The continuous image group is set as a reproduction target image group, and the image display means displays the reproduction target image group on the display screen.
[0016]
According to the present invention, at the time of image search, an image group that matches the search condition is set, and among the image groups that do not satisfy the predetermined number of consecutive images, the other image groups are displayed on the display screen. be able to. Therefore, for example, a case in which a change occurs in the image due to, for example, a momentary movement of the moving object in the image capturing range is not performed, so that the search efficiency can be further improved.
[0017]
7. The image processing system according to claim 6, further comprising an area specification unit that specifies an area of an image when referring to the change table as the search condition, wherein the area specification is performed. The means is characterized in that an area is designated by the image display means in accordance with a selection operation on an image display arranged on the display screen.
[0018]
According to the present invention, at the time of image search, an image area is specified by a selection operation of specifying a predetermined area in the image display arranged on the display screen, and the change table is referred to using the area as a search condition. Therefore, when the user focuses on the specific area of the image, it is possible to quickly and surely specify the focused area with a simple operation and execute a search, thereby improving usability.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, a case will be described in which an image processing system according to the present invention is applied to a monitoring system that can capture an image of a monitoring target using a monitoring camera and transmit the captured image via the Internet.
[0020]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the overall configuration of the monitoring system according to the present embodiment. The surveillance system shown in FIG. 1 includes a management center 1 that manages the present surveillance system, and a plurality of surveillance cameras 2 installed at a facility to be monitored. It has a system configuration that is transmitted to the management center 1. The management center 1 is provided with an image recording server 11 and an image display terminal 12, each of which is connected to a router 13 via a LAN, so that information can be transmitted and received via the Internet 3. ing. Further, an image display terminal 14 having the same function as the image display terminal 12 can be used by directly connecting to the Internet 3 outside the management center 1.
[0021]
The plurality of surveillance cameras 2 are respectively installed at places where a predetermined photographing range can be photographed in various facilities such as a store, and photograph each photographing range at a predetermined timing and output corresponding image data. These monitoring cameras 2 are so-called Web cameras, and have a function of accessing the Internet 3 and transmitting image data to the management center 1. The image data transmitted by the surveillance camera 2 includes image-related information such as identification information for identifying the surveillance camera 2 that has taken the image, each image data, and date and time information indicating the date and time when the image was captured. Header information including information is added, and the management center 1 can appropriately refer to the header information.
[0022]
In the management center 1, the image data received from the monitoring camera 2 via the Internet 3 is transmitted to the image recording server 11 via the router 13 and the LAN. The image recording server 11 functions as a change determination unit, a change table generation unit, and a storage unit of the present invention, and sequentially records transmitted image data together with predetermined image-related information. The image display terminal 12 functions as an image search unit and an image display unit of the present invention, searches image data recorded in the image recording server 11 via a LAN by a predetermined operation, and displays a desired image.
[0023]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image recording server 11. As shown in FIG. 2, the image recording server 11 includes a control unit 101, an interface 102, a storage unit 103, an image processing unit 104, and a change table generation unit 105.
[0024]
In the above configuration, the control unit 101 includes a CPU and the like, and controls the operation of the entire image recording server 11. The interface 102 inputs image data transmitted from the monitoring camera 2 to the control unit 101. The control unit 101 performs control so that the image data input via the interface 102 is stored in the storage unit 103 in association with image-related information such as the number of the monitoring camera 2 and the shooting date and time.
[0025]
The image processing unit 104 performs image processing on image data input via the interface 102 or image data read from the storage unit 103 under instructions of the control unit 101, and It is divided into regions and the presence or absence of a change is determined for each region.
[0026]
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3A, the entire image is divided into 16 rectangular regions, and the reference image and the image to be processed in a state where no moving object exists in the shooting range of the monitoring camera 2 are displayed. By comparing each area, the presence or absence of a change can be determined. As a method of determining the presence or absence of a change, for example, in each region, a different number of pixels is obtained when compared with the reference image, and when the number exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that there is a change, and the difference is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold. In this case, it may be determined that there is no change. In the example of FIG. 3A, it is determined that there is a change in the areas 9, 10, 13, 14, and 15 where the moving objects that do not exist in the reference image overlap.
