JP2005094203A - Image monitor system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image monitor system and program capable of inspecting a connection state of a monitor camera apparatus of a user side, even when there is no need to periodically inspect monitor image, and to inform the user of the inspection result. <P>SOLUTION: A management server 1 executes a Ping test, by accessing a camera system 4 by each prescribed timing, confirms a response from the camera system 4, inspects the connection state; and when the inspection result indicates that the camera system 4 is not connected normally, the management server 1 informs a notice destination corresponding to the user of this. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention records and stores a monitoring image received and acquired via a network from a monitoring camera device on the user side having a monitoring photographing function and a communication function, and responds to an image request from the user. The present invention relates to an image monitoring system and a program for reading out a stored image corresponding to the user and transmitting it to the user terminal.

In recent years, the spread of the Internet and broadband environments has made it possible for anyone to freely view and download camera images on the Internet from information processing terminals such as PDAs and mobile phones. There are also various uses, and for example, it is also used for remote monitoring with a monitor image obtained by photographing the site or for security monitoring of a house.
Conventionally, as such a monitoring system using camera images, for example, an intrusion of a suspicious person is detected by analyzing a monitoring image taken inside the office by a monitoring camera, and an email indicating that is sent to a mobile phone. A remote monitoring system is known (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2002-230654 A

However, in the case of sending a suspicious person's intrusion to a mobile phone by e-mail, even if an abnormal situation such as the suspicious person's intrusion can be reported, for example, the network cable is disconnected or the suspicious person communicates. Unexpected situations such as line disconnection cannot be dealt with, and security management problems remain.
Therefore, when the applicant first receives and acquires the monitoring image periodically and stores and manages it, whether or not an abnormality has occurred on the camera device side based on whether or not the monitoring image was successfully received and acquired. We have proposed a technology that notifies the user when an abnormality has occurred. As a result, it is possible to inspect whether or not an abnormality has occurred on the camera device side every time a monitoring image is periodically saved, and a user can immediately know a connection failure or the like, and can quickly respond. However, it was premised on periodically storing monitoring images.

  It is an object of the present invention to be able to inspect the connection state of a monitoring camera device on the user side and notify the user of the inspection result even when it is not necessary to periodically save the monitoring image. It is.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the monitoring image received and acquired via the network from the monitoring camera device on the user side having the monitoring photographing function and the communication function is recorded and stored in association with the user, or from the user. An image monitoring system that reads out a stored image corresponding to the user in response to an image request and transmits the stored image to the user terminal, wherein the monitoring camera device is accessed from the monitoring camera device for each user at a predetermined timing. An inspection unit that confirms the response and inspects the connection state, and a notification that reports the fact to the notification destination corresponding to the user when the inspection unit determines that the monitoring camera device is not normally connected. Means.
Furthermore, a program for realizing the main functions shown in the invention described in claim 1 is provided to the computer (the invention described in claim 7).

The invention described in claim 1 may be as follows.
When an arbitrary time zone is set in advance corresponding to the user, the inspection means accesses the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user within this time zone and inspects the connection state thereof (claim 2). Invention).

  When an arbitrary time zone and time interval are set in advance corresponding to the user, the inspection means accesses and connects the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user for each time interval within the time zone. The state is inspected (the invention according to claim 3).

  When an arbitrary notification destination is set in advance corresponding to the user, the notification means reports to the notification destination that the user's surveillance camera device is not normally connected. Described invention).

A monitoring image periodically taken at every time interval set for each monitoring camera device is received, acquired, and recorded (invented).
In this case, it is determined that the monitoring image captured periodically can be normally received and acquired, and the determination unit determines whether the monitoring image cannot be normally acquired. In this case, there may be provided a notification means for reporting the occurrence of abnormality on the camera device side to the notification destination corresponding to the user (the invention according to claim 6).

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, as a result of checking the connection state by checking the response from the monitoring camera device by accessing the monitoring camera device for each user at every predetermined timing, the monitoring camera device is normal. If the monitoring camera device is not connected to the user, the user is notified of the fact to the notification destination corresponding to the user. In addition to being able to inspect and notify the user of the inspection results, the user can immediately know the connection failure of the surveillance camera device, and can respond quickly. Can be performed smoothly.

