JP2009296135A - Video monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems that, while a screen is divided and reduced video images are displayed in respective divided screen areas in order to simultaneously display a plurality of video images of a monitoring camera, it is needed to decode the video images in order to display the video images in the respective divided screen areas, the higher capacity of a decoder is required as the division number of the screen becomes larger, and the smoothness of the video images is impaired since they are displayed by thinning some of consecutive video images when the capacity of the decoder is insufficient. <P>SOLUTION: When a monitoring recorder encodes and records the plurality of video images imaged by the monitoring camera and transmits them to a monitoring video display terminal for display, the plurality of video images are decoded, sizes of the video images are reduced to the specification of the monitoring video display terminal, and the video images are connected to each other and encoded again. The monitoring video display terminal decodes the encoded video images from the monitoring recorder, segments the plurality of video images before being connected in the monitoring recorder from the decoded video images, and outputs signals capable of displaying the segmented video image at an optional position on the screen. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a video monitoring system that performs monitoring by displaying a video image of a building or a premises on a display device, for example.

  A surveillance recorder, which is a component of a video surveillance system, generally includes a recording medium such as a hard disk drive, digitizes the surveillance video, and uses methods such as Motion JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) and MPEG2 (Moving Picture Expert Group 2). Recording is performed after video compression / encoding. In addition, the surveillance camera captures video and outputs it using a signal system such as NTSC (National Television System Committee), or digitizes the video and transmits it after compressing and encoding the video using a system such as Motion JPEG or MPEG2. Some do.

  On the other hand, in a device that displays the video recorded in these surveillance recorders and the video of the surveillance camera that outputs the encoded video, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-8-22586, 1 In addition to displaying the surveillance camera video of a single camera, there are some that can divide the screen to simultaneously display a plurality of videos and display a reduced video in each of the divided screen areas.

JP-A-8-22586

In such a display device, it is necessary to decode the video in order to display the video on each divided screen area. However, the higher the number of divided screens, the higher the capability of the decoder is required. was there.
In addition, when the capacity of the decoder is insufficient, since some of the continuous images are thinned and displayed, there is a problem that the smoothness of the images is impaired.

The video surveillance system according to the present invention includes:
A surveillance camera that captures surveillance video;
A surveillance recorder that encodes and records a plurality of images captured by the surveillance camera;
A video surveillance system comprising a surveillance recorder and a surveillance video display terminal that exchanges signals with each other,
When transmitting a plurality of recorded videos to the surveillance video display terminal, the surveillance recorder decodes the plurality of encoded videos and reduces the resolution of the video to a size specified by the surveillance video display terminal. , Combine multiple reduced videos, re-encode and send the combined video,
The monitoring video display terminal can decode the encoded video from the monitoring recorder, cut out a plurality of videos before being combined in the monitoring recorder from the decoded video, and display the cut out video at an arbitrary position on the screen Output a signal.

According to the video surveillance system according to the present invention, the surveillance recorder that records the video of the surveillance camera encodes and records the video of the surveillance camera, and when transmitting to the surveillance video display terminal, decodes the encoded video, The video resolution is reduced to the size specified by the monitoring video display terminal, the reduced videos are combined, re-encoded and transmitted, and the monitoring video display terminal decodes the encoded video from the monitoring recorder. Since a plurality of videos before being combined by the surveillance recorder are cut out from the decoded video and a signal capable of displaying the video at an arbitrary position on the screen is output, more videos than the capability of the surveillance video display terminal are provided. It is possible to reduce the amount of data to be displayed at the same time or to communicate between the monitoring recorder and the monitoring video display terminal.
Further, in the monitoring video display terminal, since the received combined video is separated by the separating unit and then displayed at an arbitrary position in the combining unit, the position for displaying the video on the divided screen is not restricted. .