[0027]
In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which the entire image is divided into 16 regions. However, in practice, the entire image may be divided into a larger number of regions, and a similar determination method may be applied.
[0028]
The change table generation unit 105 generates a change table that integrally indicates the presence or absence of a change determined for each region for all images to be processed, based on the determination result by the image processing unit 104. FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating an example of the change table generated by the change table generation unit 105. The change table shown in FIG. 3B includes an image number for identifying image data, a determination result of presence / absence of a change in each of the regions constituting the image indicated by the image number, and at least one region. , The number of areas determined to have changed in the image, and the shooting date and time of the image.
[0029]
The image number shown in FIG. 3B includes a camera number for identifying a plurality of monitoring cameras 2 and a number assigned to an image captured by a specific monitoring camera 2 in the order of capturing. For example, the image number 1-2 represents the second image captured by the first monitoring camera 2. Further, as shown in FIG. 3A, each area of the image is distinguished by giving an area number of 1 to 16. Then, in FIG. 3B, the determination result of the presence or absence of the change is indicated as “present” or “absent” along with the area number of each area. Note that, in the example of FIG. 3B, a change table corresponding to the image of FIG. 3A is shown, and therefore, it is determined that each of the area numbers 9, 10, 13, 14, and 15 has a change. Other areas are determined to have no change.
[0030]
In the upper right part of FIG. 3B, whether or not there is a change in one or more areas, that is, whether or not any of the entire areas of the image has changed is indicated as “presence or absence of change”. In the lower part, the number of areas determined to have a change in the image is indicated as “the number of changed areas”. In the example of FIG. 3B, as described above, since five areas are determined to have changed, “presence / absence of change” is “present” and “number of changed areas” is five. Further, the date, time, and time when the image of the image number 1-2 was shot are indicated as “shooting date and time”.
[0031]
The change table thus generated is sequentially stored in the storage unit 103 via the control unit 101, and is managed in association with the image data. Then, at the time of an image search described later, a desired change table is read from the storage unit 103 and referred to as needed.
[0032]
Next, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the image display terminal 12. As shown in FIG. Note that the image display terminal 14 directly connected to the Internet 3 in FIG. 1 has the same configuration. As shown in FIG. 4, the image display terminal 12 includes a control unit 201, an interface 202, an operation unit 203, a search instruction unit 204, a table management unit 205, a search execution unit 206, and an image group determination unit 207. , A thumbnail generation unit 208, a display control unit 209, and a display unit 210.
[0033]
In the above configuration, the control unit 201 includes a CPU and the like, controls the operation of the entire image display terminal 12, and targets image data and a change table held in the image recording server 11 based on a predetermined program. An image search process and an image display process are executed. The above-described search instruction unit 204, table management unit 205, search execution unit 206, image group determination unit 207, and thumbnail generation unit 208 are all functional elements whose execution is controlled by the control unit 201 based on the predetermined program. Corresponding to
[0034]
The interface 202 inputs the image data and the change table transmitted from the monitoring camera 2 to the control unit 201 at a predetermined timing such as when the image search terminal 12 is activated or when a predetermined input operation is performed.
[0035]
The operation unit 203 is a unit for inputting various information and setting conditions when the user of the image display terminal 12 performs a predetermined operation, and includes a mouse and a keyboard.
[0036]
The search instruction unit 204 generates a search condition table for instructing image search conditions based on an input operation of the operation unit 203. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the search condition table generated by the search instruction unit 204. In the search condition table shown in FIG. 5, whether or not to specify as a search target area is set for each area number given in FIG. When performing an image search based on a search condition table, for an area for which the search area specification is set to [Present], the result of determining whether or not there is a change is referred to at the time of search, whereas the search area specification is “No”. Is not referred to during the search.