  According to the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the same effect as that of the invention described in claim 1 described above, when an arbitrary time zone is set in advance corresponding to the user, Since the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user is accessed and the connection state is inspected, the inspection can be performed within the time zone desired by the user.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the same effect as the above-described aspect of the present invention, when an arbitrary time zone and time interval are set in advance corresponding to the user, Since the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user is accessed at each time interval within the range and the connection state thereof is inspected, the inspection can be periodically performed a number of times within the time zone desired by the user.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, in addition to the same effect as the invention described in claim 1 described above, when an arbitrary notification destination is set in advance corresponding to the user, Since the user's monitoring camera device is reported to be not connected normally, the user can receive an abnormality notification regardless of where the user is present, and any abnormality notification other than the user It can also be done for those concerned.

According to the invention described in claim 5, in addition to having the same effect as that of the invention described in claim 1, the monitoring image periodically taken at every time interval set for each monitoring camera device is received and acquired. Therefore, when it is necessary to periodically save the monitoring image, it is possible to check whether or not an abnormality has occurred every time the monitoring image is saved.
In this case, it is determined whether or not the monitoring image photographed periodically can be normally received and acquired. If the monitoring image cannot be normally acquired, an abnormality occurs on the camera device side. The report may be made to the notification destination corresponding to the user.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the image monitoring system in this embodiment.
The image monitoring system collects and stores monitoring images (user-provided images) received and acquired via the Internet from a camera device (camera system) on the user side having a photographing function and a communication function for monitoring. Is a wide area communication system that transmits a monitoring image to a requesting terminal under certain conditions when a browsing request is received, such as an HTTP protocol using a general TCP / IP communication protocol related to the Internet The data digitized (packetized) by is transmitted and received. The management server 1 that forms the core of the image monitoring system is connected to the camera system 4 on the user side via the Internet 2 and an IPS (provider that provides an Internet connection service) 3, as well as the Internet 2 and mobile communication. The system environment is such that the mobile terminal 6 is connected via the network 5.

  The management server 1 has various server functions such as a data server, a Web server, and a mail server. The data server 11 periodically receives and acquires a monitoring image from the camera system 4 on the user side, and acquires a hard disk (HDD). ) 12 is collected and stored. In this case, the operation of the camera on the user side is controlled by the initiative of the data server 11. At this time, the data server 11 determines whether or not the monitoring image can be normally acquired from the camera system 4. If it cannot be acquired normally, it is recognized that the system is abnormal due to camera malfunction or line failure, and the system error is reported to the user's notification destination. ing. In the case where the management server 1 functions as a data server, it is hereinafter referred to as the management server 1.

In addition, the management server 1 periodically accesses each camera system 4 to perform a connection status test (Ping test) using a Ping command, confirms a response from the camera system 4 and inspects the connection status, When the camera system 4 is not normally connected, a connection failure is reported to the notification destination on the user side.
In this Ping test, an arbitrary camera system 4 is individually designated by its IP address (Internet protocol address) and the connection status on the TCP / IP network is confirmed. A Ping test is periodically performed with reference to arbitrarily set test parameters (described later).

The user-side camera system 4 includes a Web camera 41, a personal computer (PC) 42, a router 43, and a modem 44, which are connected via a wired / wireless LAN (local area network) 45. It has become.
The Web camera 41 is a high-quality Web page compatible still camera that converts a subject image into a digital image using a CCD area sensor as an image sensor, for example, indoor monitoring such as a general home or company For this purpose, indoor wide-angle shooting or zoom shooting is performed, and the captured images are sequentially recorded and held, and the held images are read and transferred to the PC 42 in response to a transfer request from the PC 42.

