JP2004240701A - Travel time measurement system, cone, vehicle number recognition system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image monitoring system which can easily measuring the travel time and difficult to be perceived by drivers. <P>SOLUTION: A camera A and a video transmission device, and a camera B and a video receipt device are installed at a place and the other place, respectively, and the received video (video of the camera A) and the video of the camera B are switched at a predetermined interval to be image-processed, so that the travel time is measured. A camera, an image processor and a communication device are built in a triangular cone for construction, which is installed by the side of a road or at a pedestrian bridge. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a surveillance system using a television camera applied to a road or the like, and more particularly to a portable surveillance device that recognizes a license plate or the like.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle number recognition device in which a camera is installed on a road and automatically recognizes a number of a passing vehicle and the like is widely used. Here, as a series of flow of the vehicle number recognition, as described in JP-A-6-215293, a plate is cut out, a serial number is cut out at a maximum of four digits, and various codes (land transportation branch office code and vehicle type code of place name, application code) ) The region is cut out and each character is recognized in the procedure of recognition.
[0003]
If the number is measured at a plurality of points by this number recognition, the time required for the same number to pass, that is, the travel time can be measured, and a stolen vehicle or the like can be found. These are usually permanent systems, in which a camera is installed on a portal or a dedicated pole, and a roadside device such as an image processing device is generally installed near the camera.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-6-215293
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
On the other hand, there is a case where it is desired to easily recognize the vehicle number instead of continuous measurement for 24 hours. For example, it temporarily measures travel time to support a survey operation for designing a road, and automatically recognizes a vehicle number of a vehicle entering or exiting a parking lot at an inspection or the like. In the case of such a temporary installation, install the camera using a tripod, install it on the side of the road, on the pedestrian bridge, at the entrance of the parking lot, etc., and pull in the camera image to the vehicle equipped with the image processing device and recognize it Has been done. When it is difficult to perform online image recognition, a video is recorded with a camera, and the video is taken back and analyzed offline.
[0006]
In the case of travel time measurement, car numbers are recognized at least at two points, the results are collated, and how long the same number passes by is measured. In the case of portable type number reading, the video of the camera is recorded on the spot and the video is taken back and analyzed offline or an image processing device is installed at each point, but it is recognized at each point However, there is a problem that the number of image processing apparatuses increases and the cost required for measurement increases. In addition, since a camera is often installed on a tripod and is very conspicuous, there is a disadvantage that the driver can easily notice it. Also, if a person stands near the camera, it will be more noticeable. If a camera using such a tripod is installed on the side of a road or the like, the driver can see that the camera is taking an image, which leads to inattentive driving or the like, which is not preferable.
[0007]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to easily measure a travel time with a small number of image processing apparatuses. Another object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring device that reads a number in a form that is difficult for a driver to notice.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Such travel time measurement does not necessarily require a 100% recognition rate, and the travel time can be sufficiently measured if a part of a car passing through two points can be recognized. For this reason, a camera A and an image transmitting device are installed at one point, and a camera B, an image receiving device and an image processing device are installed at the other point, and the image of the camera B and the image received by the image receiving device (the camera A By recognizing the numbers while comparing them with each other, it is only necessary to install the image processing device at a ratio of one to two, and the travel time can be easily measured. The travel time can be calculated if some of the 100 vehicles passed can be verified at two points, so that a low-cost travel time measurement system can be constructed with such a configuration.
[0009]
In addition, as a configuration that is hard to notice from the driver, a construction triangular cone installed throughout the road is used, and a camera, a micro image processing device and a communication device are built in this construction cone, By transmitting the recognition result or the like to a PDA or the like carried by an observer or the like at a remote location, it becomes difficult for the driver or the like to notice and the monitoring result can be viewed on the spot.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Examples of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a simplified travel time measurement system. At the point B, the camera 1-B and the wireless image transmission device 4 for wirelessly transmitting the image are installed. At the point A, the wireless image receiving device 3 for receiving the camera images of the camera 1-A and the point B, the image processing device 2, and the travel time calculating device 5 are installed. The image processing device 2 can connect at least two systems of camera images, and performs processing while switching the two systems of images. The travel time calculation device 5 is a notebook PC, a PDA, or the like. By transmitting / receiving the image processing device 2 to / from a notebook PC, a PDA, or the like via a LAN connection, the travel time measurement result can be viewed at a remote place. Become.