[0037]
The table management unit 205 manages and stores various tables necessary for image search. The table management unit 205 sequentially receives all the change tables corresponding to the images to be searched from the image recording server 11 and generates a search table described later based on the change tables. The reception of the change table is performed when the image display terminal 12 is activated and each time the selection of the monitoring camera 2 or the shooting date and time is switched by the operation unit 203. Further, the above-described search condition table required for matching with the search table is acquired and managed by the table management unit 205.
[0038]
The search execution unit 206 executes a search using the search condition table and the search table managed by the table management unit 205. That is, the search execution unit 206 determines the search condition based on the search condition table, and determines whether or not each image has a change that matches the search condition with reference to the search table. Then, the search results for all the images to be searched are recorded in the search table, and the search table of the table management unit 205 is updated.
[0039]
Here, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the search table managed by the table management unit 205. The search table shown in FIG. 6 is configured by gathering the change tables shown in FIG. 3B, and has a search result by the search execution unit 206 added thereto. In the example of FIG. 6, the image number 1 is assigned to the head of the search table, and the image numbers are assigned sequentially in chronological order. In addition, since the area 9 and the area 12 are specified in the search condition table of FIG. 5, the area 9 and the area 12 in the search table shown in FIG.
[0040]
In this case, the search condition for a plurality of areas may be either an AND condition or an OR condition, and can be switched by a switching unit (not shown). FIG. 6 shows an example in which the OR condition is used. That is, “changed” is written as a search result for an image in which at least one of the areas 9 and 12 in the search table is “present”, and “no change” is written as a search result for other images.
[0041]
In addition, when the above-described search table is generated, the search execution unit 206 performs a search on all the areas under the OR condition. That is, an image having a change in at least one or more areas is searched, and a search result is written in a search table. At this time, by referring to the change tables sequentially received by the table management unit 205, “presence / absence of change” and “number of change areas” can be obtained from the change table, and the search process can be performed quickly.
[0042]
At the time of the search by the search execution unit 206, the image group determination unit 207 determines images that are temporally continuous and whose search result is “changed”, and sets each of the images as an image group. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image group table generated based on the determination result by the image group determination unit 207. In the image group table shown in FIG. 7A, the above-mentioned image group having a change in the search table of FIG. 6 is defined as a “scene”. Then, a display number is assigned to each scene, and a start image number and an end image number are recorded based on a search table. The number of images included in each scene is recorded as a scene length, and the image number of a representative image determined for each scene is recorded as described later.
[0043]
For example, in FIG. 7A, two images of image numbers 2 and 3 constitute a scene having a scene length of 2. Similarly, one image with image number 6 forms a scene with a scene length of 1, and a group of images with image numbers 8 to 10 forms a scene with a scene length of 3. Each of these scenes can be displayed as a moving image on a display screen by a predetermined operation, which will be described in detail later.
[0044]
On the other hand, FIG. 7B is an image group table in a state where a scene length of 1 is excluded from the image group table shown in FIG. 7A. In the present embodiment, when a “momentary change exclusion setting unit” on the display screen, which will be described later, is set and operated, a scene length is set to a predetermined length in order to remove an image that is less necessary to be noise when the scene is reproduced. The following scenes are excluded. In the example of FIG. 7B, the scene with the scene length 1 is excluded, but a scene with a predetermined scene length or less may be actually excluded.
[0045]
The thumbnail generation unit 208 generates a thumbnail that is a reduced image of the image to be displayed. In the present embodiment, a thumbnail set is associated with a scene set by the image group determination unit 207 as a representative image and used at the time of search. That is, when one scene includes a plurality of images, thumbnails of images representing the scene are generated and displayed on the display screen as representative images of the scene, thereby improving the convenience of the search processing. Things.
[0046]
Here, as a method of determining a representative image for each scene, for example, an image having the largest number of change areas in a specific scene in the search table in FIG. 6 may be selected. At this time, if a plurality of images having the same number of change areas are selected, an image whose shooting time is earlier may be selected. In the case where a momentary change is not excluded, for a scene having a scene length of 1 consisting of a single image, that image is automatically determined as a representative image.