The PC 42 performs various controls such as setting various parameters for the Web camera 41, reading and storing a monitoring image from the Web camera 41, and transmitting the monitoring image to the management server 1. A Web browser function and a mail function are provided.
Here, as shown in the figure, when one of the plurality of camera systems 4 is referred to as a local side and the other is referred to as a remote side, the local PC 42 reads the monitoring image from the local Web camera 41 and records and stores it. In addition, monitoring images received from the remote Web camera 41 via IPS 3 are acquired, recorded and stored, and displayed on a monitor including remote monitoring images. In the illustrated example, there is no problem even if the PC is removed from the LAN after initializing various parameters for the Web camera 41 on the remote side. ing.

  The router 43 is connected to the IPS 3 via the modem 44. In addition to performing normal remote routing and the like, in this embodiment, in particular, in this embodiment, when a packet addressed to itself is fetched, a header portion in the packet is included. The packet is received on the condition that the IP address of the source extracted from the above corresponds to a specific source IP address (registered address) registered in advance, and in the case of other source IP addresses, It has a special filter function that performs a relay operation to reject the reception of the packet. Here, the registered address is pre-registered to determine whether access is permitted, and any IP address of the management server 1, other camera system 4, portable terminal 6, etc. can be selected as an access permission target. The specified IP address.

  The mobile terminal 6 is a mobile information device with a communication function such as a mobile phone or a PDA. The mobile terminal 6 requests the management server 1 to browse the monitoring image stored and managed on the management server 1 side, or passes the management server 1 Instead, the camera system 4 on the local side is directly accessed via the IPS 3 and a monitoring image browsing request is made. In this case, as described above, the management server 1 permits access to the monitoring image on the condition that the legitimate request source is access using a legitimate terminal, and the local camera system 4 As described above, access to the monitoring image is permitted on the condition that the transmission source IP address matches the registered address by the filter function of the router 43. Note that the browser terminal that requests the management server 1 or the local camera system 4 to browse the image is not limited to the mobile terminal 6 but may be a PC (not shown) or the like.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of the storage control table 14 provided in the database 13 on the management server 1 side.
The storage control table 14 stores and manages camera control information for controlling the operation of the Web camera 41 in each camera system 4 under the initiative of the management server 1. For each camera, a “camera ID”, Each item of “setting parameter”, “next save time”, “error counter”, and “notification flag” is stored.
“Camera ID” is camera-specific identification information assigned to each Web camera 41, “Setting parameter” is control information set in advance to control the operation of the Web camera 41, and “Image storage interval” ”,“ Start time ”, and“ end time ”.

  The “image storage interval” indicates an image storage interval for receiving and storing a monitoring image periodically captured at a timing such as a 5-second interval, a 10-second interval, or a 1-minute interval. The “start time” and “end time” are start / end times of a shooting period such as 9:00 to 22:00, 10:00 to 20:00, for example. The monitoring images received at the “image storage interval” are sequentially stored in the hard disk 12. The “next storage time” is calculated based on the “setting parameter” described above, and indicates the next shooting timing.

  The management server 1 detects an acquisition error that could not be acquired normally when operating each camera at a predetermined timing and acquiring the monitoring image according to the “setting parameter” set for each camera. Each time, the value of the “error counter” is updated. The “error counter” counts the number of acquisition errors, and when the value of the “error counter” reaches a predetermined number of times, the management server 1 determines that the system is abnormal due to a malfunction of the camera or a line failure. In order to indicate that it should be notified to the user, a “notification flag” is set.

FIG. 3 shows the contents of the notification control table 15 provided in the database 13 on the management server 1 side.
The notification control table 15 stores and manages test parameters arbitrarily set for each camera system 4 in order to perform the Ping test. For each camera system 4, “camera ID” and “notification setting” are stored. , “Start time”, “end time”, “time interval”, “next test time”, and “notification destination”. “Notification setting” indicates whether or not to notify a connection failure mail to the notification destination on the user side, and “Start time” and “End time” indicate the time zone for performing the Ping test. Show.

  The “time interval” is a time interval for causing the Ping test to be periodically performed within this time zone, for example, every 60 minutes or every 100 minutes. “Next test time” indicates the next test execution timing calculated based on this “time interval”. “Notification destination” indicates the type of notification destination for notifying a connection failure, and the email address (setting email) arbitrarily set by the user is set as the notification destination, or the default email address (default email) is used. This is specification information that specifies whether to be a notification destination. For example, the default mail is information that is initially set when a new user is registered as a member, whereas the setting mail is information that is arbitrarily set after that.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of the user registration table 16 provided in the database 13 on the management server 1 side.
The user registration table 16 is configured to have items of “user ID”, “notification destination information”, and “camera ID” for each camera. The “user ID” is authentication information (security information) for specifying a user who is permitted to access the monitoring image. The management server 1 includes the user ID input when the access to the monitoring image is requested. The “user ID” in the user registration table 15 is collated to authenticate whether the access is from a legitimate request source. The “notification destination information” is a notification destination (the setting described above) when recognizing that a system abnormality is caused by an operation failure or a line failure on the camera system 4 side and reporting the occurrence of the system abnormality to the notification destination on the user side. Email). The “notification destination information” may be set to a plurality of notification destinations for each user, and the notification destination is arbitrary depending on the user's wishes.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the image folder 17 stored and stored in the hard disk 12 on the management server 1 side.
An image folder 17 is provided for each camera, and a “camera ID” is added to each image folder 17. The image folder 17 sequentially stores monitoring images received and acquired at predetermined timings according to the “setting parameters” in the storage control table 14 described above, and can also store monitoring images for the past several days, for example. Thus, the management server 1 accepts browsing requests for past monitoring images in addition to browsing requests for the current monitoring images. Of course, the capacity of the image folder 16 is arbitrary, but when the image folder 16 becomes full, it may be transferred from the oldest to another backup folder.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of the camera address table 18 provided in the database 13 on the management server 1 side.
The camera address table 18 stores and manages the IP address for each camera. In this embodiment, the camera address table 18 indicates a fixed IP address. Of course, in the case of a variable IP address, the address is changed. The contents of the camera address table 18 may be updated every time.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the local-side permitted IP table 46 set in the router 43 on the camera system 4 side, and FIG. 8 illustrates the remote-side permitted IP table 46.
This permitted IP table 46 constitutes the filter function described above, and the router 43 has a specific source IP address in which the source IP address extracted from the header part in the received packet is registered in the permitted IP table 46. If it is an address (registered address), the packet is received and acquired, but if it is any other source IP address, reception of the packet is rejected. In this case, in the illustrated example, the IP address of the management server 1 is set and registered in the permitted IP table 46 on the local side, and the IP address of the mobile terminal 6 that is specifically permitted is set and registered. In addition, the IP address of the management server 1 and the local camera system 4 is set and registered in the remote-side permitted IP table 46, and the IP address of the specially permitted portable terminal 6 is set and registered. Shows the case.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing basic components of the management server 1.
The CPU 101 is a central processing unit that controls the overall operation of the management server 1 in accordance with the operating system and various application software in the storage device 102. The storage device 102 has a program storage area and a data storage area, and is configured by a magnetic, optical, semiconductor memory, or a drive system thereof. The recording device 102 may be configured to be able to mount a removable storage medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD in addition to a fixed memory such as a hard disk. The programs and data in the storage device 102 are loaded into a RAM (for example, static RAM) 103 as needed, or the data in the RAM 103 is saved in the storage device 102. The RAM 103 has a program execution area and a work area. On the other hand, a communication device 104, an input device 105, and a display device 106, which are input / output peripheral devices, are connected to the CPU 101 via a bus line, and the CPU 101 controls their operations according to an input / output program.

  Next, the operation concept of the image monitoring system in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Here, each function described in these flowcharts is stored in the form of a readable program code, and operations according to the program code are sequentially executed. It is also possible to sequentially execute operations according to the program code transmitted via the transmission medium. That is, in addition to the recording medium, an operation specific to this embodiment can be executed using a program / data supplied externally via a transmission medium.

