JP2005117261A - Network camera apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network camera apparatus, whereby a single camera simply provides a moving image file to a plurality of clients. <P>SOLUTION: The network camera apparatus includes a multiple access detection function 106 for detecting reception of a request from the other clients within an imaging time on the basis of time information, contained in a request transmitted from the client or time information obtained, when receiving the request, and the imaging time of image data included in the request; and a transmission data selection function 107 for using a network function, to transmit the same as or different from the image data transmitted to the client, to the other client, when detecting the reception of the request from the other client within the imaging time, in addition to network functions 101, 102 or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a security-related technology, and more particularly to a network camera device capable of monitoring the situation of a remote place using a surveillance camera.

There is a need to connect a camera directly or indirectly to the Internet and capture still images and continuous video data. This may be a monitoring purpose or an observational purpose such as wanting to see the child in the absence home or childcare facility. A so-called Internet camera or network camera such as “run camera” that has already been commercialized enables transmission of still images and continuous moving images (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2 below). ).
JP 2003-259175 A JP 2002-271777 A

  According to the technique described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to increase the definition in the case of a still image, but no matter how much the definition is increased, an important factor of “movement” is lacking. There is a problem of causing trouble. On the other hand, a moving image has an important factor of “motion”, but has a problem that it may be unacceptable depending on network factors because it constantly uses a certain amount of bandwidth.

  Therefore, the present applicant has developed a network camera device prior to the present invention. The network camera device developed earlier by the present applicant has a live camera-like element of starting imaging in response to a request from a client, and does not continue to send image data captured as a continuous video as in the past, The bandwidth problem is solved by creating / sending a video file for a predetermined time, so that the client can easily watch the video (note that the network camera developed earlier by the applicant) The device is scheduled for patent application and has not been disclosed yet, so it does not constitute a known technique.

  However, each of the methods described above is configured such that one client is provided for one camera or one client is provided for a plurality of cameras. In other words, as a method for providing a moving image file including a live camera-like element in which imaging is started in response to a request from a client, a moving image file that can be acquired from one or a plurality of cameras can be provided to a plurality of clients. There wasn't.

  However, in a camera system via a network disclosed in Patent Document 2, a method of providing data such as images and sounds from one or more cameras to a plurality of clients has been proposed. According to this proposal, the camera server unit includes an internal proxy server function and a data storage unit, and data such as images and sounds captured by the camera unit is temporarily stored in the data storage unit, and a plurality of clients When a request is received from the client, data already stored in the data storage unit can be provided to the plurality of clients that are the request sources.

  However, due to the characteristics of the proxy server, the image data currently being captured is not included in the cache. In other words, when requests are received from a plurality of clients, data older than the currently captured image data remaining in the cache is provided, and information older than the information requested by the clients is provided. There was a problem that.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and can provide a plurality of clients with moving image files captured from one camera, and each client starts imaging. An object of the present invention is to provide a network camera device that includes a few live camera elements and can easily provide a moving image file to a plurality of clients.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a lower network function composed of a TCP / IP protocol, an upper network function composed of a Web server, and a menu display / input function that obtains an input by displaying a menu in cooperation with the Web server And a moving image data sending function for sending data of a predetermined length of moving image and / or audio, and a moving image data sending function for sending the data via the Web server, and included in the request sent from the client Multiple access detection that detects that a request has been received from another client within the imaging time from the received time information or time information obtained when the request is received and the imaging time of the image data included in the request Function and that it has received a request from the other client within the imaging time. When knowledge, the same or different data and image data to be sent to the client to the other client, the network camera apparatus is provided with a transmission data selecting function of transmitting using the network function.

  According to the network camera device of the present invention, a plurality of clients can easily obtain a moving image file that is close to a certain period of time captured by a single camera by using a browsing function such as a mobile phone, a PC, or a PDA. It becomes possible.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a preferred embodiment of the network camera device of the present invention. In other words, this network camera device includes a lower network function 101 made up of a TCP / IP protocol, an upper network function 102 made up of a Web server, and a menu display / input function 103 that obtains an input by displaying a menu in cooperation with the Web server. And a moving image capturing function 104 for capturing data of a predetermined length of moving image and / or audio, and a moving image data transmitting function 105 for transmitting data via a Web server, and included in a request sent from a client Multiple access detection function 106 for detecting that a request has been received from another client within the imaging time from the time information obtained when receiving the received time information or the request and the imaging time of the image data included in the request; Received a request from another client within the imaging time When detecting the door, the same or different data and image data to be sent to the client to other clients, and a sending data selecting function 107 of sending by using a network function.

  1 will be described in more detail. The hardware configuration for realizing each of the functions 101 to 107 shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to a portion surrounded by a dotted line in FIG. In FIG. 2, as a configuration of the network camera device, a camera unit 201 that captures a surrounding image, an image input unit 203 that inputs a video from the camera unit 201, and a video from the image input unit 203 are compressed. An image processing unit 204 that formats image data such as MPEG, a microphone unit 202 that collects ambient sounds, a voice input unit 208 that inputs sound collected by the microphone unit 202, and a voice input unit 208 The audio processing unit 209 that compresses the sound and formats it into audio data such as AMR, and the data obtained from the image processing unit 204 and the audio processing unit 209 are synchronized and synthesized, for example, MP4 An image / speech synthesis processing unit 205 that creates one moving image file with sound, and a memory unit 210 that temporarily stores the created moving image file, From a network communication unit 207 having a lower-layer network function including the TCP / IP protocol, a web server unit 211 having a menu screen for selecting a request for starting imaging, an input unit for specifying imaging time, and the like, and a plurality of clients A multiple control management unit 212 that performs management when a request is received and a control unit 206 that performs the above-described control are illustrated.

