JP2011193159A - Monitoring system, image processor, and monitoring method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a video signal including a monitoring object high in resolution. <P>SOLUTION: The monitoring system is equipped with: an imaging apparatus 10; an image processor 20; and an image receiver 30. The imaging apparatus 10 photographs the monitoring object to obtain a video signal I. The image processor 20 is connected to the imaging apparatus 10, detects an area including the monitoring object from the video signal I, and performs the resolution increase processing of the video signal in an area detected by a resolution increase processing part 24 to generate a video signal O. The receiver 30 is connected to the image processor 20, and displays the video signal O on a display picture, or stores it in a storage device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a monitoring system, an image processing apparatus, and a monitoring method that use an image captured by an imaging apparatus.

  In recent years, a monitoring system using an imaging device has been introduced for monitoring inside buildings such as buildings, stations, and airports, and in towns. In an existing monitoring system, centralized video management is performed at a monitoring center installed remotely from an imaging device. In the monitoring center, the video acquired by the imaging device is stored in a storage medium or visually observed by a monitor.

  Existing monitoring systems often use inexpensive and low-function imaging devices. Generally, an inexpensive imaging device cannot perform zooming and panning, and has a fixed imaging angle of view. In particular, the angle of view of an imaging apparatus for monitoring is adjusted over a wide range. In such a case, the monitoring target is captured in a small size, and when the image is stored or viewed by a monitoring person, an event occurring in the image cannot be determined and may be overlooked. For this reason, it is desired to increase the resolution of an image captured by a low-function monitoring imaging device and to use it for monitoring.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a video restoration and reconstruction method that restores and reconstructs a super-resolution video by restoring a high-frequency component to a low-resolution video. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for performing high resolution processing on a superimposed image by performing alignment without a large shift by constraining the coordinates of each time by the entire motion. Is disclosed.

JP 2005-20761 A (paragraph 0042) JP 2002-358529 A (paragraph 0044)

  However, since the technique described in Patent Document 1 increases the resolution of an already stored image, it cannot be applied to a system that increases the resolution of a captured image in real time and provides it for monitoring by a supervisor. Moreover, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to restrain movement in advance, and it is difficult to apply to a monitoring system that monitors the movement of a person in a predetermined area.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems. A monitoring system, an image processing apparatus, and a monitoring method capable of easily providing a video signal including a monitoring target with high resolution and providing it to an image receiving apparatus. The purpose is to provide.

  A monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an imaging device that captures a monitoring target and obtains a first video signal, and an image processing device connected to the imaging device, wherein the first video signal From the above, area detection means for detecting an area including the monitoring object, and high resolution processing means for generating a second video signal by performing high resolution processing on the video signal of the area detected by the area detection unit. And an image receiving device connected to the image processing device and displaying or recording the second video signal.

  An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an imaging apparatus that captures a monitoring target and obtains a first video signal, and is connected to the imaging apparatus, and performs image processing on the first video signal. An image processing apparatus used in a monitoring system comprising: an image processing apparatus that generates a second video signal; and an image receiving apparatus that is connected to the image processing apparatus and displays or records the second video signal, An area detection unit for detecting an area including the monitoring target object from the first video signal, and generating a second video signal by performing high resolution processing on the video signal of the area detected by the area detection unit. High resolution processing means.

  The monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a step of obtaining a first video signal by photographing a monitoring object with an imaging device, and an image processing device connected to the imaging device. Detecting an area including the object to be monitored, generating a second video signal by increasing the resolution of the video signal of the detected area, and the first connected to the image processing device Displaying or recording two video signals.

  According to a monitoring system, an image processing apparatus, and a monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to easily increase the resolution of a video signal including a monitoring target and provide it to an image receiving apparatus.

The block diagram which shows the outline of a structure of the monitoring system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the detailed structure of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. The figure which represented typically a mode that the area cut out from the video signal I was high-resolution, and produced | generated as the video signal O by the high-resolution processing part of an image processing apparatus. The figure which shows an example in the case of extracting the area containing a moving object from the acquired video signal in the monitoring system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example in the case of extracting the area containing the difference with a background from the acquired video signal in the monitoring system shown in FIG. In the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows an example of a display when a several detection target body is contained in the acquired video signal. In the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows another example of a display when a some detection target object is contained in the acquired video signal. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation executed by the image processing apparatus.

  Embodiments of a monitoring system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a configuration of a monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the monitoring system includes an imaging device 10, an image processing device 20, and an image receiving device 30.