10 to 13 are flowcharts showing the overall operation of the management server 1.
First, the management server 1 refers to the storage control table 14, calculates the “next storage time” from the “setting parameter” for each camera, and sets it to the corresponding item position in the storage control table 14 (step A1). In this case, the current time is acquired from the system date and compared with the “start time” for each camera. If it is before the “start time”, the “start time” is set as the “next save time”. If it is immediately after the “time”, the time obtained by adding the “image storage interval” to the “start time” is set as the “next storage time”. Similarly, the management server 1 refers to the “notification setting” in the notification control table 15 and sets “start time” and “end time” as test parameters for each camera for which “notify” is set. Then, the “next test time” is calculated from the “time interval” and set in the corresponding item position in the notification control table 15 (step A2).

  Then, the management server 1 obtains the current time from the system date and time and checks whether or not the time is updated (step A3). If the time is updated, each “next storage time” in the storage control table 14 is checked. Among these, it is checked whether there is at least one “next storage time” corresponding to the update time (step A4). If there is no corresponding “next storage time”, the process proceeds to step A13 in FIG. If applicable, the camera address table 18 is searched based on the “camera ID” corresponding to this “next save time”, the corresponding IP address is read, the camera system 4 is accessed, and an image transmission request is made. (Step A5).

  Here, it is checked whether a monitoring image has been transmitted from the camera system 4 (step A6). If the monitoring image has been transmitted normally, the monitoring image is received and acquired, and the image folder 17 corresponding to the camera is received. Save (Step A7). Then, after resetting the “error counter” in the storage control table 14 (step A8), the “next storage time” is updated (step A9). In this case, unless it is immediately after the “start time”, the time obtained by adding the “image storage interval” to the previous “next storage time” is set as the “next storage time”. Thereafter, the process returns to step A4 and the above-described operation is repeated.

  On the other hand, if the monitoring image from the camera system 4 cannot be acquired normally (NO in step A6), “1” is added to the “error counter” in the storage control table 14 corresponding to the camera. After executing the processing for updating the value (step A10), it is checked whether the value has reached a predetermined number of times (for example, 50 times) (step A11). After moving to A9 and performing the update process of “next save time”, the process returns to step A4. Here, if image acquisition errors occur 50 times or more consecutively (YES in step A11), the “notification flag” in the storage control table 14 corresponding to the camera is set (step A12). Then, the process proceeds to step A8, and after resetting the “error counter”, the “next save time” is updated (step A9).

 In step A13 in FIG. 11, when time update is performed, it is determined whether there is at least one “next test time” corresponding to this update time among the “next test times” in the notification control table 15. If there is no corresponding “next test time”, the process returns to step A3 in FIG. 10, but if any one of them corresponds, the camera address is based on the “camera ID” corresponding to this “next test time”. The table 18 is searched, the corresponding IP address is acquired (step A14), the camera system 4 corresponding to this IP address is accessed, and a Ping command is issued and transmitted (step A15). Then, the presence or absence of a normal response is checked from the camera system 4 (step A16). If there is a normal response, the “next test time” is updated (step A17). In this case, unless it is immediately after the “start time”, the time obtained by adding the “time interval” to the previous “next test time” is set as the “next test time”.

On the other hand, immediately after issuing the Ping command, if there is no normal response from the camera system 4 that is the transmission destination of this command (NO in step A16), the notification control table 15 is referred to, and the “notification destination” corresponding to the camera. It is checked whether the content is “setting mail” or “default mail” (step A18). If “setting mail” is set, “notification destination information” is read from the user registration table 16 (step A19). If “default mail” is set, the initial setting table ( The default notification destination corresponding to the user is read from (not shown) (step A20). Then, a mail indicating a connection error is transmitted to the read notification destination (step A21).
In order to perform such a Ping test for all the camera systems 4, the process returns to step A 13 to check whether there is any other “next test time”, and if there is not, the process returns to step A 3 in FIG. If there are others, the above-described operation is repeated.

  On the other hand, if the current time is not yet updated (NO in step A3 in FIG. 10), the process proceeds to step A22 in FIG. 12 until the time is updated, and each “notification flag” in the storage control table 14 is referred to. Then, the presence / absence of a camera with a notification flag set is checked. Here, if there is a camera for which the “notification flag” is set, it is a case of a system abnormality due to an operation failure, a line failure, or the like. The “camera ID” in which the “flag” is set is acquired (step A23), the user registration table 15 is accessed based on the “camera ID”, and the “notification destination information” is read (step A24). Is notified of the occurrence of an abnormality in the camera system (step A25). Thereafter, the “notification flag” is reset (step A26), and “next storage time” is updated by adding, for example, “1 hour” as the time required for repair to the “next storage time” (step A26). A27).

  Then, the process proceeds to step A28 in FIG. 13 to check whether there is an image browsing access request from the user terminal such as the portable terminal 6, and when the access request is received, the user ID is transmitted to the request source terminal. When instructed (step A29) and receiving the user ID transmitted from the request source terminal in response (step A30), the user registration table 15 is accessed based on the received user ID, and the normal request source If it is a legitimate request source, the “camera ID” corresponding to the user ID is read from the user registration table 15 (step A31), and the image folder 16 corresponding to this “camera ID” is selected. The latest image file is read out from the image folder 16 (step A33). Then, this image file is transmitted to the request source terminal (step A34). And it returns to step A3 of FIG. 10, and the above-mentioned operation | movement is repeated hereafter.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing an operation on the camera system 4 side that is started every time a new packet is received.
First, when the router 43 on the camera system 4 side captures a packet addressed to itself (step B1), it extracts the source IP address from the header portion (step B2). Then, the permitted IP table 46 is searched based on the extracted transmission source IP address (step B3), and it is checked whether or not the corresponding IP address is registered (step B4). Or reject the reception. In this case, in the permitted IP table 46 illustrated in FIG. 7, the IP address of the management server 1 is set and registered in the local router 43, and the IP address of the specially permitted mobile terminal 6 is set and registered. In addition, the IP address of the management server 1 and the local camera system 4 is set and registered in the remote router 43, and the IP address of the mobile terminal 6 that is specifically permitted is set and registered. ing.

  Therefore, when the local router 43 receives an access from the management server 1 or an access from the mobile terminal 6 that is specifically permitted, the local router 43 receives the packet. When an access is received from the camera system 4 or another portable terminal 6, the reception of the packet is refused. Similarly, when the remote router 43 receives access from the management server 1 or the local camera system 4 or access from the mobile terminal 6 that is specifically permitted, the packet is received. When access is received from another mobile terminal 6 other than that, reception of the packet is rejected.

  If the packet reception is permitted by the filter function of the router 43 (YES in step B4), the camera system 4 checks the packet content (step B5) and determines whether the transmission request for the captured image is received (step B6). Then, it is checked whether the transmission request is for a stored image (step B10). Here, for example, when a captured image transmission request is received from the management server 1, that is, as described above, when an image request is received at regular intervals according to the contents of the storage control table 14, the Web camera 41. Is activated to capture the image (step B7), and whether or not the image has been captured normally is checked based on the presence / absence of the captured image, image distortion, image quality, and the like (step B8). Here, when the image is taken normally and a high-quality captured image can be captured, the captured image is transmitted to the request source (management server 1) (step B9), but the camera system 4 When an abnormality occurs on the side, image transmission is canceled.

  If a transmission request for a stored image is received (step B10), a stored image (past photographed image) stored in the Web camera 41 or the PC 42 is read (step B11), and the stored image is requested. Transmit to the source (step B9). If a request other than an image transmission request is received (NO in step B10), processing according to the request content is performed (step B12). For example, when a shooting direction, zoom shooting, or the like is instructed, the web camera 41 is controlled in accordance with the instruction content.

  Thereafter, the camera system 4 repeats the above operation every time a new packet is received. Now, when the remote side image is acquired from the local side, since the local side IP address is registered in the remote side permitted IP table 46, the remote side router 43 permits the access from the local side. Therefore, the local side can freely acquire the image on the remote side. On the other hand, even if an attempt is made to acquire an image on the local side from the remote side, since the remote side IP address is not registered in the local side permitted IP table 46, the local side router 43 accesses the remote side. Therefore, the remote side cannot acquire the local image. In addition, when the local and remote routers 43 receive a request for image acquisition from the specially permitted portable terminal 6, the local and remote permitted IP tables 46 indicate the IP of the portable terminal 6. Since the address is registered, the portable terminal 6 can freely acquire images on the local side and the remote side. In addition, you may perform the setting restrict | limited only to the local side with respect to the image request from the portable terminal 6. FIG.

