JP2012227627A - Image recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that only one of either HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) is used in a recording medium recording an image in an image recorder and only one drive is selected in accordance with respective features and thus difficult scenes surely exist.SOLUTION: According to the present invention, the HDD and SSD are used at the same time in the recording medium, and the respective features are made the best use of. During normal recording, data is recorded in the HDD. During alarm recording, the data is recorded in the SSD. Thus, efficient image recording with high safety is realized.

Description

The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus that records an image captured by a camera and switches a recording medium to be recorded according to the situation.

The image monitoring system is installed for various purposes such as crime prevention and accident prevention in various public facilities such as hotels, buildings, convenience store financial institutions, dams or roads. In a conventional general image monitoring system, a monitoring target area is imaged with a camera or the like, and the captured image is transmitted to a monitoring center such as a management office or a security room. The subject was monitored, warning and warning were performed according to the purpose and necessity, and images were recorded and stored.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, network-type image monitoring forms in which images from surveillance cameras are digitized and images are transmitted and monitored via a network represented by the Internet have become widespread. In particular, a financial institution, a store, or the like requires a monitoring form in which a monitoring image is recorded and the recorded image is viewed retrospectively when a problem occurs.

Record-type monitoring includes, for example, alarm recording that records only when an event occurs, such as recording only when a person passes through a door or recording only when an object moves in a certain area.

Patent Document 1 discloses an image recording apparatus that selectively uses normal recording for recording an image acquired by a camera and alarm recording that starts recording or increases the recording rate when some abnormality is detected.

JP 2010-028754 A

  In the conventional image recording apparatus as described above, only one of HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Drive) is used as a recording medium for recording an image in the image recording apparatus. Only one was selected according to each feature, and there were scenes that were not good at each. For example, HDDs have slower write / read speeds than SSDs, are large and heavy, have low impact resistance, and are worried about operation at high and low temperatures. SSDs have a limited number of rewrites compared to HDDs. The price per recording capacity is high.

  In view of such problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording apparatus that uses an HDD and an SSD together as a recording medium and records an image by making use of the advantages while compensating for the respective disadvantages.

  An image recording apparatus of the present invention includes a communication unit that exchanges signals with the outside, an alarm detection unit that recognizes an alarm signal, a first recording medium that records an acquired image when there is no alarm signal, And a second recording medium that records an acquired image when an alarm is detected by the alarm detection unit.

  According to the present invention, both HDD and SSD are used together as a recording medium, and by taking advantage of the characteristics of each, recording to HDD during normal recording and recording to SSD during alarm recording realizes safer and more efficient image recording. can do.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of an image monitoring system. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
The HDD is used for normal recording in the present invention because the HDD can be rewritten many times and has a low price per capacity, and is therefore suitable for recording information in which writing frequently occurs and information having a large amount of data. SSDs, on the other hand, have high writing / reading speed, small size and light weight, high impact resistance, and stable operation at high and low temperatures, so reading speed is required and important data is recorded. In the present invention, it is used for alarm recording.

  First, the overall configuration of the image monitoring system will be described with reference to FIG. 1 is a camera that captures an image of an area to be monitored and outputs an image signal, 2 is an encoder that digitizes and encodes an image signal from the camera or an alarm signal from the sensor, and distributes it to a network. 3 is a door sensor or a moving object detection sensor, A sensor that outputs an alarm signal when an event such as a change or abnormality occurs in a monitored area such as an infrared sensor or a thermal sensor, 4 is a network cable or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) that transmits data transmitted from the device A network such as a public line, 5 a network I / F and an image codec, a PC with a built-in image display function, 6 an HDD and an SSD, and an image recording apparatus for recording data such as images transmitted from the network, 7 is an object to be monitored such as a door sensor, a moving object detection sensor, an infrared sensor, or a heat sensor. A sensor for outputting an alarm signal when there is an event of change or abnormality in the A.

  Here, in this example, the camera and the encoder are described separately, but the same effect can be obtained even if a WEB camera in which the camera and the encoder are integrated is used. In addition to the encoder, the sensor 3 may be directly connected to the network, or may be connected to the image recording device 6 like the sensor 7, and the camera 2, the encoder 4, and the image recording device 6 may be connected to each other. It may be provided as an alarm recording button for a person to press on the housing. The network 4 also includes network devices such as routers and hubs, and each device connected to the network 4 can communicate with each other via this network.

The camera 1 images the monitoring target area, outputs an image signal, and inputs the image signal to the encoder 2. The sensor 3 detects a change or abnormality in the monitoring target area and outputs an alarm signal to the encoder 2. The encoder 2 digitizes an image signal and an alarm signal, and performs MPEG-4 (Moving Picture Experts Group phase 4) and MJPEG (Motion Joint Photographic Experts).
The image is compressed and encoded using a standard such as (Group), and is output to the network 4. The PC 5 receives the image data transmitted from the network, decodes it into a format capable of image display, and displays it on the monitor. Also, operations such as playback, fast-forwarding, and various settings are performed on the image recording / distributing apparatus via the network 4 on the GUI using an operation I / F such as a mouse or a keyboard. The image recording device 6 receives and records image data transmitted from the network.

Next, the internal configuration of the image recording apparatus 6 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
Reference numeral 601 denotes a network interface (hereinafter referred to as IF) that exchanges various new issues between the network 4 and the image recording apparatus 6, 602 denotes an alarm IF that receives a signal from the sensor 7, and 603 controls the entire image recording apparatus 6. A control unit 604 is an image processing unit that performs various image processing and image analysis on the image, 605 is an HDD that records an image at the time of normal recording, and 606 is an SSD that records an image at the time of alarm recording.

  The network IF 601 receives image data transmitted via the network 4 and outputs it to the image processing unit 604. The image processing unit 604 performs image processing as necessary, and outputs to the HDD 605 when there is no alarm and outputs to the SSD 606 when there is an alarm under the control of the control unit 603. In the case of normal recording, the HDD 605 records a normal image, and in the case of alarm recording, the SSD 606 records an alarm image.

  Here, there are several types for determining the presence or absence of an alarm. The first is a case where an alarm signal is added to the image signal and transmitted by the detection of the sensor 3 or the moving object detection by the image analysis by the camera 1 or the encoder 2. In this case, in the image recording device 6 For example, the network IF 601, the control unit 603, and the image processing unit 604 separate an image signal and an alarm signal to detect an alarm. The second is a case where an alarm signal is received by the sensor 7 directly connected to the image recording apparatus 6. The alarm signal is input to the alarm IF 602 and the alarm signal is detected. The third is a case where an abnormality such as moving object detection is detected by image analysis of the image processing unit 604. The image processing unit 604 analyzes the input image and outputs an alarm signal.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the HDD and SSD are used in combination on the recording medium, and by taking advantage of the respective characteristics, recording is performed on the HDD during normal recording and on the SSD during alarm recording. Highly efficient image recording can be realized.

  In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the components without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. For example, although the present embodiment has been described with the SSD, a large capacity external flash memory or the like may be used. . Moreover, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in each embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

1: camera, 2: encoder, 3, 7: sensor, 4: network, 5: PC, 6: image recording device, 601: network IF, 602: alarm IF, 603: control unit, 604: image processing unit, 605 : HDD, 606: SSD.

Claims (1)

A communication unit for exchanging signals with the outside;
An alarm detector for recognizing alarm signals;
A first recording medium for recording the acquired image when there is no alarm signal;
A second recording medium for recording the acquired image when an alarm is detected by the alarm detection unit;
An image recording apparatus comprising: