JP2010124381A - Monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a monitoring system that improves the displayed quality. <P>SOLUTION: The monitoring system for distributing images to a mobile terminal by a server is provided. In the monitoring system, the server includes a resolution selecting means for selecting a plurality of resolutions of the distributed images where original images are processed and scaled so as to be distributed. In a terminal that receives a plurality of resolutions of the images, the images are selected and displayed when switching vertical display and horizontal display according to the resolutions of the displayed images. This enables image display with the optimal resolution for the vertical and horizontal displays, thereby improving the displayed quality. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a monitoring system that distributes an image to a mobile terminal using a server, and more particularly to a monitoring system that displays a clear image even when the resolution is changed on the terminal.

In recent years, surveillance systems using surveillance television cameras (surveillance cameras) have been attracting attention because of increased security (safety) awareness and demands for labor saving of security.
The monitoring system is a system that includes an imaging device such as a monitoring camera for monitoring for various purposes, and a display function of still images and moving images acquired by the imaging device.
In the surveillance system, a television camera is placed at a place to be monitored for crime prevention / disaster prevention such as a hotel, a building, a convenience store, a financial institution, a dam, or a facility visited by an unspecified number of people. Images are taken with an imaging device such as this camera. Then, a supervisor in the management room or the like monitors the video, alerts it according to the purpose or necessity, and records / saves the video.
Such a monitoring system is conventionally also called CCTV (Closed-circuit Television), which is so called because it is a television system that completes distribution and browsing within the system.
However, there is a demand that a supervisor who is outside a room such as a management room wants to view the video captured by the surveillance camera. For example, there may be a case where an imaging device is set in a normal house and the state of an infant or pet is to be checked between work. For this reason, there is a need for a monitoring system that is not “Closed” that can be viewed completely indoors.

For this reason, it is conceivable to use a conventional image distribution method that can be transmitted to a portable terminal for the monitoring system.
At this time, there is a problem in that the display resolution of the mobile terminal, particularly the length and width are different.
Currently, mobile terminals such as mobile phones generally have a display resolution of about VGA (video graphics array, 640 × 480 dots) and WVGA (wide VGA, WGA, 800 × 480 dots (points)). In WVGA, the short side of the display screen has a resolution of 480 dots and the long side has a resolution of 800 dots.
Here, in a portable terminal in which an OS such as Windows (registered trademark) Mobile is installed, the user selects a vertical display (vertical direction, for example, 480 × 800 dots) or a horizontal display (horizontal direction, for example, 800 × 480 dots), It can be used in any orientation.
Here, the image of the monitoring system needs to be displayed so as to fit on the display screen.
For this reason, when the portable terminal is provided with a VGA liquid crystal display device, in horizontal display, an image can be displayed using the maximum resolution. For example, an image having a pixel number of 640 × 480 dots can be displayed.
However, in the vertical display, it is necessary to display an image having the number of pixels such as 480 × 320 dots and 480 × 360 dots, for example, based on the resolution of the short side of the display screen.
That is, in the portable terminal, it is necessary to change the display resolution between the vertical display and the horizontal display.

With reference to Patent Literature 1, a server device having an image rotation function is described (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Technology 1).
The server device of the related art 1 acquires the image size information of the content image and the mobile phone screen size information. Then, it is determined whether or not the vertical / horizontal relationship indicating whether the image size is vertical or horizontal matches the vertical / horizontal relationship of the screen size.
If they do not match, the read content image is rotated 90 degrees, and if the image size does not fit in the screen size, it can be reduced and sent to the mobile phone.

Also, referring to Patent Document 2, an image distribution method is described in which clipping is performed while leaving an important area of an original image (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Technology 2).
The image distribution method of Prior Art 2 cuts out the original image according to the size of the screen of the mobile phone so that the key area specified by the distributor is included in an arbitrary area of the original image. Then, the image of the clipped area is distributed from the image distribution device to the mobile phone.
Thereby, even when the aspect ratio of the original image is different from the aspect ratio of the screen of the mobile phone, an image having an appropriate size that matches the size of the screen of the mobile phone while leaving an important area of the original image 200 remains. Can be delivered.