[0011]
Normally, as shown in FIG. 2, the image processing apparatus 2 is installed for each point, and the recognition result is stored in the storage medium 6 and the result is transmitted. There is no need to recognize the vehicle, and processing can be performed while switching between the camera images of the two cameras, as in the configuration of FIG. 1, and the travel time can be measured with an inexpensive configuration.
[0012]
FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the image processing apparatus. There are two NTSC decoders (A / D converters) 21 for inputting the image of the camera 1, and input the image of the camera to the image processing LSI 23. The image processing LSI 23 is connected to the RAM 24, CPU 25, flash memory 26, LAN controller 28, and timer 29 by bus. By processing while switching the above-mentioned decoder 21, camera images at two points can be processed. The RAM 24 stores a processing program, and the flash memory 26 stores a basic unit such as an OS.
[0013]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the travel time calculation. First, the camera 1 is selected 30 and its image is input 31. The vehicle detection process 32 determines whether or not a vehicle has arrived. When the recognition is completed, the recognition result is stored 34, and the processing is switched to the camera 2 36, and the same processing is executed again. When the recognition of the cameras 1 and 2 is completed, a travel time calculation 37 is executed based on the stored recognition results.
[0014]
Normally, since the camera 1 and the camera 2 are separated from each other by several hundred meters to several kilometers, the same number is detected with a delay of several minutes as shown in FIG. 6 (the time is measured by the built-in timer 29). The measurement result at the point A is shown at 50 and the point B at 51. In the above description, the method of switching the cameras for each camera is described. However, as shown in FIG. 5, the method of switching the cameras when a predetermined number of cameras are recognized, or the travel time (for example, 5 minutes) that can be assumed at the installation interval L of the camera A And then process camera B. As described above, by providing the video transmission device on one side and the video receiving device and the image processing device on the other side, it is possible to process the images of the cameras at two points, easily measure the travel time, and realize an inexpensive configuration. Furthermore, it is only necessary to adopt a method of performing processing while comparing outputs from two cameras with each other. Therefore, a center is separately provided, and two images of camera A and camera B are acquired and the same number is recognized. By doing so, the travel time may be measured. In that case, a transmitting device is installed together with the camera B, and a receiving device and an image processing device are provided at the center.
[0015]
On the other hand, in such a portable (simplified) system, the camera is often fixed to a tripod, but this may be annoying to the driver and may lead to inattentive driving. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 7, a camera or the like is built in a construction triangular cone 60 (hereinafter, referred to as a cone) as equipment installed at each point. Such cones are installed everywhere on the road, and the driver of the car overlooks it without any particular discomfort. Monitoring is performed using such a cone. By incorporating a camera, image processing device, and communication device inside the cone, the driver can be compared with a system that uses a conventional tripod to install a camera. It is possible to provide a monitoring device for a road which is hardly noticed. The cone has a camera window 61.
[0016]
FIG. 8 shows the structure inside the cone. The television camera 1 is mounted on a pedestal 62, and an image processing device 2 for processing an image of this camera is built in. As described in “Intelligent Image Recognition System VP-900 Series (Video Information Industrial, October 2002, pp. 80-83)”, this image processing apparatus uses a high-speed, small-size image processing dedicated LSI + CPU to reduce the camera size. Has been realized. Although the conventional image processing apparatus consumes large power and cannot be driven by a battery, the present apparatus can be driven by a battery. In this embodiment, the micro image processing apparatus is used.
[0017]
FIG. 9 shows the inside of the cone in the case of the wireless image transmission method described above. A camera 1, an image processing device 2, and a wireless image receiving device 3 are provided.
[0018]
FIG. 10 shows a configuration in which the image recognition result is communicated with the terminal 70 using a wireless LAN or the like. By using wireless communication, there is no need to arrange a person near the camera, and a configuration can be provided that does not make the driver feel uncomfortable. In this case, as shown in FIG. 11, a camera 1, an image processing device 2, a wireless image receiving device 3, and a wireless LAN access point 63 are built in.
[0019]
FIG. 12 is a view of the cone as viewed from the back. An openable / closable door 64 is provided so that the built-in device can be taken out, the television camera can be focused, and the zoom can be adjusted (not necessary in the case of a configuration in which a triangular cone is covered from above).
[0020]
FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of a device built in the cone. The image of the television camera 1 is input to the image processing device 2, and general recognition processing is performed by image processing. The image processing apparatus 2 is LAN-connected to the wireless LAN access point 63, and transmits / receives data to / from a terminal 70 such as a PDA connected to the wireless LAN access point 63 by a wireless LAN. Each device is powered by batteries 81, 82, 83. In the figure, batteries are provided individually, but if the power supply specifications are the same, one battery may be used. In some cases, a VTR device for recording an image of a television camera is installed. In this case, a commercially available video camera with a recording function may be used. It is unnecessary when only the recognition result is sufficient.
[0021]
FIG. 14 shows a configuration in which the communication means between the image processing device 5 and the terminal device 3 such as a PDA is a wired LAN. In this case, the wireless LAN access point 63 can be made unnecessary.
[0022]
FIG. 15 is a block diagram in the case where the wireless image receiving device is incorporated. The image received by the wireless image receiving device 3 and the image of the camera 1 are input to the image processing device 2, and the recognition result is transmitted by wireless LAN. In the case of wired communication, the mobility is reduced, but in the case of wireless communication, transmission can be made to a place tens of meters away, so there is an advantage that it is not necessary to arrange a person on the camera side.
[0023]
FIG. 16 shows the configuration of the image transmission side, in which the camera 1 and the wireless image transmission device 4 are built.
[0024]
FIG. 17 is a block diagram in the case where a lighting device is incorporated so that it can be recognized even at night. The lighting device 90 is installed in the configuration shown in FIG. In the case of license plate recognition, since the target is moving, the television camera normally shoots at a shutter speed of about 1/1000 second. For this purpose, an illumination lighting control circuit (not shown) for inputting the video signal 91 and setting the lighting timing based on the synchronization signal is provided. Further, the image processing apparatus 2 gives a signal 92 for turning on / off the presence or absence of lighting.
[0025]
FIG. 18 is an external view of the cone 60 when lighting is provided. Reference numeral 61 denotes a window for a lens, and 65 denotes a window for illumination. Since near-infrared LEDs are often used for illumination for vehicle number recognition, the inside of the window can be made invisible by configuring the window glass with a filter that cuts visible light.
[0026]
FIG. 19 is an example of a terminal screen when a recognition result is transmitted to a terminal such as a PDA. An area for transmitting an image processed by the image processing apparatus and displaying a received image, an area 101 for displaying a recognition result, and a menu for setting a field of view (width of a camera) for number recognition. 102, a menu 103 for setting whether or not to turn on the above-mentioned lighting (not necessary if there is no lighting), a button 104 for starting the process, and an end button 105. When the lighting is set to be turned on, the lighting ON / OFF signal in FIG. 6 outputs an ON signal.
[0027]
Hereinafter, a specific usage example in the case of using the PDA will be described.