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.
1a to 1p are surveillance cameras that capture surveillance images;
Reference numerals 2a to 2d denote surveillance recorders that record video from the surveillance camera.
In the monitoring recorder 2a,
20 is a video receiver that receives a video signal from the surveillance camera and converts it into a digital video;
21 is an encoding unit for encoding the video from the video receiving unit 20,
22 is a recording medium for recording the encoded video;
23 is a decoding unit for decoding the recorded encoded video,
24 is a reduction unit for reducing the image,
25 is a connecting part for combining images,
A communication unit 26 communicates encoded video and the like with the outside.
Although the internal configuration of the monitoring recorders 2b to 2d is not shown, it is assumed to be the same as that of the monitoring recorder 2a.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a communication network for communicating data, which may be a LAN (Local Area Network) or a wide area network, and a protocol used for communication on the communication network 3 is TCP (Transmission Control). Protocol) / IP (Internet Protocol) or other protocols. The communication network 3 includes a large number of devices, cables, and the like, which are not shown.
4 is a monitoring video display terminal for displaying a monitoring video. In the monitoring video display terminal 4,
41 is a communication unit that communicates encoded video and the like with the outside,
42 is a decoding unit for decoding the encoded video,
43 is a separation unit that cuts out a desired area from the video,
44 is a coupling unit for coupling an image to a desired display position;
A display unit 45 outputs video.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a display device that receives the video output from the display unit 45 and displays the video.
Note that the monitoring recorder 2 and the monitoring video display terminal 4 have a control unit (not shown) and control each unit other than the control unit. Therefore, even if it is described in the description of the operation that the respective units of the monitoring recorder 2 and the monitoring video display terminal 4 operate independently, it is assumed that they actually operate under the control of the control unit.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the surveillance camera video is processed in the first embodiment.
101a to 101d are camera images taken by the monitoring cameras 1a to 1d,
102a to 102d are reduced images obtained by reducing the camera images 101a to 101d by the reduction unit 24;
103 is a combined image obtained by combining the reduced images 102a to 102d by the combining unit 25;
Reference numeral 104 denotes a playback video creation video in the middle of separation of the combined video 103 by the separation unit 43 and combination by the combining unit 44.

Next, the operation will be described.
The video receiving unit 20 receives video from the monitoring cameras 1 a to 1 d, that is, camera video 101 a to 101 d, and transmits the video to the encoding unit 21. Here, any method may be used for transmitting and receiving video between the monitoring cameras 1 a to 1 d and the video receiving unit 20.
The encoding unit 21 encodes the received video and records it on the recording medium 22. Here, the encoding method encoded by the encoding unit 21 is also Motion JPEG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, Other encoding methods may be used.

  When receiving a request from the monitoring video display terminal 4 via the communication network 3 via the communication unit 26 so as to transmit the video thus recorded, the decoding unit 23 reads the desired video from the recording medium 22, The read video is decoded and transmitted to the reduction unit 24. The decoded video is the same as the camera videos 101a to 101d. The reduction unit 24 reduces the received camera images 101 a to 101 d to a desired size, creates reduced images 102 a to 102 d, and transmits them to the combining unit 25. The combining unit 25 combines the received reduced images 102 a to 102 d to generate one image, that is, a combined image 103, and transmits it to the encoding unit 21. The encoding unit 21 encodes the received combined video 103 and transmits it to the communication unit 26. In the communication unit 26, the encoded video is transmitted to the monitoring video display terminal 4 via the communication network 3.

  In the monitoring video display terminal 4, the communication unit 41 receives the encoded video received from the monitoring recorder 2 via the communication network 3. The communication unit 41 transmits the encoded received video to the decoding unit 42, and the decoding unit 42 decodes the encoded video to obtain the combined video 103. The combined video 103 obtained in this way is transmitted to the separation unit 43, and the separation unit 43 divides the video to obtain reduced videos 102 a to 102 d and transmits them to the combination unit 44 of the monitoring video display terminal 4. The combining unit 44 generates a playback video creating video 104 (see FIG. 5) at a desired position of the received reduced video 102a to 102d. Further, the above operation is repeated for the monitoring recorders 2 b to 2 d to create a final display video and pass it to the display unit 45. In the display unit 45, the video is converted into an electric signal and transmitted to the display device 5. The display device 5 displays the received video.

  The effect of such a configuration will be described with an example. For example, each of the monitoring recorders 2a to 2d has a VGA (Video Graphics Array) size, that is, the ability to encode 120 images per second and 640 pixels horizontally and 480 pixels vertically, and the ability to decode 120 images per second. It is assumed that the video display terminal 4 has a capability of decoding 120 VGA size videos per second, and each of the monitoring cameras 1a to 1p has a capability of outputting 30 VGA size videos per second. In addition, the surveillance recorders 2a to 2d have 30 images output by the four cameras out of the surveillance cameras 1a to 1p connected thereto, that is, the surveillance recorders 2a to 2d have one image per second. Assume that 120 images are recorded for a desired time.

The display device 5 has a display capability and a screen of 1280 pixels in width and 960 pixels in length, and the screen is divided into 4 parts by 4 parts, 4 parts in total, and a total of 16 parts, each of which is a QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) size, that is, 320 pixels in width It is assumed that the vertical 240 pixels can be displayed.
When all the recorded videos, that is, the recorded videos of the surveillance cameras 1a to 1p are reproduced on the surveillance video display terminal 4, the surveillance recorders 2a to 2d decode 120 videos per second for the four cameras recorded respectively. Then, the image is reduced to the QVGA size, and the reduced images are combined into two vertically and two horizontally to create one VGA image from the four QVGA images. Since the combined VGA video is generated at 30 frames per second for each of the monitoring recorders 2a to 2d, the total is 120 frames per second for the four monitoring recorders 2a to 2d, and all videos are decoded at the monitoring video display terminal 4. It is possible.

  On the other hand, regardless of the first embodiment, when the video recorded by the surveillance recorders 2a to 2d is transmitted to the surveillance video display terminal 4 without being converted, the surveillance video display terminal 4 has a total of 480 frames per second. Receiving VGA video, but only capable of decoding 120 VGA videos per second, so only one out of four received videos can be decoded, and only 7.5 videos per second for each video Since it cannot be reproduced, the smoothness of the reproduced image is impaired. Alternatively, even when the monitoring video display terminal 4 has a decoding capability of 480 VGA videos per second, the amount of data communicated by the communication network 3 is four times that of the video monitoring system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In the above example, a case has been described in which VGA size monitoring video from four cameras is reduced to QVGA and combined, but any number of cameras can be combined with the video size. For example, the monitoring video of 1280 pixels in width and 960 pixels in height from four cameras may be reduced and combined into VGA, or the monitoring image of 1280 pixels in width and 960 pixels in height from 16 cameras may be combined into QVGA. The combinations may be reduced and combined, or other combinations may be used, and this combination selects an optimal combination according to the resolution of each monitoring camera, the screen resolution of the monitoring video display device 4, and the number of screen divisions.

Since the video monitoring system is configured as described above, it is possible to simultaneously display more videos than the display device 5 has. Alternatively, the amount of data communicated between the monitoring recorders 2a to 2d and the monitoring video display terminal 4 can be reduced.
Further, since the monitoring video display terminal 4 is configured so that the received combined video can be separated by the separating unit 43 and then displayed at an arbitrary position by the combining unit 44, the position where the video is displayed on the divided screen is restricted. There is nothing.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.
2e is a surveillance recorder having a function of displaying video,
23e is a decoding unit for decoding the encoded video,
25e is a coupling unit for coupling an image to a desired display position;
26e is a communication unit that communicates encoded video and the like with the outside,
27e is a separation unit that cuts out a desired area from the video,
Reference numeral 28e denotes a display unit for outputting video.
Other parts are the same as those in FIG.

Next, the operation will be described.
The decoding unit 23e is a decoding unit 42 of the monitoring video display terminal 4 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the combining unit 25e is a combining unit 44 of the monitoring video display terminal 4 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 26e is the communication unit 41 of the surveillance video display terminal 4 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the separation unit 27e is the separation unit 43 of the surveillance video display terminal 4 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the display unit 28e is It plays the same role as the display unit 45 in the first embodiment shown in FIG.
Therefore, the surveillance recorder 2e plays the same role as the surveillance video display device 4 in the first embodiment shown in FIG.
The monitoring recorders 2a to 2d may have the same configuration as the monitoring recorder 2e.
Moreover, in Embodiment 2 in FIG. 2, although the monitoring camera 2e is not connected to the monitoring recorder 2e, it may be connected.

  Since the video monitoring system is configured as described above, the same effects as in the first embodiment can be obtained even when video is played back by the monitoring recorder 2e. In general, the surveillance recorder often has not only a function of recording video, but also a function of reproducing video, as in the case of the surveillance recorder 2e, and mainly because of the capability of the encoder and decoder mounted due to cost constraints. Although there is a certain limit, according to the second embodiment, the video surveillance system that combines the general surveillance recorder as described above reproduces the surveillance video with higher performance provided by a single surveillance recorder. It becomes possible.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is the same as that of the second embodiment shown in FIG. The difference is that the video received by the receiving unit 20 is configured to be directly transmitted to the reduction unit 24.
Both the video recorded on the recording medium 22 and the video output from the monitoring cameras 1a to 1d via the video receiving unit 20 are input to the reduction unit 24, and the video is reduced equally.
Similarly, in the combining unit 25, the reduced video created from the video recorded on the recording medium 22 through the processing of the decoding unit 23 and the reduction unit 24, and the monitoring cameras 1 a to 1 d via the video reception unit 20. Both of the reduced images created by the processing of the reduction unit 24 from the output video are input, and these images are combined equally.

  Since the video surveillance system is configured as described above, not only the video recorded on the surveillance recorder is reproduced, but also the live video from the surveillance camera and the video recorded on the surveillance recorder are mixed and reproduced. However, the same effects as those of the first and second embodiments can be obtained.

  The above description is based on the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2, but the same operation and effect can be obtained as the description based on the first embodiment shown in FIG.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 4, 1 q is a surveillance camera that can directly output an encoded video, and has a function of performing communication via the communication network 3. Other parts are the same as those of the third embodiment shown in FIG.

Next, the operation will be described. The surveillance camera 1q encodes the captured video and transmits it to the surveillance recorder 2a via the communication network 3. The monitoring recorder 2a receives the encoded video transmitted from the monitoring camera 1q in the communication unit 26. The communication unit 26 transmits the received encoded video to the decoding unit 23. The reduced video that has been decoded and reduced through the decoding unit 23 and the reduction unit 24 is decoded and reduced by the combination unit 25 from the encoded video read from the recording medium 22 through the decoding unit 23 and the reduction unit 24. The reduced video and the reduced video generated through the reduction unit 24 from the live video transmitted from the monitoring cameras 1a to 1c are combined.
Subsequent operations are the same as those in the third embodiment.

Note that the encoded video from the monitoring camera 1q received by the communication unit 26 may or may not be recorded directly on the recording medium 22.
Further, in the present embodiment, the monitoring cameras 1a to 1c and 1e to 1p that output unencoded video are described as being connected. However, all of them are monitored in the same manner as the monitoring camera 1q that outputs encoded video. It may be a camera.

  By configuring the video surveillance system as described above, the same effects as in the first to third embodiments can be obtained even when some of the surveillance cameras directly output encoded video. In particular, when the video of the surveillance camera that directly outputs the encoded video is recorded in the surveillance recorder, it is possible to record without going through the encoder of the surveillance recorder, so that the capacity of the decoder is relatively insufficient during reproduction. However, according to the fourth embodiment, the live video transmitted from the surveillance cameras 1a to 1c is reduced by the reduction unit 24 and transmitted to the combining unit 25 without passing through the decoding unit 23. Can be avoided.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
The configuration of the video monitoring system according to the fifth embodiment is the same as that of FIG. 4, but the operation is different from that of the fourth embodiment and will be described below.
In the fifth embodiment, the monitoring camera 1q can broadcast to a plurality of devices connected to the communication network 3 when transmitting the encoded video. The method of performing broadcast transmission may be a method such as multicast in a TCP / IP network, or may be repeated individually for all target devices to be transmitted, or another method. May be.
For example, it is assumed that the encoded video output from the monitoring camera 1q is transmitted to the monitoring recorder 2b and recorded, and simultaneously transmitted to the monitoring recorder 2a. The surveillance recorder 2a records videos of the surveillance cameras 1a to 1c, the surveillance recorder 2b records videos of the surveillance cameras 1e to 1h and the surveillance camera 1q, and the surveillance recorder 2c records videos of the surveillance cameras 1i to 1l. Suppose that the surveillance recorder 2d is recording the images of the surveillance cameras 1m to 1p.

Here, when 16 live videos of the monitoring cameras 1a to 1c and 1e to 1q are displayed on the monitoring recorder 2e, the monitoring camera 1q has 3 monitoring cameras instead of the monitoring recorder 2b that records the video. The monitoring recorder 2a connected to the base is received, decoded and reduced, and combined with the reduced video of the monitoring cameras 1a to 1c and transmitted to the monitoring recorder 2e.
That is, in the surveillance recorder 2b, five images of the surveillance cameras 1e to 1h and the surveillance camera 1q are recorded, but the surveillance unit connected to other surveillance recorders constituting this system is connected to the control unit of each surveillance recorder. Since the number of cameras is stored, the control unit of the monitoring recorder 2b has been found to have three monitoring cameras 1a to 1c connected to the monitoring recorder 2a. The recorder 2b does not decode, reduce, and combine the video of the monitoring camera 1q and transmit it to the monitoring recorder 2e, but receives the video of the monitoring camera 1q in another recorder 2a, decodes, reduces, combines, encodes and transmits the video. By doing so, it is only necessary to combine four surveillance camera images in each of the surveillance recorders 2a to 2d.

  On the other hand, in the video monitoring system that does not depend on the fifth embodiment, the monitoring cameras 1e to 1h that record the video by the monitoring recorder 2b and the five videos of the monitoring camera 1q are received, decoded, reduced, and combined. However, when encoding and transmitting, for example, even when the video size is halved in the vertical and horizontal directions, the combined video becomes two and waste occurs.

  By configuring the video surveillance system as described above, even if the number of surveillance cameras that record video differs for each surveillance recorder, an encoder and an encoder can be transmitted by broadcasting the surveillance camera video. It is possible to perform the reproduction using the above-mentioned ability efficiently, and the same effect as in the first to fourth embodiments can be obtained.

