JP2005303340A - Omnidirectionally monitoring camera device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a monitoring camera device suppressing recorded data quantity while leaving the images of all directions as records. <P>SOLUTION: The monitoring camera device 10 consists of a photographing device 12 having an image angle of about horizontal 360°/vertical 180°, a recorder 14 for recording photographed wide angle image data as still image data compressed in JPEG, an image conversion device 16 for converting the wide angle image data into a visible image of a normal image angle, and a display device 18 for displaying the image converted into the normal angle by the device 16. The photographed wide angle image is subjected to processing such as JPEG compression as an aggregation of still images continuing in time series, and is recorded in the recorder 14. Since the image to be recorded is the wide angle photographing image 22 photographed without any change, and all ranges included in a photographing region including peripheries are recorded, it is prevented that the reproduction is not possible in reproducing the recorded images because the data are discarded. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an omnidirectional monitoring camera device.

  Conventional surveillance systems that record conventional video camera images and omnidirectional camera systems that monitor 180 ° / 360 ° omnidirectional using wide-angle lenses or convex mirrors exist.

  The image of the omnidirectional camera device uses a wide-angle lens (or fish-eye lens) or convex mirror in the photographic optical system, so it is distorted, and it can be used to determine what the subject is in the captured image. Is difficult. Usually, it is necessary to monitor and record the captured image by converting it into a projection image having no distortion similar to that captured by a general camera by image conversion. Electronic correction is performed on the image of the omnidirectional camera, and only a part of the image is converted into a normal perspective image without distortion, and the entire selected field of view is electronically panned, tilted, rotated, zoomed, etc. A full-field camera that converts a panoramic image or a perspective image has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). Alternatively, a system that performs the image conversion using dedicated hardware instead of software has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 3).

  However, at the time of these image conversions / recordings, images outside the monitoring area of interest are usually discarded because they have no recording means and are not left as monitoring results. For example, when unattended and automatic monitoring is performed, the movement outside the region of interest is not actually monitored, and since it does not remain as information, it cannot be reproduced as an image even if a situation to be referred to later occurs.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the wide-angle image photographed by the photographing device 110 is converted into a projection image (normal image) by the image conversion device 112 and recorded in the recording device 114 as a video signal. When the wide-angle image is converted into the projection image, only the monitoring area of interest in the entire image is selected, and the rest are not used (discarded). The recorded projection image is displayed as a projection image visible on the display device 116. Naturally, the only image that can be reproduced later is a projection image (normal image) recorded by the recording device 114.

  That is, the wide-angle captured image 102 obtained by capturing the original image 100 in FIG. 4 is difficult to discriminate as it is, so a part is selected and converted into an image without distortion, and monitoring is performed while cutting out as the recorded image 104. Then, only the recorded image 104 (= monitored image) which is the watched monitoring area is reproduced, and since the outside of the area is not recorded in the first place, it cannot be confirmed later.

Further, if an omnidirectional image including an image other than the target monitoring area is recorded as it is, the amount of recording data becomes enormous.
JP 2000-83242 A JP 2001-331789 A JP 2001-333303 A

  In view of the above facts, an object of the present invention is to provide a surveillance camera device that reduces the amount of recorded data while leaving an image of all directions as a record.

  The surveillance camera apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an imaging unit using a wide-angle lens or a convex mirror capable of capturing an omnidirectional image, and compresses the omnidirectional image captured by the imaging unit as a still image continuous in time series. An omnidirectional monitoring camera apparatus comprising: a recording unit that records data; and an image conversion unit that converts the omnidirectional image into a normal angle-of-view image by a non-linear resolution conversion process. An omnidirectional image photographed by the photographing means is sometimes inputted, and an omnidirectional image developed from compressed data recorded in the recording means is inputted at the time of reproduction.

  In the invention with the above configuration, the omnidirectional image obtained by the imaging means is recorded as compressed still data as a continuous still image, and the amount of recorded data is reduced, and the omnidirectional image is converted into a normal image during shooting and playback. The image can be confirmed.

  The surveillance camera device according to claim 2, wherein an imaging unit using a wide-angle lens or a convex mirror capable of capturing an omnidirectional image and the omnidirectional image captured by the imaging unit are compressed as a still image continuous in time series. A recording means for recording data; a moving object detecting means for detecting a moving object in the omnidirectional image; and an image converting means for converting the omnidirectional image into an image having a normal angle of view by nonlinear resolution conversion processing. The omnidirectional monitoring camera apparatus is characterized in that when a moving object is detected by the moving object detection means, the omnidirectional image is recorded in the recording means without being compressed.

  In the invention of the above configuration, the omnidirectional image obtained by the imaging unit is recorded as compressed still data as a continuous still image to reduce the amount of recorded data, and when a moving object is detected by the moving object detecting unit, the omnidirectional image is recorded. By recording the image on the recording means without compressing it, the image at the time of moving object detection can be left as particularly high-quality data.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a surveillance camera device that suppresses the amount of recording data while leaving an omnidirectional image as a record.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a surveillance camera device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the monitoring camera device 10 includes a wide-angle lens (or fisheye lens) or a convex mirror and has a photographing device 12 having a horizontal 360 ° / vertical 180 ° angle of view, and wide-angle image data sent from the photographing device 12. A recording device 14 that records as compressed still image data such as JPEG, an image conversion device 16 that converts the compressed still image data or uncompressed wide-angle image data into an image having a normal angle of view that can be viewed, and an image conversion device 16 The display device 18 displays an image converted into an angle of view.

  The procedure of image recording / reproduction in the present embodiment is as follows.

  As shown in FIG. 2 (a), first, an imaging device 12 fixed to the ceiling or wall surface is used to display an omnidirectional image (for example, 360 ° in the horizontal direction and 180 ° in the vertical direction), that is, an image in all directions including the original image 20. A wide-angle image 22 is captured.

  Wide-angle images (image data) captured by the imaging device 12 are subjected to processing such as JPEG compression as a collection of time-series continuous still images, and are recorded by the recording device 14. The recorded image is the wide-angle captured image 22 captured by the imaging device 12 as it is, and since the entire range included in the imaging area is recorded up to the periphery, the data is discarded when the recorded image is reproduced. Therefore, it will not be impossible to reproduce.

  During normal monitoring, the wide-angle photographed image 22 sent from the photographing device 12 is recorded by the recording device 14, and at the same time, a part of the wide-angle photographed image 22 is designated by the image conversion device 16 as shown in FIG. Then, it is converted into a replayed image 24 having a normal angle of view that can be viewed. The reproduced image 24 that has been converted into a normal image is displayed on the display device 18. For example, the presence or absence of an intruder or the occurrence of an abnormality is monitored by a monitoring person. it can.

  The image to be converted at this time is a part of the original wide-angle photographed image 22, but since the recording device 14 records all of the wide-angle photographed image 22, when the image is reproduced later, the monitoring watched at the time of recording is performed. Even an image of a portion other than the region can be reproduced, and there is no portion where the data is discarded and cannot be reproduced.

  In the conventional surveillance camera device, as shown in FIG. 3, what is recorded by the recording device 114 is a projection image (normal image, recorded image 104) converted by the image conversion device 112, and of course a wide-angle captured image. Since it is a part of 102, the reproducible image is also only a part of the wide-angle photographed image 102, and it is not possible to see an image of a part other than the monitoring area observed at the time of recording. Alternatively, if the entire wide-angle photographed image 102 is to be recorded, a plurality of photographing devices 112 / recording devices 114 are used, and the amount of recording data becomes enormous, and it is necessary to synchronize each image recording. There are also problems such as

  In this embodiment, the recording device 14 stores the original image in the compressed data format of a high-resolution image of about 2 million pixels as it is, with the number of pixels of the original image as it is. This is about nine times the number of pixels of VGA (350,000 pixels), so there is no area to be deleted compared to the conventional video signal conversion and recording method, and the video signal resolution is limited. There is no loss of detailed information. For this reason, the image quality of the reproduced image 24 can be greatly improved.