  By using the network camera device of the present invention having these functions, in response to requests from a plurality of terminals having a browsing function, a moving image file with sound close to live captured immediately after receiving a request from the terminal Can be prepared, and further, by downloading to the terminal, it is possible to easily display a high-quality moving image with sound.

  The operation of the embodiment of the network camera device according to the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the client terminal using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the preferred embodiment of the client terminal using the network camera device of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the preferred embodiment of the network camera device of the present invention.

  First, an embodiment of a client terminal will be described below with reference to FIG. The client accesses the network camera device using a network function for communicating with the network camera device provided in the client terminal, a browsing function for accessing the Web server, and the like. Here, information such as a menu screen transmitted from the network camera device is acquired and displayed (step 301). Next, information such as the time of the moving image file, that is, the imaging time is input from the menu screen (step 302), and the network camera device is requested to start imaging for the imaging time (step 303). The client terminal that issued the request waits until the download of the moving image file to be transmitted after the imaging for the imaging time included in the request is completed in the network camera device is completed (step 304). After the download is completed, the reproduction of the moving image file is started based on or not based on the client instruction (step 305). The client can view a moving image that is almost live from the time when the request is made. Thereafter, the client may delete the moving image file or store it in the client terminal or a memory area controllable by the client terminal (step 306). When saved in the memory area, the client can view it again when he / she wants to view it.

  Next, an embodiment of the network camera device will be described with reference to FIG. The network camera apparatus waits for a request from a client sent via the network or a timeout described later (step 401). When a request is received, the request is first analyzed. When a menu screen is requested, a menu screen including an imaging start request and a specified time input item is first transmitted to the access source (step 402).

  When an imaging start request is received, it is confirmed whether an imaging flag indicating whether imaging is currently being performed is in an ON / OFF state (step 403). Here, when the imaging flag is OFF, that is, when imaging is not currently being performed, in order to perform imaging for the imaging time included in the request information, a stop time is set by timer processing or the like (step 404). Next, an imaging flag indicating that imaging is currently being performed is set to ON (step 405). Thereafter, imaging is actually started (step 406), and a timeout indicating another request or stop time is waited at step 401.

  When a request is received from another client while imaging is started as described above, the imaging flag is first confirmed (step 403), and it is confirmed that the imaging flag is ON. The contents of the multiple management information including the request during imaging and the IP address of another client are updated (step 407). After this, in step 401, it is waited whether there is a request from another client or time-out.

  Next, when a time-out occurs due to the elapse of the time set in step 404, the imaging is first stopped (step 408). Thereafter, the imaging flag is set to OFF to indicate that imaging is no longer being performed (step 409). Thereafter, a moving image file including sound such as MP4 is created from the captured image and sound data, and temporarily stored in the memory (step 410). Thereafter, the generated moving image file is transmitted to the request source that first received it (step 411). Next, it is confirmed from the contents of the multiple management information whether or not another request has been received during imaging (step 412). If multiple requests have been received, referring to the contents of the multiple management information, the first request source The same data as the moving picture file sent to is sent (step 411). If all transmissions to a plurality of client terminals are completed from the contents of the multiple management information, the multiple management information becomes unnecessary at this point. Therefore, the contents of the multiple management information are cleared here (step 413). At the same time, the temporarily saved moving image file is cleared (step 414) and a new request is waited (step 401).

  Actually, the client who made the request first started imaging from a remote location, and as a client, it is possible to play a video file close to live where imaging was started from almost the same time as the request was made. It becomes. Also, for other clients who make subsequent requests, there is a considerable gap from the requested time, but it is possible to obtain a video file that is almost live, and the advantage that the waiting time until the download is completed is shortened There is.

  Further, if necessary, the acquired moving image file can be stored in a client terminal or a memory area that can be controlled by the client terminal and repeatedly played back. Furthermore, if the client terminal has a mail function, a moving image file can be forwarded to a friend or the like, and information can be easily shared. On the contrary, if the moving image file downloaded from the network camera device is not required, the file may not be stored in the memory area, or the temporarily stored file may be deleted from the memory area.

It is a functional block diagram which shows preferable embodiment of the network camera apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the specific structure of embodiment of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the client terminal using the network camera apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the network camera apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Low-order network function 102 High-order network function 103 Menu display / input function 104 Movie capture function 105 Movie data transmission function 106 Multiple access detection function 107 Transmission data selection function 201 Camera unit 202 Microphone unit 203 Image input unit 204 Image processing unit 205 Image / Speech synthesis processing unit 206 Control unit 207 Network communication unit 208 Voice input unit 209 Voice processing unit 210 Memory unit 211 Web server unit 212 Multiple control management unit

Claims (1)

Lower network function composed of TCP / IP protocol, upper network function composed of a Web server, menu display / input function for displaying menus in cooperation with the Web server, and a moving image or a predetermined length An image capturing function for capturing audio or both data, and a moving image data transmitting function for transmitting the data via the Web server;
A request was received from another client within the imaging time from the time information included in the request sent from the client or the time information obtained when the request was received and the imaging time of the image data included in the request. Multiple access detection function to detect that,
When it is detected that a request is received from the other client within the imaging time, the same or different data as the image data sent to the client is sent to the other client using the network function. A network camera device having a transmission data selection function.

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