[0028]
(1) In the case of a travel time measurement system An example of use when the above-described cone is applied to travel time measurement will be described. In the travel time measurement, a car number recognition device is installed at a point several hundred meters away from a few hundred meters, and the time required until the same number is detected is measured. For this reason, the above-mentioned cones are installed at a plurality of points, the recognition result is transmitted to a terminal device (PDA), and the number information received by the terminal device is linked with the time to a storage medium (for example, Compact Flash (registered trademark)). ), An SD card, etc.), and the travel time can be calculated by comparing the numbers at a plurality of points. Further, when processing is performed by switching between two camera images, since the recognition result includes a point number (name), the number is stored for each point (see FIG. 6), and each time the recognition result is received. By executing the matching process, the travel time can be calculated.
[0029]
Alternatively, if the terminal device is provided with a communication means such as a mobile phone, the received result can be sent to the center online, and the travel time can be calculated based on the information. In this case, since transmission at the time of passing the transmission always increases communication cost, a device such as transmission once every several minutes is provided.
[0030]
(2) In the case of registration number detection system FIG. 20 shows a case where information such as a stolen vehicle or a criminal vehicle is registered in advance in a storage medium of a terminal device (PDA) and a recognition result matching this vehicle number is received. Raises an alarm and displays "Hit registration number" on the display screen of the terminal. When the OK button is pressed, detailed information is displayed as shown in FIG. The detailed information displays the registration reason, date and time, location (eg, police jurisdiction name) of the registered vehicle, and the like. When the OK button is pressed, an inquiry is made as shown in FIG. 22 as to whether or not to notify the center registered in advance as emergency information, and when notifying, the notification is made by a mobile phone or the like connected to the terminal device. In this case, since the registration information is highly confidential, a scheme such as encryption may be considered so that the registration information is not visible to a general person when the recording medium is stolen.
[0031]
The lens of the camera is configured to adjust the focus and zoom of the camera at the time of installation. The lens of the camera is a lens capable of adjusting the focus and zoom remotely, and data is transmitted to the image processing apparatus by setting parameters from the PDA. It is also possible to control the transmission by the DO output of the image processing apparatus according to the value. Further, in order to install the camera on a road, it is assumed that the cone may fall down, or the direction of the camera may change due to wind or the like. When transmitting the result to a PDA or the like, it is good when the recognition is successful, but when the camera falls, no video comes at all, so that it is difficult to know the state of the camera. For this reason, if the license plate cannot be recognized for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes), the input image is transmitted to a terminal (PDA or the like) (alarm may be sounded), and the observer falls down looking at the image. It is also possible to make a judgment as to whether the camera is moving or the direction of the camera is moving, so that the user can go to the cone installation point for confirmation.
[0032]
By making the cone a camera, an image processing device, and a communication device built in the portable type, monitoring that is hardly noticed by the driver can be performed.
[0033]
In addition, the license plate can be easily recognized in a portable manner, and the result is compared with the number registered in advance in the terminal device, thereby immediately determining whether or not the vehicle is a criminal vehicle, thereby improving the criminal vehicle arrest rate. It becomes possible.
[0034]
At the time of a check, for example, since a police car is nearby, it is possible to mount a camera, an image processing device, and a communication device on a car and transmit the recognition result to a PDA carried by a police officer.
[0035]
In this embodiment, the vehicle number recognition is a specific example. However, as an application of road monitoring, the application of the image processing apparatus is changed to measure traffic flow (put a cone on the sidewalk). Can be easily handled.
[0036]
【The invention's effect】
The travel time can be measured with a small number of image processing devices. Further, it is possible to provide a vehicle number recognition device that is hardly noticed by a driver.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration for calculating travel time at two points using one image processing apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration in a case where an image processing apparatus is installed at each point.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for calculating a travel time by performing recognition processing while switching between two camera images.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another method for calculating a travel time by performing recognition processing while switching between two camera images.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a storage state of a recognition result.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an external appearance of a cone including a camera and devices such as an image processing device.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of a cone.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the inside of a cone in the case where a wireless image receiving device is built in.
FIG. 10 illustrates a configuration in a case where the terminal is connected to the terminal via a wireless LAN and a recognition result and the like are monitored by the terminal.