JP 2002-108757 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-6182

However, unlike normal image distribution of content or the like, the surveillance system needs to transmit the surveillance camera image clearly.
For this reason, when the server device of the prior art 1 is used, since the original image is reduced and transmitted on a vertical screen or the like, there is a problem that the resolution is reduced and the clarity of the image is impaired.
In the prior art 2 as well, when the paragraph [0082] is referred to, enlargement / reduction is performed in the same manner, so that the clarity of the image is impaired.
Further, in the prior art 2, since the key area is set in advance and the original image is cut out and displayed, the position designated by the user in the image of the monitoring camera cannot be displayed in an enlarged manner.

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a condition, and makes it a subject to eliminate the above-mentioned subject.

  The monitoring system of the present invention is a monitoring system that distributes an image to a mobile terminal by a server, and includes a server that includes resolution selection means for selecting distribution images having a plurality of resolutions in accordance with the resolution of a display screen of the terminal, And a portable terminal that selectively displays a plurality of distribution images when switching between vertical display and horizontal display.

  According to the present invention, a distribution image having a plurality of resolutions is distributed by a server, and the portable terminal selects and displays a distribution image having an optimal resolution when switching between vertical display and horizontal display. Can be provided.

<First Embodiment>
〔System configuration〕
Referring to FIG. 1, the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a terminal 1 (mobile terminal) and a server 3 that records and distributes images of the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n. Are connected by a network 5.
Here, the terminal 1 is mainly a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, a PDA (personal data assistant), a netbook, a notebook, a small PC (personal computer), a portable image player, a one-segment TV (television) device, and the like. It is. The terminal 1 includes a network connection function, JPEG, JPEG2000, GIF, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) motion JPEG, MPEG, H.264, and so on. H.264, H.C. It includes codecs for various still images and moving images such as H.263, and can decode and display image data transmitted in these image formats. Hereinafter, an example in which the terminal 1 is a PDA including Windows (registered trademark) Mobile 5.0 connected to the network 5 by WiMAX will be described.
The server 3 is a server such as a PC / AT compatible machine or a dedicated machine having a function of recording images of the imaging devices 4-1 to 4 -n and storing them as image data. Further, the server 3 can create image data in a format that can be displayed on the terminal 1 from the recorded image data.
The imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n are imaging devices such as ordinary analog cameras and capture devices, IP cameras, web cameras, and other surveillance cameras, and have a function of transmitting an image to the server 3. In addition, the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n may include a human sensor, a motion sensor, an artificial retina, and the like, and when these sensors detect, the image is transmitted to the server 3. Good. In this case, the server 3 may store the values of those sensors at the same time.
The network 5 is a mobile phone network, a PHS network, WiMAX, a wireless LAN, a wired LAN, a telephone network, cLink, a power line network, an optical fiber network, a dedicated line, and other network networks, and can transmit and receive image data and various commands. is there.
Note that both the terminal 1 and the server 3 can include a plurality of terminals and servers having the same configuration.

[Control configuration of terminal 1]
Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the control configuration of terminal 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The control unit 100 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), MPU (Micro Processing Unit), DSP (Digital Signal Processor), GPU (Graphic Processing Unit), or the like. The control unit 100 executes the monitoring program stored in the storage unit 120 and draws image data using codecs such as various still images and moving images. In addition, the user's instruction input from the input unit 140 is transmitted to each unit.
The storage unit 120 is a storage unit such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), an SRAM (Static Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a flash memory, and an HDD. The storage unit 120 stores a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323 created by the server 3. In addition, an OS (Operating System) such as Windows (registered trademark) Mobile 5.0, various installed programs, data, and the like are also stored, and the control unit 100 executes these programs. The storage unit 120 also includes a frame memory that stores the display content of the display screen displayed on the display unit 160.
The network connection unit 130 is a network card for connecting to the network 5 or a control program thereof. The network connection unit 130 establishes a connection on the network with the server 3, requests (requests) image data, and acquires (fetches) the image data. For this purpose, services (daemons) such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) are executed.
The input unit 140 receives various instructions from the user, such as a keyboard, pointing device, voice recognition device and microphone, acceleration sensor, GPS (global positioning system) sensor, temperature sensor, etc. It is a part which acquires. The user can give an instruction to the monitoring program or the like by performing control and input using the input unit 140 using the GUI of the OS.

The display unit 160 is a liquid crystal display panel, an FED (field emission display) panel, an LED (light emission diode) array, an HMD (head mounted display), a video projector, or the like. In addition, the display unit 160 may have a WVGA, WSVGA (1024 × 600 dots) in addition to an aspect ratio of 4: 3 such as VGA, SVGA (800 × 600 dots), XGA (1024 × 768 dots), UXGA (1600 × 1200 dots), and the like. ), WXGA (1280 × 720 dots, or 1366 × 768 dots) or the like. In other words, the resolution of the display unit 160 is characterized in that the physical resolution (number of dots) differs between the long side and the short side. On top of this, it is possible to switch between horizontal display and vertical display. In the following description, the aspect ratio is expressed as horizontal and vertical (horizontal: vertical). The resolution is also expressed in (horizontal x vertical).
Further, the display unit 160 may have a different physical resolution (number of dots) and a resolution of a frame memory for a display screen in the storage unit 120. In that case, display is performed by enlarging or reducing the display contents of the frame memory, filling the gap with the same color (filling), or the like in accordance with the physical resolution of 1 dot (pixel) of the display unit 160. At this time, it is preferable to enlarge / reduce while maintaining the aspect ratio in order to set the aspect ratio of 1 dot to 1: 1 as in the case of a square pixel, but the enlargement / reduction may be performed without maintaining the aspect ratio. .

The resolution detection unit 170 is a part that detects the physical resolution of the display unit 160 and the resolution of the frame memory. In addition, an instruction to change the vertical display and the horizontal display by the user is detected.
The enlargement selection unit 180 is a part that acquires the coordinates of the enlargement position from the high-resolution image and cuts out the image when the user issues an instruction to enlarge and display a specific position in the image.
Note that the resolution detection unit 170 and the enlargement selection unit 180 may be realized by the control unit 100 executing a program stored in the storage unit 120 or a routine (subroutine) of a monitoring program.

[Control Configuration of Server 3]
Next, a control configuration of the server 3 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The server 3 is a server including a control unit and a storage unit, and has functions as described below when the control unit executes an OS, a program, and a service (daemon) stored in the storage unit.
The web server 30 is a server that executes services (daemons) such as an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) server and an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server. Further, an API (application programming interface) for accessing the database is provided, and when the terminal 1 is connected to the server 3, the high-resolution image 321 and the low-resolution image 323 are acquired from the distribution image storage unit 32. Send. Further, the web server 30 can have functions such as a proxy server and load balancing.

The recorded image storage unit 31 is a storage server or the like that includes an SQL database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL that converts and stores images from the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n such as monitoring cameras into image data. . The recorded image storage unit 31 includes a RAW image 311 that is the image data and compressed image data (not shown).
The RAW image 311 (raw image) is data when the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n record, such as RAW (raw) format image data, lossless compression format image data such as JPEG2000, and low compression image data. This is image data in a state in which little information is lost when is quantized and transformed. That is, it is image data in a state close to a “raw” image acquired by the surveillance camera.
The RAW image 311 consumes a large amount of storage capacity of the recorded image storage unit 31. Therefore, the RAW image 311 can be converted into compressed image data of “archive” by the control unit of the imaging unit 33 after the high-resolution image 321 and the low-resolution image 323 are created.

The distribution image storage unit 32 is a storage server or the like provided with a database or the like for storing images to be distributed to the terminal 1. The distribution image storage unit 32 includes a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323 in this database.
The high-resolution image 321 is high-resolution image data for the terminal 1 created from the RAW image 311 by the multiple image creation unit 36 described later. For example, 640 × 480 dots of image data can be used as the high-resolution image 321 as image data for horizontal display.
Similarly, the low-resolution image 323 is image data for the terminal 1 created by the multiple image creation unit 36 from the RAW image 311. For the low-resolution image 323, for example, image data of 480 × 320 dots can be used as image data for vertical display.

The user authentication unit 34 is a part that performs user authentication and acquires the resolution of the display screen of the terminal 1. When acquiring this resolution, the resolution (number of dots) of the long side and the short side of the display screen, the resolution of the frame memory, and the like are acquired. Here, unlike the prior art 1 or the prior art 2, it is not examined whether the terminal is currently in vertical display or horizontal display.
The resolution selection unit 35 (image selection unit) is a server that determines the resolution of the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 based on the resolution of the display screen of the terminal 1 acquired by the user authentication unit 34.
The multiple image creation unit 36 is a part that creates a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323 from the RAW image 311 at the resolution determined by the resolution selection unit 35. At this time, image processing and enlargement / reduction / cut-out processing for a monitoring system, which will be described later, are performed.
Each part of the server 3 can be composed of a plurality of servers. Further, the resolution selection unit 35 and the multiple image creation unit 36 can execute a program stored in the storage unit of the web server 30 by the control unit.

[Image distribution processing of monitoring system X]
Next, image distribution processing of the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the image distribution process of the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, the server 3 creates image data for distribution to the terminal 1. Here, unlike the prior art 1 and the prior art 2, both the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 are created and both images are distributed to the terminal 1.
The terminal 1 displays both received images according to whether the user is displaying vertically or horizontally. In vertical display, an enlarged image at an arbitrary position designated by the user can be displayed from the high resolution image 321.

First, the control unit 100 of the terminal 1 detects that the user has given an instruction from the input unit 140 using the GUI of the OS, and activates and executes the monitoring software stored in the storage unit 120. Further, the control unit 100 similarly detects that the user has input the account name, the user name, and the terminal 1 using the input unit 140. The control unit 100 transmits the account name and user name from the network connection unit 130 to the server 3 via the network 5.
The web server 30 of the server 3 authenticates the account name and the user name using the user authentication unit 34, and establishes a connection between the terminal 1 and the server 3 when the authentication is successful.
In this state, the image distribution process will be described in more detail below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and the screen examples of FIGS.

In step S101, the recorded image storage unit 31 of the server 3 performs a recording process.
In this recording process, first, the recorded image storage unit 31 acquires each recorded image of the imaging device imaging apparatuses 4-1 to 4-n and converts it into a RAW image 311.
The recorded image storage unit 31 stores the converted RAW image 311 in a database in time series.
The recorded image storage unit 31 continuously performs the recording process.

In step S201, the control unit 100 of the terminal 1 performs an image request process.
In this step, first, the control unit 100 detects a user instruction using the monitoring software. Here, it is also possible to select one of the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n so as to request an image.
When detecting a user instruction, the control unit 100 transmits a command for requesting an image or the like from the network connection unit 130 to the server 3 via the network 5. At this time, information regarding the specifications of the terminal 1, particularly information regarding the resolution of the display screen of the terminal 1 is transmitted.
Note that the control unit 100 can also request transmission of a plurality of images from the imaging devices 4-1 to 4-n. It is also possible to request transmission of archived compressed image data.
As described above, in the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, only when there is a connection from the terminal 1 to the server 3 and there is a request from the terminal 1, an image conversion process described later is performed, Create a distribution image.

In step S102, the web server 30 of the server 3 performs an image conversion process.
Hereinafter, an example in which the RAW image 311 has an HD resolution (1920 × 1080 dots) with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 will be described. Further, the display unit 160 of the terminal 1 has a VGA (640 × 480 dots) resolution with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 of the display screen, a long side of 640 dots, and a short side of 480 dots.

Referring to FIG. 5, in this step, first, the web server 30 uses the resolution selection unit 35 based on the information related to the resolution of the display screen of the terminal 1, and the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 321. The resolution of the resolution image 323 is calculated. Specifically, it can be calculated from the relationship between the aspect ratio of the RAW image 311, the aspect ratio of the long side and the short side of the terminal 1, and the frame memory.
For this calculation, for example, the following rules can be used:
In the high-resolution image 321, the resolution selection unit 35 selects an aspect ratio and a resolution so that the short side of the display screen of the terminal 1 fits snugly. That is, in this example, since the aspect ratio of the high resolution image 321 is 4: 3, the resolution is VGA.
In the low resolution image 323, the resolution selection unit 35 has the same aspect ratio as that of the high resolution image 321 of the terminal 1, and the short side of the display screen is maximized at the horizontal resolution of the low resolution image 323. Like that. At this time, the resolution may be selected in relation to ease of access to the frame memory, processing for taking a buffer for rotation processing, and the like.
In this example, it is preferable to use 480 × 320 dots, which are slightly cut from the top and bottom, instead of 480 × 360 dots having an aspect ratio of 4: 3, because the 16-bit color work memory fits in just 300 KB. .