[0047]
Next, the display control unit 209 performs control for displaying the display screen generated by the control unit 201, transmits predetermined display data to the display unit 210 at predetermined timing, and displays the display screen. On the display screen displayed on the display unit 201, as will be described later, images to be viewed by the user and various display targets for the user to perform predetermined operations and settings are arranged in a predetermined layout. In addition, as the display unit 201, for example, a CRT display, a liquid crystal display, or the like can be used.
[0048]
Hereinafter, a display screen displayed on the display unit 201 and an operation performed by a user who refers to this display screen to perform an image search will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the entire display screen displayed on the display unit 201. As shown in FIG. 8, the display screen in the present embodiment includes a main image display unit 301, a time axis display unit 302, a thumbnail display unit 303, a camera selection unit 304, a calendar display unit 305, an area designation unit 306, a momentary change exclusion setting unit 307, a time display unit 308, and a playback operation unit 309.
[0049]
9 to 11 are enlarged views for explaining in detail predetermined portions of the display screen shown in FIG. 9 shows the time axis display unit 302, FIG. 10 shows the thumbnail display unit 303, and FIG. 11 shows the area designation unit 306.
[0050]
As shown in FIG. 8, a specific image (main image) selected as a display target in accordance with an input operation described later is displayed on main image display section 301 arranged near the center of the display screen. That is, since an image in a predetermined shooting range captured at a predetermined time by the monitoring camera 2 selected from the plurality of monitoring cameras 2 is displayed, the user visually recognizes the image and determines a subsequent operation. be able to.
[0051]
The time axis display unit 302 is arranged below the main image display unit 301, and displays two types of time axes representing the relationship between the image to be displayed and the shooting date and time, as shown in FIG. The main time axis 302a shows a time range from 0:00 to 24:00 on a predetermined date in association with an image state. The sub-time axis 302b is an enlarged view of an arbitrary time range in the 24-hour range of the main time axis 302a. The setting of the time range for the sub-time axis 302b can be switched within a range of 10 minutes to 2 hours by a predetermined operation. The example of FIG. 9 shows a case where the time range of the sub time axis 302b is set to one hour.
[0052]
Normally, the sub-time axis 302b is set to a time range centered on the photographing time of the image displayed on the main image display unit 301 in the time range of the main time axis 302a. On the other hand, by moving the slider 302c above the main time axis 302a left and right, the temporal positional relationship of the sub time axis 302b with respect to the main time axis 302a can be adjusted.
[0053]
In the main time axis 302a and the sub time axis 302b, a specific time zone can be displayed in a different color in accordance with the state of the image in order to identify the state of the image obtained as a result of the search processing. In the example of FIG. 9, the time zones A, B, and C of the main time axis 302a and the sub time axis 302b are set as scenes in the image group determined to have changed, that is, the image group table in FIG. Corresponding to the part. Thereby, the user can easily identify the time zone in which the scene is set.
[0054]
In addition, the monitoring camera 2 does not always continuously shoot, and the image data is not recorded in the image recording server 11 depending on the time zone. Therefore, the time zone in which the target image does not exist on the main time axis 302a and the sub time axis 302b may be displayed in a different color.
[0055]
Note that the respective time ranges of the main time axis 302a and the sub time axis 302b are not limited to the above examples, and may be set as appropriate. For example, a time range longer than 24 hours may be set for the main time axis 302a, for example, a time range including all shooting times of displayable images. In addition, a predetermined time range around the photographing time of the image displayed on the main image display unit 301 may be set for the main time axis 302a.
[0056]
The thumbnail display section 303 is arranged below the time axis display section 302 and plays a role as a sub-image display section of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, the thumbnail display unit 303 displays a predetermined number (six in the case of FIG. 10) of thumbnails (sub-images) before and after the image substantially at the center of the sub-time axis 302b. They are displayed in the order of the series. These thumbnails are associated as representative images of the respective scenes as described above, and are the images that have the largest change among the images included in each scene. Thus, the user can easily select a thumbnail corresponding to a predetermined scene, paying attention to a change in the image. When the user selects and operates a predetermined thumbnail on the thumbnail display unit 303 with a mouse, an image corresponding to the selected thumbnail is enlarged and displayed on the main image display unit 301.