  Further, when acquiring the local image from the management server 1, since the IP address of the management server 1 is registered in the local permission IP table 46, the local router 43 receives the information from the management server 1. In order to permit access, the management server 1 can freely acquire local images. Similarly, when acquiring a remote image from the management server 1, since the IP address of the management server 1 is registered in the remote-side permitted IP table 46, the remote-side router 43 receives the information from the management server 1. Therefore, the management server 1 can freely acquire images on the remote side. Therefore, the management server 1 can freely acquire images from both the local side and the remote side.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the management server 1 performs the Ping test by accessing the camera system 4 at every predetermined timing, confirms the response from the camera system 4, and checks the connection state. When the camera system 4 is not normally connected, the fact is reported to the notification destination corresponding to the user, so that even when there is no need to periodically save the monitoring image, the camera on the user side The connection state of the system 4 can be inspected, and the inspection result can be notified to the user. The user can immediately know the connection failure of the camera system 4 and can respond quickly. Therefore, the operation management of the entire system can be performed smoothly.

In this case, in the notification control table 15, an arbitrary time zone is set in advance corresponding to the user, and the Ping test is performed by accessing the camera system 4 corresponding to the user within this time zone. Inspection can be performed within the time zone desired by the user. Further, since the time interval is set in the notification control table 15 together with the time zone, the inspection is periodically performed several times within the time zone desired by the user. Is possible.
An arbitrary notification destination is set in advance in the user registration table 16 corresponding to the user, and the user's camera system 4 is reported to the notification destination not to be normally connected. In addition to being able to receive an abnormality notification regardless of where it is located, the abnormality notification can be sent to related parties other than the user.

On the other hand, when the management server 1 periodically accesses the camera system 4 and saves the monitoring image, even if the monitoring image cannot be normally acquired, the management server 1 notifies the user of the occurrence of the system abnormality. If it is necessary to periodically save the monitoring image, it is possible to inspect whether or not an abnormality has occurred every time the monitoring image is saved.
The router 43 on the camera system 4 side permits access only to the management server 1 and the special mobile terminal 6 and rejects access other than that, so that authentication based on the user ID and password is not required. In addition, reliable security management is possible by restricting access to the camera system itself.

 In the above-described embodiment, the Ping test is performed by periodically accessing the camera system 4, and if the camera system 4 is not normally connected, that fact is reported to the notification destination corresponding to the user. In addition, when the camera system 4 is accessed periodically to save the monitoring image, even when the monitoring image cannot be acquired normally, the occurrence of the system abnormality is reported to the user's notification destination. However, if it is necessary to periodically save the monitoring image for each camera system 4, the Ping test may not be performed. That is, the Ping test may be performed on the camera system 4 that does not need to save the monitoring image periodically.

In the embodiment described above, the camera system 4 has a configuration in which the Web camera 41, the PC 42, the router 43, and the modem 44 are connected via the LAN 45. However, the camera system 4 is a stand-alone type camera device that includes a Web camera, a CPU, a router, and a modem. Also good.
In the above-described embodiment, the Web camera is an example of a monitoring camera for shooting indoors. However, the shooting purpose is not limited to monitoring, and any video camera may be used for shooting a video. Good.

  In the above-described embodiment, the “setting parameter” in the storage control table 14 includes the items “image storage interval”, “start time”, and “end time”. However, shooting control is performed at regular intervals. For example, an arbitrarily set shooting schedule may be used as the “setting parameter”. Similarly, the “time interval”, “start time”, and “end time” in the notification control table 15 may be set as the test schedule time.

  On the other hand, a recording medium (for example, a CD-ROM, a RAM card, etc.) on which program codes for executing the above-described units are recorded may be provided to the computer. That is, a recording medium having a computer-readable program code, and a monitoring image received and acquired via a network from a monitoring camera device on the user side having a photographing function and a communication function for monitoring is associated with the user A function for reading and storing a user-stored stored image in response to an image request from the user and transmitting the stored image to the user terminal, and accessing the monitoring camera device for each user at a predetermined timing. A function for checking the response from the monitoring camera device and checking its connection state, and a function for reporting the fact to the notification destination corresponding to the user when it is determined that the monitoring camera device is not normally connected. To provide a computer-readable recording medium that records a program for realizing It may be.

The block diagram which showed the whole structure of the image monitoring system. The figure which showed the content of the preservation | save control table 14 provided in the database 13 by the side of the management server 1. FIG. The figure which showed the content of the user registration table 15 of the notification control table 15 provided in the database 13 by the side of the management server 1. FIG. The figure which showed the content of the user registration table 16 provided in the database 13 by the side of the management server 1. FIG. The figure which showed the image folder 17 stored and preserve | saved at the hard disk 12 by the side of the management server 1. FIG. (A) is a diagram showing a camera address table 18 provided in the database 13 on the management server 1 side. The figure which showed the permission IP table 46 of the local side set to the router 43 by the side of the camera system 4. FIG. The figure which showed the permission IP table 46 of the remote side set to the router 43 by the side of the camera system 4. FIG. The block diagram which showed the basic component of the management server 1. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the overall operation of the management server 1. The flowchart which showed the whole operation | movement of the management server 1 following FIG. The flowchart which showed the whole operation | movement of the management server 1 following FIG. The flowchart which showed the whole operation | movement of the management server 1 following FIG. 10, FIG. The flowchart which showed the operation | movement by the side of the camera system 4 started execution whenever a new packet is received.

Explanation of symbols

1 Management Server 2 Internet 3 IPS
4 Camera System 5 Mobile Communication Network 6 Mobile Terminal 11 Data Server 14 Storage Control Table 15 Notification Control Table 16 User Registration Table 17 Image Folder 18 Camera Address Table 41 Web Camera 42 PC
43 router 46 permitted IP table 101 CPU
102 storage device 104 communication device

Claims (7)

A monitoring image received and acquired via a network from a monitoring camera device on the user side having a photographing function and a communication function for monitoring is recorded and stored in association with the user, or in response to an image request from the user An image monitoring system that reads out a stored image and transmits it to the user terminal,
Inspection means for checking a connection state by checking a response from the monitoring camera device by accessing the monitoring camera device for each user at a predetermined timing;
When it is determined by the inspection means that the monitoring camera device is not normally connected, a notification means for reporting the fact to the notification destination corresponding to the user,
An image monitoring system comprising: When an arbitrary time zone is set in advance corresponding to the user, the inspection means accesses the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user within this time zone and inspects the connection state thereof,
2. The image monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the image monitoring system is configured as described above. When an arbitrary time zone and time interval are set in advance corresponding to the user, the inspection means accesses and connects the monitoring camera device corresponding to the user for each time interval within the time zone. Check the condition,
The image monitoring system according to claim 1, which is configured as described above. When any notification destination is set in advance corresponding to the user, the notification means reports that the monitoring camera device of the user is not normally connected to the notification destination.
The image monitoring system according to claim 1, which is configured as described above. Receive and acquire monitoring images periodically taken at time intervals set for each monitoring camera device, and record and store them.
The image monitoring system according to claim 1, which is configured as described above. A discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the monitoring image taken periodically can be normally received and acquired;
A notification means for reporting the occurrence of an abnormality on the camera device side to a notification destination corresponding to the user when it is determined that the monitoring image cannot be normally acquired by the determination means;
6. The image monitoring system according to claim 5, further comprising: Against the computer,
A function to record and store a monitoring image received and acquired via a network from a monitoring camera device on the user side having a monitoring imaging function and a communication function;
A function of reading a stored image corresponding to the user in response to an image request from the user and transmitting it to the user terminal;
A function for checking a connection state by checking a response from the monitoring camera device by accessing the monitoring camera device for each user at a predetermined timing; and
When it is determined that the monitoring camera device is not normally connected, a function to report the fact to the corresponding user notification destination,
A program to realize

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