JP2008211660A - Video entryphone system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an entryphone system for displaying image which can confirm a visitor in a selection screen displayed first. <P>SOLUTION: The video entryphone system includes: a facial identification circuit 24 for identifying video image imaging a person's face in a camera taken image; and a master unit CPU 25 for attaching the index containing facial detection score to the part where the facial detection score of the facial identification circuit 24 exceeds a predetermined value in the taken image, for recording and controlling the taken image in a memory 20, and for executing control to select the image of the part whose facial detection score is the highest in the index attachment part when the recorded image is reproduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a television intercom system capable of making a call while watching a video of a visitor.

A television intercom system is widely used in which a camera is installed in an intercom handset to capture a visitor and a resident can check the video. Such a television intercom system is provided with a recording function for confirming a visitor who has visited when he / she is away (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In such a conventional TV intercom system, when confirming a recorded visitor video, first, as shown in the display explanatory diagram of the monitor screen in FIG. 4, the top images of a plurality of recorded videos are displayed as thumbnails on the monitor and then played back. The entire video was being played in response to the operation.
JP 2002-33838 A

As described above, since the selection screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed first, the list image is displayed first when there are a plurality of visitors, so that it is easy to grasp the entire stored video. However, since the displayed image is the first image that has been picked up, it may be displayed with the visitor cut off as shown in the lower left image of FIG. 4 or may not be displayed at all as shown in the lower right. When the visitor is not shown in the top image, it is necessary to reproduce the video after that and wait for the visitor to appear in the imaging range.
Therefore, in view of such a problem, an object of the present invention is to provide an intercom system that displays an image that allows a visitor to be confirmed on an initial selection screen.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention described in claim 1 is directed to an intercom handset provided with a function for calling a resident and making a call and a camera for imaging a visitor, a function for responding to a call, and an image captured by the camera. A television intercom system having an interphone master unit equipped with a monitor for displaying images, wherein the interphone master unit has a recording memory for recording a captured image of a camera, and a human face is captured in the captured image Face identification means for identifying video, recording control means for recording an image captured by a camera with an index attached to the part where the face is imaged, and video playback for first displaying the index attached part of the recorded video on a monitor And a control means.
According to this configuration, when the selection screen for playing the recorded video is displayed, the video of the part where the person's face is shown can be displayed first, and the person is captured for each recorded video. The visitor can be easily confirmed without searching for a site.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the face identifying means outputs a face detection score obtained by quantifying the facial feature portion in the captured video, and the recording control means is a face identification of the captured video. The site is recorded with an index including a face detection score attached thereto.
According to this configuration, it is possible to select an image that can most easily identify a face among recorded images based on the face detection score attached to the index, and thus it is easy to identify a visitor.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the video reproduction control means selects the video of the part with the highest face detection score from the index attachment part of the recorded video and causes the video to appear first. It is characterized by.
According to this configuration, since the image that can identify the most visitor is displayed in one captured image, that is, the image that captured the same visitor, the visit is made only on the first screen displayed. Can be easily confirmed, and it is not necessary to reproduce and confirm the whole, so that it is not time-consuming to confirm the visitor when returning home.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the video reproduction control means displays each index attachment site as a thumbnail when a plurality of recorded videos are stored. And
According to this configuration, when there are a plurality of visitors, the face images of the plurality of visitors are simultaneously displayed, so that it is possible to confirm each visitor in a short time.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, when a plurality of recorded videos are stored, the video playback control means sequentially sets the index attachment sites of each video for a predetermined time. It is characterized by playing.
According to this configuration, when there are a plurality of visitors, the face images of the visitors are sequentially displayed, so that individual visitors can be confirmed in a short time.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth or fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided video selection means for selecting a desired video from a plurality of recorded videos output on the monitor, and the video reproduction control means The video selected by the means is reproduced on the monitor from the start of recording.
According to this configuration, since the selected video is reproduced from the imaging start video, it is effective for grasping the situation around the visitor and when there are a plurality of visitors.

  According to the present invention, when a selection screen for playing a recorded video is displayed, a video of a part where a person's face is shown is displayed first, so that a person is shown for each recorded video. It is not necessary to search for a part and the confirmation work is easy. Furthermore, this selection screen can display an image that can easily identify the visitor in one imaged image, that is, an image obtained by imaging the same visitor. There is no need to confirm, and there is no need to take time to confirm the visitor when returning home.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a TV intercom system according to the present invention. Reference numerals 1 (1a, 1b) denote interphone slave units (hereinafter simply referred to as slave units) that are installed outdoors such as entrances to call residents. 2) An interphone master unit (hereinafter simply referred to as a master unit) installed in a dwelling unit for answering calls, and 3 is a sensor camera that automatically detects an image of a person approaching. Two slave units 1 are installed and connected to the master unit 2 via transmission lines L1 and L2, respectively. The sensor camera 3 is connected to the parent device 2 by a transmission line L3.

  The subunit | mobile_unit 1 is equipped with the call button 5, the microphone 6 and speaker 7 for talking with the main | base station 2, and the camera 8 for imaging a visitor, and the sensor camera 3 is the camera 9, the human sensor. 10 is provided.

  The base unit 2 has a circuit configuration as shown in FIG. That is, a communication circuit to which a first interface (first IF) 12 for connecting the handset 1, a second interface (second IF) 13 for connecting the sensor camera 3, a microphone 14 for talking with a visitor, and a speaker 15 are connected. 16, a monitor 17 that displays images captured by the camera 8 of the slave unit 1 and the camera 9 of the sensor camera 3, a video processing circuit 18 that demodulates the modulated and transmitted video signal, and a call button of the slave unit 1 5, a call detection circuit 19 for detecting an operation 5, a memory 20 for storing captured images and various settings, a call button 22 for responding to a call from the handset 1, an operation unit 23 including a plurality of operation buttons, A face identification circuit 24 for identifying a person's face in the video, a CPU (hereinafter referred to as a parent machine CPU) 25 for controlling the parent machine 2, and the like are provided.

Next, the operation of the television intercom system configured as described above will be described. However, the operation that the resident responds when the call button 5 of the handset 1 is operated by the visitor is the same as that of the prior art and is not a main part of the present invention, so the explanation is omitted and the call operation of the visitor is received. Next, the operation when the camera 8 is activated and the absence setting for automatic recording will be described.
The absence setting is set by operating an absence setting button (not shown) in the operation unit, and the absence setting control is performed under the control of the master CPU 25. When a visitor operates the call button 5 during the absence setting, the camera 8 of the slave unit 1 is activated to start imaging, and the captured image is modulated and transmitted to the master unit 2. The base unit 2 that has received the video signal is converted into a digital signal by the video processing circuit 18 under the control of the base unit CPU 25, and the face is identified by the face identification circuit 24. In parallel, it is recorded in the memory 20.

  The face identification circuit 24 includes a known face detection circuit that digitizes the facial feature portion in the captured video, and the digitized face detection score is output to the parent CPU 25. The master CPU 25 attaches an index including a score value to a video part having a face detection score equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and causes the memory 20 to record the video. This index attachment to the recorded video is performed every time recording is performed, and recording is performed for each visitor (every time the call button of the slave unit is pressed). In this way, an index is attached to the visitor imaging part of all the recorded videos.

  Further, when the sensor camera 3 senses a suspicious person or the like and starts imaging, the same recording is performed. That is, upon receiving the sensing signal from the sensor camera 3, the master unit 2 converts the transmitted video signal into a digital signal by the video processing circuit 18 under the control of the master CPU 25, and causes the face identification circuit 24 to identify the face. Then, an index is attached to the face identification unit and recorded in the memory 20.

The video recorded in this way can be displayed on the monitor 17 and viewed by a playback operation when a resident who has gone out returns home. First, a selection screen is displayed on the monitor 17 by a predetermined operation of the operation unit 23. This selection screen is displayed on the monitor 17 in a thumbnail display as shown in FIG. Here, a case where there are four visitors who are absent is shown, and a state where four visitor images are simultaneously displayed.
Note that this screen only displays one image if there is one visitor, and if there are more than five visitors, the screen will be displayed after four images are displayed at the same time and after a predetermined time has elapsed. It is displayed by switching to the visitor image. In FIG. 3, the date and time displayed in each image indicates the date and time at the time of recording, and is attached to the video at the time of recording under the control of the master CPU 25.

  And the image displayed here recognizes the face most in the image of the part with the highest face detection score among the images of the index attachment part under the control of the master CPU 25, that is, the series of captured images for each visitor. An image that is easy for someone to judge is selected and displayed. For this reason, each image is an image in which a visitor can be most easily identified in the captured video. The resident looks at this image, and if there is an image that he / she wants to see from the start of imaging, the video selection operation is performed by a predetermined operation of the operation unit 23, and if the playback button is pressed, the thumbnail display ends and the selected image is displayed. The video is displayed from the beginning.

In this way, since the video of the part showing the person's face is displayed in the state of the selection screen, it is not necessary to search for the part where the person is shown for each recorded video, and the confirmation work can be easily performed. . The image at this time is the first image to be displayed because the image that makes it easy to identify the visitor is displayed in one captured image, that is, the image that captures the same visitor. Visitors can be easily confirmed with only the video on the screen, and there is no need to reproduce and confirm the whole, so there is no need to take time to confirm the visitor when returning home.
In addition, when there are a plurality of visitors, since the face images of the plurality of visitors are displayed simultaneously by the thumbnail display, it is possible to confirm individual visitors at the same time.
Furthermore, if one of the images on the selection screen is selected, the selected video is reproduced from the beginning, so that it is possible to check the situation around the visitor and the case where there are a plurality of visitors.

In the above-described embodiment, four images are displayed as thumbnails as a selection screen. However, each of the images may be a moving image instead of a still image. For example, videos of a specific time (for example, 4 seconds) before and after the part with the highest face detection score may be displayed as thumbnails. Further, although the camera-captured video is recorded, this recording may record a plurality of continuous images instead of moving images, and the recording and the reproduction thereof include both moving images and still images.
Moreover, the display of the selection screen may not be a thumbnail display, but a so-called index display may be performed in the order of visitors. In this case as well, since the face images of a plurality of visitors are sequentially displayed by sequentially displaying the part with the highest face detection score among the index attached parts described above for each predetermined time, similarly to the thumbnail display. Individual visitors can be confirmed in a short time.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of the television intercom system which concerns on this invention. FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the intercom base unit of FIG. 1. It is explanatory drawing of the selection screen displayed on the monitor. It is explanatory drawing of the selection screen displayed on the conventional monitor.

Explanation of symbols

  1 .. Interphone slave unit, 2 .... Interphone master unit, 8 .... Camera, 17 .... Monitor, 18 .... Video processing circuit, 20 .... Memory (recording memory), 23 ... Operation unit, 24 ... Face Identification circuit (face identification means), 25 .. Master CPU (recording control means, video reproduction control means).

Claims (6)

A television interphone having a function for calling a resident and making a call and an interphone handset provided with a camera for imaging a visitor, and a function for responding to the call and an interphone base unit provided with a monitor for displaying an image captured by the camera A system,
The intercom base unit is a recording memory for recording a captured image of the camera;
A face identifying means for identifying an image in which a human face is imaged in the captured image;
Recording control means for recording an image captured by the camera with an index attached to a part where a face is imaged,
A video intercom system comprising video reproduction control means for causing the monitor to output the index attachment portion of the recorded video first. The face identification means outputs a face detection score obtained by quantifying the facial feature portion in the captured image, and the recording control means records the face identification portion of the captured image with an index including the face detection score attached. The television intercom system according to claim 1. 3. The television intercom system according to claim 2, wherein the video reproduction control means selects a video of a part having the highest face detection score from an index attaching part of a recorded video and outputs the video first. The television intercom system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when a plurality of recorded videos are stored, the video reproduction control means displays each index attachment site as a thumbnail. The television interphone according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when a plurality of recorded videos are stored, the video reproduction control means sequentially reproduces the index attachment portion of each video for a predetermined time. system. Video selection means for selecting a desired video from a plurality of recorded videos displayed on the monitor, and the video reproduction control means reproduces the video selected by the video selection means on the monitor from the start of recording. 6. The television intercom system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein

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