[0057]
The camera selection unit 304 displays the installation location of the currently selected surveillance camera 2 and allows the user to appropriately select and input a specific surveillance camera 2 as a display target from the pull-down menu on the right. When the user wants to switch the currently selected surveillance camera 2, when the user operates the mouse and presses a pull-down menu, the installation locations of all the surveillance cameras 2 that can be displayed are displayed. 2 can be selected.
[0058]
The calendar display unit 305 displays a calendar for one month for designating a shooting date of an image. When the user selects and operates a predetermined date from the calendar display unit 305 with a mouse, the image captured by the selected predetermined day among the images of the monitoring camera 2 indicated by the camera selection unit 304 is set as a display target. Is done. By pressing “previous month” or “next month” at the top of the calendar display unit 305, it is possible to shift to a desired year and month.
[0059]
The area specifying unit 306 functions as an area specifying unit of the present invention in cooperation with the control unit 201 and the operation unit 203. As shown in FIG. 11, the area specifying unit 306 is a display for specifying an area to be searched for in an image divided into 16 areas in the same shape as in FIG. 3A. A thumbnail corresponding to an image displayed on the main image display unit 301 (or an image at a predetermined date and time in the past) is displayed on the background of the area specifying unit 306, and the user can select a predetermined area with a mouse and operate. , The area can be designated as a search target. It is desirable to specify an area by the area specifying unit 306, for example, when searching for an image by focusing on a partial area where an entrance or the like exists in the shooting range of the selected monitoring camera 2.
[0060]
By displaying the areas specified by the area specifying unit 306 in different colors, the user can visually determine whether or not each area is specified. In addition, the area once specified by the area specifying unit 306 can be released from the specification by performing a selection operation again in that state.
[0061]
When the area is specified by the area specifying unit 306 in this manner, the result is reflected in the search condition table by the search instruction unit 204. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, in order to specify the area numbers 9 and 12 as search targets, the area specifying unit 306 may be operated to sequentially select two corresponding areas. Furthermore, since the result of the designation in the area designation unit 306 is reflected in the search table by the search execution unit 205, the display target of the main image display unit 301, the time axis display unit 302, and the thumbnail display unit 303 on the display screen is limited. Will be changed.
[0062]
The momentary change exclusion setting unit 307 is a display for input setting when excluding a scene with a scene length of 1 from among the scenes included in the image group table as described above. When the user checks the check box on the left side of the momentary change exclusion setting unit 307 with the mouse, a scene corresponding to the image group table as shown in FIG. 7B is set.
[0063]
The time display unit 308 displays the date and time when the image displayed on the main image display unit 301 was captured. In the time display unit 308, a set value can be selected and input from a pull-down menu for each of the input items for the displayed date and time.
[0064]
The reproduction operation unit 309 is a display for allowing the user to perform a desired operation when each of the scenes set as described above is sequentially displayed on the main image display unit 301 and reproduced as a moving image. On the upper part of the reproduction operation unit 309, a button for shifting to a scene preceding by one and a button for shifting to a succeeding scene based on the scene at that time are arranged. At the center of the playback operation unit 309, a stop button, a playback button, and a double-speed playback button for realizing the same playback function as that of the video player at the time of playback of each scene are arranged. A dial operation unit for realizing the same reproduction function using a dial operation instead of a button operation is arranged below the reproduction operation unit 309.
[0065]
In the present embodiment, the surveillance camera 2 shoots at a relatively slow speed, for example, at about one frame per second. In this case, when the playback button is pressed, the display image of the main image display unit 301 is switched at the display timing of one frame per second. On the other hand, when the double-speed playback button is pressed, the display image on the main image display unit 301 is switched at a display timing of two frames per second.