  The imaging device 10 is installed in a building, factory, power plant, street, or the like to be monitored. The imaging device 10 includes, for example, a video camera and has a function of capturing a moving image. The imaging device 10 outputs a video signal (moving image signal) I.

  In the video signal I, a plurality of frames having a predetermined number of pixels are continuous, and a moving image is formed by the continuation of the plurality of frames. The video signal I is sent to the image processing apparatus 20 via a wired or wireless network.

  The image processing apparatus 20 includes a high resolution processing unit 24 and performs high resolution processing on a video signal in a predetermined area cut out from the video signal I. The high-resolution video signal O is sent to the image receiving device 30 connected to the image processing device 20.

  The image receiving device 30 is installed in a monitoring center provided remotely from the imaging device 10. The image receiving device 30 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), and the video signal O received from the image processing device 20 is displayed on the display device. The monitor in the monitoring center monitors the monitoring target with reference to this display device. In addition, the image receiving device 30 includes an operation input unit such as a keyboard and a mouse for supplying an operation signal to the image processing device 20 according to the operation of the supervisor. The function of the image receiving device 30 may be realized by a normal computer device such as a personal computer (PC).

  In a general monitoring system, the video signal I output from the imaging device 10 is sent to the image receiving device 30 as it is and used for monitoring purposes. Therefore, the video size of the video signal I is set in accordance with the display size in the image receiving device 30. On the other hand, in the monitoring system according to the present embodiment, the image processing device 20 is connected between the imaging device 10 and the image receiving device 30. The image processing device 20 performs a resolution enhancement process on the video signal in a predetermined area cut out from the video signal I, and outputs the processed video signal O to the image receiving device 30. Since the imaging device 10 and the image receiving device 30 remain in the existing configuration, the video size of the video signal O is set in accordance with the display size of the image receiving device 30 as well as the video size of the video signal I.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed functional configuration of the image processing apparatus 20 shown in FIG. The image processing apparatus 20 includes a processor, a program memory, and a work memory (not shown), and various functions may be realized by the processor reading and executing a predetermined program stored in the program memory. Alternatively, the function of the image processing apparatus 20 may be realized by hardware by a logic circuit, or may be realized by cooperation of hardware and software.

  The image processing apparatus 20 includes a video input processing unit 21, an area setting unit 22, a switch 23, a high resolution processing unit 24, an event detection unit 25, an image storage processing unit 26, and a memory 27.

  The video input processing unit 21 performs necessary processing such as format conversion on the video signal I sent from the imaging device 10 so that the video signal I can be handled by the image processing device 20. When an analog video signal I is input to the image processing device 20, the video signal I may be digitally converted by an A / D (analog / digital) conversion unit included in the video input processing unit 21.

  The area setting unit 22 determines an area to be cut out from the video signal I. The area setting unit 22 detects a difference from the object or the background from the video signal I based on the difference between frames in the video signal I. An area including a difference from the detected object or the background is extracted as a cut-out area. The area information extracted by the area setting unit 22 is sent to the high resolution processing unit 23 via the switch 23.

  The switch 23 switches a signal input to the resolution enhancement processing unit 23 between a signal from the area setting unit 22 and an operation signal sent from the image receiving device 30. Switching of the switch 23 is performed by an operation signal sent from the image receiving device 30 based on an instruction from the supervisor. When the switch 23 transmits an operation signal sent from the image receiving device 30 to the resolution enhancement processing unit 23, the operation signal includes information on the area in the video designated by the monitor using the operation input unit of the image receiving device. It is.

  Based on the information input via the switch 23, the high resolution processing unit 23 cuts out the designated area from the video signal I and performs high resolution processing on the video signal in the cut out area. The high-resolution video signal is output to the image receiving device 30 as a video signal O having the same video size as the video signal I, for example. Alternatively, a higher resolution image may be output according to the display capability of the image receiving device 30. The resolution enhancement process can be performed based on a video signal of one frame or based on correlation information between a plurality of frames. The resolution enhancement processing unit 23 may be capable of executing a plurality of resolution enhancement methods, and is used in accordance with the type of the input video signal I or based on an operation signal sent from the image receiving device 30. A resolution method may be selected. A plurality of resolution enhancement methods may be used in combination.

  The resolution enhancement process compensates for the lack of resolution and pixel shortage of the video signal I input from the imaging apparatus 10 and obtains a high-resolution video.