  Further, in this embodiment, the monitoring area to be watched at the time of image capturing / recording is not determined, and the image capturing device 12 is also fixed, so that it is not necessary to adjust the image capturing angle of view, magnification, etc. For this reason, the installation and monitoring operation of the monitoring camera device 10 can be performed in general.

  Further, the recording device 14 records the wide-angle shot image 22 as a series of compressed still images, but it may be recorded as a moving image instead of a still image.

  When the wide-angle captured image 22 recorded by the recording device 14 is confirmed later, the display area (for the wide-angle captured image 22 recorded as a compressed still image as shown in FIG. The display range) is arbitrarily set, and the image is converted into a reproduced image 24 having a normal angle of view that can be viewed with the image conversion device 16. At this time, since the entire wide-angle captured image 22 is recorded, the display area and display magnification can be arbitrarily set.

  By the way, in the above embodiment, when the wide-angle shot image 22 is recorded, it is always recorded as a compressed still image or moving image. However, it may be desirable to record the original image without compression. For example, when monitoring an unattended monitoring range where no moving object normally exists, it is important if the wide-angle captured image 22 is recorded at high resolution without being compressed only when a moving object such as an intruder is detected in the monitoring range. Only high quality images can be confirmed, and an increase in the total amount of recorded information can be minimized.

  That is, when a moving object detection device (not shown) detects an action object in the wide-angle captured image 22 while the recording device 14 records the wide-angle captured image 22 in FIG. 1, the wide-angle captured image 22 recorded by the recording device 14 is compressed. If the mode is changed to a mode for recording with high resolution, the wide-angle captured image 22 is recorded as a high-quality uncompressed image only while the moving object is present. Information can be obtained.

  However, if the wide-angle captured image 22 is stored without being compressed, the recording capacity required for storage by the recording device 14 becomes large, so that the moving object detection device does not detect the moving object, that is, the moving object exists in the screen. If the surveillance camera device 10 is set to return to the mode in which the wide-angle captured image 22 is compressed again and recorded by the recording device 14 when it disappears, the uncompressed wide-angle captured image 22 is recorded by the recording device 14. The increase in necessary recording capacity can be minimized.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the monitoring camera device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating image conversion of the monitoring camera device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional surveillance camera device. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing image conversion of a conventional surveillance camera device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Surveillance camera apparatus 12 Imaging device 14 Recording apparatus 16 Image conversion apparatus 18 Display apparatus

Claims (2)

An imaging means using a wide-angle lens or a convex mirror capable of capturing an omnidirectional image;
Recording means for recording omnidirectional images taken by the imaging means as compressed still data as time-sequential still images;
Image conversion means for converting the omnidirectional image into a normal angle-of-view image by nonlinear resolution conversion processing;
An omnidirectional monitoring camera device comprising:
The image converting means is inputted with an omnidirectional image taken by the photographing means at the time of photographing,
An omnidirectional monitoring camera device, wherein an omnidirectional image developed from compressed data recorded in the recording means is input during reproduction.
An imaging means using a wide-angle lens or a convex mirror capable of capturing an omnidirectional image;
Recording means for recording omnidirectional images taken by the imaging means as compressed still data as time-sequential still images;
Moving object detection means for detecting an action object in the omnidirectional image;
Image conversion means for converting the omnidirectional image into a normal angle-of-view image by nonlinear resolution conversion processing;
An omnidirectional monitoring camera device comprising:
An omnidirectional monitoring camera device characterized in that when a moving object is detected by the moving object detection means, the omnidirectional image is recorded in the recording means without being compressed.

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