Embodiment 6 FIG.
The configuration of the video monitoring system according to the sixth embodiment may be the same as that of any of FIGS. 1 to 4, but there are differences in operation. Hereinafter, a case where the configuration is based on the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described.

The images of the monitoring cameras 1a to 1p are recorded on the monitoring recorders directly connected among the monitoring recorders 2a to 2d, and the images of the monitoring camera 1q are recorded on the monitoring recorder 2b. Is assumed to have been performed for a predetermined time. When the recorded video of all of these 16 surveillance cameras is reproduced simultaneously on the surveillance recorder 2e, only the surveillance camera video for one of them is taken out from the surveillance recorder 2b on which the surveillance camera video for 5 units is recorded, The processing of decoding, reducing, combining and encoding is not performed, and three monitoring cameras 1a to 1c stored in the control unit of the monitoring recorder 2b are connected as in the fifth embodiment, and three cameras are connected. To the surveillance recorder 2a in which the surveillance camera video is recorded.
In the monitoring recorder 2a, the monitoring camera video for one unit received from the monitoring recorder 2b and the monitoring camera video for three units recorded in the monitoring recorder 2a are combined, decoded, reduced, combined and encoded. And transmitted to the monitoring recorder 2e.

  By configuring the video surveillance system as described above, even if the number of surveillance cameras that recorded video differs for each surveillance recorder, the encoder and the decoder can be decoded by transmitting the coded video between the surveillance recorders. It is possible to perform regeneration using the capacity of the vessel efficiently, and the same effects as in the first to fifth embodiments can be obtained.

  The video surveillance system according to the present invention can simultaneously display video from a large number of surveillance cameras, and can be used, for example, in a surveillance system at a store or a bank.

It is a block diagram which shows Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the processing condition of the monitoring camera image | video in this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1a to 1p; surveillance camera, 2a to 2d; surveillance recorder, 20; video receiving unit, 21; encoding unit, 22; recording medium, 23; decoding unit, 24; reduction unit, 25; 4; surveillance video display terminal 41; communication unit 42; decoding unit 43; separation unit 44; coupling unit 45; display unit 5; display device 101a to 101d; camera video 102a to 102d; Video 103: Combined video 104: Playback video being created

Claims (6)

A surveillance camera that captures surveillance video;
A surveillance recorder that encodes and records a plurality of images captured by the surveillance camera;
A video surveillance system comprising a surveillance recorder and a surveillance video display terminal that exchanges signals with each other,
When transmitting a plurality of recorded videos to the surveillance video display terminal, the surveillance recorder decodes the plurality of encoded videos and reduces the resolution of the video to a size specified by the surveillance video display terminal. , Combine multiple reduced videos, re-encode and send the combined video,
The monitoring video display terminal can decode the encoded video from the monitoring recorder, cut out a plurality of videos before being combined in the monitoring recorder from the decoded video, and display the cut out video at an arbitrary position on the screen A video surveillance system characterized by outputting a signal.   2. The video surveillance system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of surveillance recorders are provided, and one of the plurality of surveillance recorders functions as a surveillance video display terminal.   In the surveillance recorder, the video to be reduced, combined, encoded, and transmitted is a video obtained by mixing a video obtained by decoding the encoded video recorded in the surveillance recorder and a live video output from the surveillance camera. The video surveillance system according to claim 1 or 2. Multiple surveillance cameras are provided, and some of the surveillance cameras can output encoded video,
Surveillance recorder outputs video that has been reduced, combined, encoded, transmitted, decoded video recorded on the surveillance recorder, live video output by the surveillance camera, and surveillance camera that can output the encoded video 4. The video surveillance system according to claim 3, wherein the video surveillance system is a video mixed with a video obtained by decoding an encoded live video. There are multiple surveillance recorders,
A surveillance recorder that records video from a surveillance camera capable of broadcasting encoded video;
5. The video surveillance system according to claim 4, wherein a video from a surveillance camera capable of broadcasting the encoded video is decoded, reduced, combined, encoded, and transmitted separately. There are multiple surveillance recorders,
Surveillance recorders other than the surveillance video display terminal or surveillance video display terminal function serve as surveillance video display terminals or surveillance video display terminal functions. When sending the recording video to other surveillance recorders other than the surveillance recorder that performs the function of the surveillance video display terminal,
The other transmitted surveillance recorder decodes, reduces, combines and encodes the transmitted recorded video and its own recorded video, and transmits them to the surveillance video display terminal or the surveillance recorder that functions as the surveillance video display terminal. The video surveillance system according to claim 1, wherein:

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