  The event detection unit 25 detects information indicating a specific event (behavior) such as a dangerous motion of the subject from the video signal O. For example, the event detection unit 25 detects intrusion detection, protrusion, or movement of a subject's hand.

  Therefore, if the resolution of the video signal O is twice that of the video signal I, the event can be detected with double detection accuracy. That is, the accuracy of intrusion detection and protrusion detection is doubled. In addition, the accuracy of detecting and determining an event that is far away (that is, smaller) in the video signal I is improved.

  When the event detection unit 25 detects a specific event, a detection signal is sent from the event detection unit 25 to the image storage processing unit 26. The image storage processing unit 26 stores a frame including the specific event in the memory 27 according to the detection signal. The detection signal is also output to the image receiving device 30. In the image receiving device 30, an alarm display or the like may be performed according to the detection signal.

  The memory 27 includes a storage device such as a hard disk device HDD or a flash memory. Since the memory 27 stores a high-resolution video signal indicating a dangerous action detected by the event detection unit 25, such a video signal can be referred to later.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which an area cut out from the video signal I is increased in resolution and generated as the video signal O by the resolution increasing processing unit of the image processing apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the resolution enhancement processing unit 24 cuts out the area A1 designated by the area setting unit 22 or the operation signal from the video signal I. The extracted video signal of area A1 is subjected to high resolution processing, and a video signal O having area A2 is generated. The video size of this area A2 is equal to the video size of the video signal I.

  The video signal O comprising this area A2 is sent to the image receiving device 30 and displayed on the display device. The monitor monitors the monitoring target with reference to the display based on the video signal O.

  As described above, according to the monitoring system of the present embodiment, the image of the predetermined area in the video signal I can be increased in resolution and displayed by the image receiving device 30. Therefore, monitoring with high accuracy is possible.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of extracting an area including a moving object from an acquired video signal in the above-described monitoring system.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, a person is detected in the area A3 from the input video based on the video signal I at time t = 0. When the person is moving, the person is detected in the area A4 slightly deviated from the area A3 from the subsequent input video at time t = 1. Further, the person is detected in the area A5 from the input video at the next time t = 2.

  Such detection of a moving body can be realized by the area setting unit 22 automatically detecting an object from each frame.

  The high resolution processing unit 23 cuts out the area A3 for the input video at t = 0 and performs the high resolution processing. Further, the area A4 is cut out for the input video at t = 1, and the area A5 is cut out for the input video at t = 2, and high resolution processing is performed. Therefore, the image receiving device 30 can follow the moving body and display it with high resolution, and the monitor can monitor the moving body with care.

  In addition, although the person who moves is shown as an example in FIG. 4, not only a person but other moving bodies, such as an animal and a vehicle, can be detected similarly.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of extracting an area including a difference from the background from the acquired video signal in the above-described monitoring system.

  In the example shown in FIG. 5, the input video based on the video signal I at time t = 0 includes only the background video. Thereafter, when any object is placed in the monitoring target area, the area setting unit 22 detects the area A6 including the object from the input video at the subsequent time t = 1.

  The high resolution processing unit 24 cuts out the area A6 from the input video at t = 1 and performs the high resolution processing. Therefore, the image receiving device 30 can display the appearance of an object from the high-resolution video signal, and the monitor can easily know a sudden change in the monitoring target.

  The background video may be held in advance by the area setting unit 22 or the video input processing unit 21. For example, when there is no change in the video signal over a predetermined number of frames or when only a minute change occurs, it can be determined that these frames indicate a background video.

  Since the appearance of such an object can be confirmed with a high-resolution image, the monitor can easily confirm the leaving of an object such as a dangerous object.

  Further, when an object suddenly disappears from the video, it can be detected in the same manner. If a certain object disappears from a video that has not changed for a certain period of time (over a certain number of frames or more), the area setting unit 22 can detect an area including the disappearing part of the object, as described above. Since the high resolution processing unit 24 cuts out the area and performs the high resolution processing, the image receiving device 30 can display the disappearance of the object from the high resolution video signal. Sudden changes can be detected easily.

  Since the disappearance of such an object can be confirmed with a high-resolution image, the monitoring person can easily confirm, for example, the placement of the exhibits.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of display when a plurality of detection objects are included in the acquired video signal in the above-described monitoring system.

  In the example shown in FIG. 6, four detection objects (four persons) are included in the input video based on the video signal I, and areas A11 to A14 including each of them are detected by the area setting unit 22. Yes.

  The high resolution processing unit 23 cuts out these areas A11 to A14, respectively, and performs high resolution processing. At this time, the high-resolution video signal is output to the image receiving device 30 as a video signal O having the same video size as the video signal I. At this time, the video signal O is generated so that four areas are displayed on a multi-screen. In other words, the output video based on the video signal O is divided into four on the display screen, and videos in which the areas A11 to A14 are increased in resolution are assigned to the respective divided screens. When the display capability of the image receiving device 30 can be improved, each of the areas A11 to A14 is arranged on the display screen with a high resolution up to the same video size as the video signal I or higher. It may be. For example, if the display size of the image receiving device 30 is four times the video size of the video signal I, each of the areas A11 to A14 is increased in resolution to the same video size as the video signal I and arranged on the display screen to have an area ratio of 4 It can also be configured to display in double.

  In the example of FIG. 6, four detection objects are detected, and the display screen is divided into four. However, the screen division method may be changed according to the number of detected objects.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of display when a plurality of detection objects are included in the acquired video signal in the monitoring system described above.

  Also in the example shown in FIG. 7, as in FIG. 6, the input video based on the video signal I includes four detection objects (four persons), and the areas A <b> 11 to A <b> 14 that contain each of them are area settings. It is detected by the unit 22.

  The high resolution processing unit 23 cuts out these areas A11 to A14, respectively, and performs high resolution processing. At this time, the high-resolution video signal is output to the image receiving device 30 as a video signal O having the same video size as the video signal I.

  At this time, the video signal O is generated so as to be displayed on the screen after being divided into four area times. That is, each of the four areas A11 to A14 is increased in resolution to the same video size as the video signal I, and is sequentially switched and displayed on the display screen at predetermined time intervals.

  In the example of FIG. 7, four detection objects are detected and the display screen is divided into four. However, the display time interval may be changed according to the number of detected objects.

  Subsequently, the operation of the image processing apparatus used in the monitoring system according to the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation executed by the above-described image processing apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 8, first, the video signal I is input from the image receiving device 10 to the video input processing unit 21 (step S81). The video processing unit 21 performs a predetermined process on the input video signal I and transfers it to the area setting unit 22 and the high resolution processing unit 24.

  The area setting unit 22 determines an area cut out from the video signal I (step S82). Alternatively, the area designated by the supervisor via the image receiving device 30 is determined as an area to be cut out (step S82). Depending on the setting of the switch 23, either the area information determined by the area setting unit 22 or the area information sent from the image receiving device 30 is sent to the high resolution processing unit 24.

  The high resolution processing unit 24 cuts out a portion corresponding to the area information sent from the switch 23 from the video signal I sent from the video input processing unit 21 and performs a resolution enhancement process on the cut out portion ( Step S83). A video signal O generated with the same video size as the video signal I due to the higher resolution is output from the higher resolution processing unit 24.

  When a specific event is detected from the video signal O by the event detection unit 25, a video frame including the event is extracted from the video signal O and stored in the memory 27 (step S84). Not only the frame including the detection event but also the previous and next video frames may be stored in the memory 27.

  The video signal O output from the high resolution processing unit 24 is output to the image receiving device 30 (step S85), and is used for visual observation by a supervisor or for recording in the image receiving device 30.

  As described above, in the monitoring system according to the present embodiment, the image processing device is connected between the imaging device and the image receiving device. The imaging device and the image receiving device may be existing devices.

  The image processing apparatus detects a detection target body such as a change from a moving body or a background image from a video signal captured by the imaging apparatus. The area including the detected object to be detected or the area selected by the supervisor's instruction is subjected to high resolution processing and output to the image receiving apparatus as a video signal having the same video size as the input video signal.

  For this reason, on the image receiving device side, the change from the detected moving body and the background image, or the area selected by the monitor can be acquired with high resolution, and the monitoring accuracy can be improved.

  Since the moving body is detected for each frame, the image processing apparatus can automatically follow the movement of the moving body. Therefore, the image receiving apparatus can easily acquire the moving image of the moving body with high resolution. In addition, since a change from the background image is detected and the resolution is increased, it is possible to easily confirm an event such as a small object being left behind or a small dangerous object being left behind.

  Furthermore, in the monitoring system according to the present embodiment, a specific event is detected from the video signal with a high resolution. The frame containing the specific event detected is stored in memory.

  Specific events include some incidents, accidents, or crimes. For example, in a shoplifting site, it is possible to detect a fine hand movement of a criminal from a high-resolution video signal with high accuracy. Since the frames detected in this way are stored in the memory, it is possible to store evidence images of accidents and incidents with high resolution.