After determining the resolution, the web server 30 actually creates the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 using the multiple image creation unit 36.
At this time, unlike the prior art 1 and the prior art 2, the low resolution image 323 is created in addition to the high resolution image 321 based on the RAW image 311. Furthermore, various image processing can be performed when the image is created.
In the case of the above-described example, these images can be created as follows, for example.
In the high-resolution image 321, the multiple-image creating unit 36 first sets an image with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 to an aspect ratio of 4: 3. Therefore, the left and right 240 dots of the image are cut out to create an intermediate image of 1440 × 1080 dots. The multi-image creating unit 36 performs various image processes on the intermediate image, performs a reduction process, and creates image data of 640 × 480 dots.
In the low-resolution image 323, an upper and lower 60 dots are further cut out from the above-described intermediate image of 1440 × 1080 dots to create an image of 1440 × 960 dots. Various image processing is performed on the image, and reduction processing is performed to generate 480 × 320 dot image data. Note that processing may be performed in which image data of 480 × 360 dots is created from the intermediate image and the upper and lower portions are cut off by 20 dots.

As this image processing, for example, the display unit 160 of the mobile terminal is inferior in resolution, and therefore, it is possible to perform contour enhancement processing. This contour emphasis processing is particularly strongly performed on the low-resolution image 323, so that even if the user is viewing the distribution image on the vertical screen, the effect that the image can be clearly recognized can be obtained. It is also possible to extract a contour and directly draw the contour translucently.
In addition to the edge enhancement processing, the number of colors in the marking portion of the mobile terminal is often 65536 colors, which is inferior in color reproducibility to “full color” of 17 million colors. “Dithering” processing or the like can also be performed. Thereby, since a user recognizes the change of an important image at the time of monitoring, visibility can be improved.
In addition, when performing image enlargement or reduction processing, high-precision reduction processing such as the bicubic method can be performed instead of simple enlargement / reduction as in the prior art 1. Furthermore, it is also possible to use a method in which the brightness of each pixel (dot) is converted into the log brightness, and the brightness of each pixel at the time of reduction is statistically estimated from the brightness distribution of each pixel.
As a result, the high-resolution RAW image 311 can be reduced to obtain a high-resolution image 321 and a low-resolution image 323, which are distribution images that are easy to view on a mobile terminal. At this time, in order to create a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323 from the same RAW image 311, even if the respective images are displayed by switching between the vertical display and the horizontal display, the user may feel uncomfortable. The effect that there is little is acquired. In addition, the visibility of the low-resolution image 323 can be improved as compared with a process in which an image whose resolution has been reduced by performing a reduction process is further subjected to a rotation process or the like to obtain a low-resolution image.
In addition, since the processing in creating the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 is performed by the server 3 that is superior in computing capability to the terminal 1, more advanced and highly accurate processing can be performed. Can be created and distributed in a clear state.

When the web server 30 creates the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323, the web server 30 stores them in the delivery image storage unit 32.
At this time, it is converted and stored by a codec that can be played back by the terminal 1. For example, the web server 30 stores the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 as JPEG images.
Note that the high resolution image 321 may be created using the aspect ratio and resolution of the RAW image 311 as they are. In order to simplify the process, the low resolution image 323 may be created based on the high resolution image 321. Furthermore, not only two images, a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323, but also a plurality of image data can be prepared for zoom processing described later.

In step S103, the web server 30 of the server 3 performs an image transmission process.
Specifically, the web server 30 transmits the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 via the network 5 using a protocol such as FTP, HTTP, or secure SFTP or HTTPs. At present, the bandwidth of the network 5 is sufficient, and there are few problems even if connections of image data of a plurality of resolutions are established simultaneously.
Here, unlike the prior art 1 and the prior art 2, in the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, two types of image data of a high resolution image 321 and a low resolution image 323 are both stored in the terminal. Send to 1. As a result, there is no need to send image conversions to the server every time the image is switched, so that the effect of reducing the time lag can be obtained.

In step S202, the network connection unit 130 performs image reception processing.
Here, the network connection unit 130 receives the high resolution image 321 and the low resolution image 323 from the web server 30 and stores them in the storage unit 120. Here, the terminal 1 stores the high resolution image 321 as image data for horizontal display and the low resolution image 323 as image data for vertical display.

In step S203, the resolution detection unit 170 performs resolution detection processing.
Here, the resolution detection unit 170 periodically inquires the OS of the portable terminal about the vertical and horizontal sizes, detects the vertical or horizontal state as the vertical or horizontal display, and stores the vertical and horizontal state in the storage unit 120. To do.
It is also possible to acquire an instruction for switching between vertical and horizontal directions by the user, and to instruct the OS and the monitoring software to change the vertical and horizontal state.

In step S204, the resolution detection unit 170 performs an image selection process.
Specifically, first, the resolution detection unit 170 reads the above-described vertical and horizontal states from the storage unit 120 using the monitoring software of the terminal 1.
On this basis, the resolution detection unit 170 selects the high-resolution image 321 as a drawing image to be written in the frame memory in the case of landscape display. Conversely, in the case of the vertical display, the resolution detection unit 170 selects the low resolution image 323 as a drawing image.
That is, switching between horizontal display image data and vertical display image data is performed based on the obtained vertical and horizontal state information.
Therefore, the terminal 1 does not request the image again from the server after the vertical / horizontal display is switched, but the terminal 1 always has image data of two kinds of sizes to select (switch) the image. It can be done smoothly.

In step S205, the enlargement selection unit 180 performs zoom processing.
More specifically, when the user gives an instruction using the GUI, the enlargement selection unit 180 selects an image for “zoom”, which is a function for selecting and enlarging an arbitrary position of the image to be drawn. It can be selected as an image.
Referring to FIG. 6, when performing the zoom process, the enlargement selection unit 180 cuts out an image having the same resolution as the low resolution image 323 from the high resolution image 321 and selects it as a display image. This cropped image is shown as a zoom image 400 in FIG.
As described above, the terminal 1 has image data of two kinds of resolutions, so that an image that is zoomed from a high-resolution image can be used in a vertical display with a low resolution.
That is, a clear image having a relatively high resolution is displayed by enlarging the selection range from the high-resolution image 321 having the number of pixels (640 × 480 dots) instead of the high-resolution image 321 having a small number of pixels (480 × 320 dots). can do.

In this zoom process, the user scrolls the zoom position up, down, left and right diagonally, switches zoom on / off, and designates the zoom magnification using the user interface 450 of the monitoring software in FIG. can do.
When the zoom magnification is lower than that of the high-resolution image 321, that is, when a wider-angle image is displayed, an image in a wider range can be cut out from the high-resolution image 321 and reduced display can be performed.
Similarly, when the zoom magnification is higher than that of the high-resolution image 321, an image in a narrower range can be cut out and displayed in an enlarged manner. Even in this case, since the high-resolution image 321 having a relatively high resolution is used, the image can be displayed more clearly.
In this reduced or enlarged display, if the terminal 1 has a graphic acceleration function such as stretch BLTER (rectangular transfer), the reduced display can be performed in real time.

In step S206, the control unit 100 performs image drawing processing.
Here, the control unit 100 writes and displays the drawing image selected in the above-described step in the frame memory using a multimedia timer that is an API (application program interface) of the OS, GDI, DirectShow, or the like. . At this time, the high-resolution image 321, the low-resolution image 323, and the image cut out for zooming are selected and displayed depending on whether the vertical / horizontal information and zoom processing are performed as described above.
In addition, when the display image of the terminal 1 is WVGA (800 × 480 dots), the screen resolution of the drawing image to be displayed can be set to 640 × 480 when the video is to be displayed on the full screen or in the horizontal display. Large display area can be used.

Thereafter, the control unit 100 responds to various messages detected by the OS using the monitoring software.
Further, the control unit 100 always displays the latest image until the user issues a logout instruction. Here, when the image is a still image, the control unit 100 performs reloading by the processing in steps S201 and S201. Even when the image is a moving image, the stream distribution data is decoded and displayed.
Thus, the image distribution process is completed.

With the configuration described above, the following effects can be obtained.
Currently, a resolution of about WVGA (800 × 480) is common in mobile terminals. However, in normal vertical display, the image width has a maximum value of 480 (480 × 320 dots), which makes it difficult to view the image.
That is, in the prior art 1 and the prior art 2, the original image is simply rotated / enlarged / reduced to create an image for distribution.
For this reason, there has been a problem that the clarity of the image is impaired and it is difficult to discriminate the image displayed on the mobile terminal such as a mobile phone. Therefore, it has been difficult to use for a monitoring system that needs to recognize an object.

On the other hand, in the monitoring system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, images of a plurality of resolutions are created by the server, and the terminal receives and stores the images of the plurality of resolutions.
As a result, it is possible to switch the images of the plurality of resolutions, increase the screen size in the horizontal display, and improve the display quality. In addition to this, during vertical display, it is possible to switch from a raw image to a reduced image that has undergone image processing.
Thereby, it is possible to provide a monitoring system that displays an easy-to-see screen as much as possible on a small screen of the mobile terminal.
Furthermore, when switching between images with multiple resolutions, the terminal has images with multiple resolutions, so there is no need to request the server to deliver images with different resolutions, so the images can be switched quickly. . That is, the time lag can be reduced.
In addition, even for a portable terminal that does not have a display function for rotating and rectangular transfer, it is possible to reduce the display burden associated with the rotation of the vertical display and the horizontal display.

In the monitoring system, it is necessary to cope with a zoom that determines and enlarges the position of the distributed image.
However, in the prior art 2, since a key area is set in advance and the original image is cut out and displayed, the position designated by the user in the image of the monitoring camera cannot be displayed in an enlarged manner. Furthermore, in the image distribution method of the prior art 2, the correspondence to zoom is not disclosed at all.

On the other hand, when the selection range is zoomed in the vertical display, the enlarged image with high resolution can be displayed by using the image data for horizontal display.
That is, when the enlarged display is performed in the vertical display, when the portion selected from the image data for horizontal display is enlarged and displayed, the image having the same resolution as that of the horizontal display can be displayed. In addition, since the compression rate of the enlarged image and the compression rate of the horizontally displayed image are equal, the displayed image is less expensive.
In addition, when a part of the image is enlarged in the vertical display, an enlarged screen with less noticeable roughness such as quantization noise can be displayed by using the image data of the high-resolution image for horizontal display.

Moreover, the monitoring system according to the embodiment of the present invention includes:
The plurality of resolutions are a resolution corresponding to the resolution of the long side and a resolution corresponding to the resolution of the short side,
The delivery image is a high-resolution image created corresponding to the resolution of the long side and a low-resolution image created corresponding to the resolution of the short side from the raw image,
The portable terminal displays the high-resolution image during horizontal display, displays the low-resolution image during vertical display, and extracts a selection range from the high-resolution image during zooming. And

Moreover, the monitoring method according to the embodiment of the present invention includes:
Create a high-resolution image and the low-resolution image by the server,
The mobile terminal receives the high resolution image and the low resolution image,
Displaying the high resolution image and the low resolution image in a vertical display and a horizontal display,
The position designated by the user is selected from the high-resolution image and zoomed for display.

  It should be noted that the configuration and operation of the above-described embodiment are examples, and it is needless to say that the configuration and operation can be appropriately changed and executed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of the terminal 1 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of the server 3 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart of the image delivery process of the monitoring system X which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the example of the image for delivery which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the example of the zoom process which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Terminal 3 Servers 4-1 to 4-n Imaging device 5 Network 30 Web server 31 Recorded image storage unit 32 Distribution image storage unit 34 User authentication unit 35 Resolution selection unit 36 Multiple image creation unit 100 Control unit 120 Storage unit 130 Network connection Unit 140 input unit 160 display unit 170 resolution detection unit 180 enlargement selection unit 321 high resolution image 323 low resolution image 311 RAW image 400 zoom image 450 user interface X monitoring system

Claims (1)

A monitoring system for distributing images to mobile terminals by a server,
A server comprising resolution selection means for selecting distribution images having a plurality of resolutions in accordance with the resolution of the display screen of the terminal;
A monitoring system comprising: a portable terminal that selectively displays the plurality of resolution distribution images when switching between vertical display and horizontal display.