[0066]
As described above, by performing the image processing in the present embodiment, the transmitted image data is stored in the image recording server 11, and a change table as shown in FIG. The image is stored in the image recording server 11. Thereafter, when the user instructs an image search while referring to the display screen of the image display terminal 12, a change table is obtained from the image recording server 11 to generate a search table. No need to do. Therefore, in a situation where a large number of images captured by the monitoring camera 2 exist, when an image search focused on a specific area is instructed, the time until a search result is obtained can be short. As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to shorten the time required for the image search and improve the work efficiency while maintaining good operability and visibility during the image search.
[0067]
Note that the configuration of the monitoring system as the image processing system of the present embodiment can be appropriately changed according to the application target. For example, in the configuration of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1, the case where the image recording server 11 and the image display terminal 12 are configured separately is shown, but these may be configured integrally. In this case, a monitoring system may be configured by installing an apparatus having the functions of the image recording server 11 and the image display terminal 12 (an apparatus having the components shown in FIGS. 2 and 4) in the management center 1.
[0068]
In the above embodiments, the case where the present invention is applied to a monitoring system has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this and can be widely applied to image processing systems having various uses. In this case, in the present embodiment, a configuration in which image data is transmitted from the plurality of monitoring cameras 2 has been described, but a configuration in which image data is output from various devices other than the monitoring camera 2, for example, a VTR or the like may be used.
[0069]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a change table for recording in advance whether or not there is a change in each region with respect to an image to be processed is generated, and the change table is stored in association with the image to be processed and can be referred to. Therefore, even when the user pays attention to the change in the specific area, the time for searching for a desired image can be reduced, and the work efficiency such as image search can be improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a monitoring system according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image recording server.
FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating an example in which the entire image is divided into 16 rectangular regions in the present embodiment, with respect to the concept of image division and determination of the presence or absence of a change in each region. FIG. 3B is an example of a change table including a determination result of the presence or absence of a change in each region of the image.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image display terminal.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a search condition table generated by a search instruction unit of the image display terminal.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a search table managed by a table management unit of the image display terminal.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image group table generated based on a determination result by an image group determination unit of the image display terminal.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the entire display screen displayed on the display unit of the image display terminal.
9 is an enlarged view of a time axis display section of the display screen shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of a thumbnail display section of the display screen shown in FIG.
FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of an area designation section in the display screen shown in FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Management center 2 ... Surveillance camera 3 ... Internet 11 ... Image recording server 12 ... Image display terminal 13 ... Router 14 ... Image display terminal 101 ... Control unit 102 ... Interface 103 ... Storage unit 104 ... Image processing unit 105 ... Change table generation Unit 201 Control unit 202 Interface 203 Operation unit 204 Search instruction unit 205 Table management unit 206 Search execution unit 207 Image group determination unit 208 Thumbnail generation unit 209 Display control unit 210 Display unit 301 Main Image display unit 302 Time axis display unit 303 Thumbnail display unit 304 Camera selection unit 305 Calendar display unit 306 Area designation unit 307 Instantaneous change exclusion setting unit 308 Time display unit 309 Playback operation unit

Claims (6)

A change determination unit that divides an image to be processed into a plurality of regions, and compares each region with a reference image to determine whether there is a change;
Change table generating means for generating a change table for recording the presence or absence of a change determined by the change determining means in association with the image to be processed for each region;
Storage means for storing the image to be processed and the change table,
An image processing system comprising: 2. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the change table records information indicating whether at least one or more areas of the image to be processed have been determined to have a change. 3. 2. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the change table records the number of areas determined to have a change in the image to be processed. 3. Image search means for generating a search condition for an image stored in the storage means according to a predetermined input operation, and searching for an image that matches the search condition with reference to the change table;
Image display means for displaying an image searched by the image search means on a display screen,
The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising: The image search means sets, as an image group, temporally continuous images that match the search condition, and sets the image group that is continuous for a predetermined time or more as an image group to be reproduced.
The image processing system according to claim 4, wherein the image display unit displays the image group to be reproduced on the display screen. The image processing apparatus further includes an area specification unit that specifies an area of an image when the reference is made to the change table as the search condition. The image processing system according to claim 4, wherein an area is specified.

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