  The imaging device 10 described above may be an imaging device that outputs a video signal of an NTSC (National Television System Committee) system, which is a color television signal transmission standard generally used for monitoring system applications.

  In the above-described embodiment, the image processing device 20 and the image receiving device 30 are provided separately. However, the image processing device 20 and the image receiving device 30 are integrated as a result of the image processing device 20 being built in the image receiving device 30. May be provided.

  The monitoring system according to the present embodiment can be applied mainly to safety / security systems in the industrial field and social infrastructure field. Specifically, it can be applied to systems that need to be operated for a long time with specific applications such as suspicious person monitoring and intrusion monitoring in industrial plants, power plants, stations, airports, stores, etc. .

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention at the stage of implementation. Further, each of the embodiments includes inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in one embodiment or the constituent elements shown in some embodiments are combined, they are described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention. In the case where the problems described above can be solved and the effects described in the “Effects of the Invention” can be obtained, a configuration in which these constituent requirements are deleted or combined can be extracted as an invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Imaging device, 20 ... Image processing device, 21 ... Video input processing part, 22 ... Area setting part, 23 ... Switch, 24 ... High resolution processing part, 25 ... Event detection part, 26 ... Image preservation | save processing part, 27 ... Memory, 30 ... Image receiving device.

Claims (13)

An imaging device that captures a monitoring object and obtains a first video signal;
An image processing device connected to the imaging device,
Area detecting means for detecting an area including the monitoring object from the first video signal;
High resolution processing means for generating a second video signal by performing high resolution processing on the video signal of the area detected by the area detection unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising:
A monitoring system comprising: an image receiving device connected to the image processing device and displaying or recording the second video signal. The monitoring object includes a moving object,
The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the area detection unit detects the moving body from a difference between frames of the first video signal. The monitoring object includes a difference from a background image acquired in advance,
The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the area detecting unit detects the difference from a difference between the background video and a frame of the first video signal. The area detecting means detects a plurality of areas including a plurality of monitoring objects from the first video signal,
2. The high resolution processing means increases the resolution of each of the plurality of areas, and generates the second video signal so that the plurality of areas are displayed by dividing a display screen of the image receiving device. The monitoring system described in. The area detecting means detects a plurality of areas including a plurality of monitoring objects from the first video signal,
The high-resolution processing means increases the resolution of each of the plurality of areas, and generates the second video signal so that the plurality of areas are sequentially switched and displayed on a display screen of the image receiving device. The monitoring system according to 1. The image processing apparatus includes:
Event detecting means for detecting a specific event from the second video signal;
Video storage means for storing a frame including a specific event detected by the event detection means in the second video signal;
The monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising: An imaging device that captures a monitoring object and obtains a first video signal; an image processing device that is connected to the imaging device and that performs image processing on the first video signal to generate a second video signal; An image processing apparatus connected to the image processing apparatus and used in a monitoring system comprising an image receiving apparatus that displays or records the second video signal;
Area detecting means for detecting an area including the monitoring object from the first video signal;
High resolution processing means for generating a second video signal by performing high resolution processing on the video signal of the area detected by the area detection unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising: Capturing a first video signal by capturing an image of a monitoring object with an imaging device;
By an image processing device connected to the imaging device,
Detecting an area including the monitoring object from the first video signal;
Generating a second video signal by performing a high resolution processing on the video signal of the detected area;
Displaying or recording the second video signal connected to the image processing device;
A monitoring method comprising: The monitoring object includes a moving object,
The monitoring method according to claim 8, wherein the moving body is detected from a difference between frames of the first video signal. The monitoring object includes a difference from a background image acquired in advance,
The monitoring method according to claim 8, wherein the difference is detected from a difference between the background video and a frame of the first video signal. A plurality of areas including a plurality of monitoring objects are detected from the first video signal,
The monitoring method according to claim 8, wherein the resolution of each of the plurality of areas is increased, and the second video signal is generated so that the plurality of areas are displayed by dividing a display screen of the image receiving device. A plurality of areas including a plurality of monitoring objects are detected from the first video signal,
The monitoring method according to claim 8, wherein the resolution of each of the plurality of areas is increased, and the second video signal is generated so that the plurality of areas are sequentially switched and displayed on a display screen of the image receiving apparatus. . Detecting a specific event from the second video signal by the image processing device;
Storing a frame including a specific event detected by the event detection means in the second video signal;
The monitoring method according to claim 8, further comprising:

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