FIG. 11 shows an internal configuration of a cone when the terminal is connected to the terminal via a wireless LAN and the result of recognition and the like is monitored by the terminal.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a door of a cone.
FIG. 13 is a block configuration of a cone built-in type in the case of wireless LAN connection.
FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a built-in cone type for a wired LAN connection.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram including a wireless image receiving apparatus.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a cone for wireless image transmission.
FIG. 17 is a block configuration of a cone provided with a lighting device.
FIG. 18 is an external view of a cone with illumination.
FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen of a terminal device.
FIG. 20 is an example of a screen in a case where an application is performed for comparison with a registration number.
FIG. 21 is a screen example showing a detailed information display example when a registration number is hit.
FIG. 22 is a screen example when notifying a center.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Camera, 2 ... Image processing apparatus, 60 ... Triangle cone for construction, 63 ... Wireless LAN access point, 70 ... Terminal.

Claims (11)

It has a first television camera disposed at a predetermined point on the road, and a second television camera disposed downstream from the arrangement point of the first television camera, and uses information of the television cameras. A travel time measurement system that measures the travel time of the vehicle traveling on the road,
A transmission device that is disposed together with the first television camera and transmits image information of the first television camera,
Having a receiving device, an image processing device, and a travel time measuring device each arranged together with the second television camera,
The receiving device receives the image information of the first television camera,
The image processing device recognizes the number of the vehicle from image information obtained from each of the television cameras,
The travel time measuring device is a travel time measuring system that measures the travel time by comparing vehicle numbers respectively recognized by the image processing device from two pieces of image information. TV camera,
An image processing device for processing the image of the television camera,
A communication device for transmitting a recognition result of the image processing device to an external terminal device. In claim 2,
LED array lighting,
A lighting control device that lights the LED array illumination in accordance with a shutter release timing of the television camera,
The image processing device processes an image of the television camera taken in a state where the LED array illumination is turned on,
The communication device transmits a result processed by the image processing device to the terminal device. In claim 2,
The image processing device has a function of recognizing a license plate of a car,
A cone, wherein a recording device for recording an image of the television camera is built in the cone. In claim 2,
The image processing device has a function of recognizing a license plate of a car,
The communication device transmits data to the terminal device in response to a request from the terminal device,
The cone, wherein the data transmitted from the image processing device to the terminal device is at least a processing result video, an input image, and a recognition result. In claim 2,
The cone according to claim 1, wherein the image processing device transmits the input image to the terminal device when the license plate has not been recognized for a predetermined time. A cone number camera, a car number recognition system including a terminal device independent of the cone type camera,
The cone-type camera has a television camera and a transmission device that wirelessly transmits an image of the camera to the terminal device,
The vehicle number recognition system, wherein the terminal device includes a receiving unit that receives a video transmitted from the transmission device, and an image processing device that processes the received image. In claim 7,
The image processing device has a function of recognizing a license plate of a car,
The terminal device includes a PDA or a notebook PC having a communication function,
The vehicle number recognition system, wherein the transmission device and the reception unit are configured to enable communication by a wireless LAN. In claim 7,
The image processing device has a function of recognizing a license plate of a car,
The vehicle number recognition system, wherein the terminal device includes a recording medium, and stores the data received by the receiving unit in the recording medium together with a reception time. In claim 7,
The cone-shaped camera has an LED array illumination, and a lighting control device that lights the LED array illumination in accordance with a shutter release timing of the television camera,
The vehicle number recognition system, wherein the image processing device processes an image of the television camera taken in a state where the LED array illumination is turned on. In claim 7,
The terminal device has a database in which license plate information such as a stolen vehicle is registered, and the image processing device has a function of recognizing a license plate of a car, and a license plate recognition result recognized by the image processing device. A vehicle number recognition system having a function of issuing an alarm and / or notifying a predetermined place when license plate information registered in the database matches.

Images