JP2014049865A - Monitor camera system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a monitor camera system capable of improving operability by instantaneously previewing an arbitrary camera image.SOLUTION: When a CCTV controller 4 determines that a mouse cursor 16 is placed on a camera icon 15 on a map screen 11 by an operation from an operator, the CCTV operator 4 starts a viewer software of an encoder 2 for distributing image information from a camera 1 corresponding to the camera icon 15 to perform preview display of the image information from the camera 1.

Description

  The present invention relates to a surveillance camera system, and more particularly to a surveillance camera system in which a client selects and views a desired surveillance camera image.

Conventionally, CCTV (Closed) that encodes video captured by a surveillance camera and transmits it via an IP network.
Circuit Tele-Vision) system is known (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 4). In these systems, viewing of transmitted video, control of the camera, and the like are generally performed by a Web browser or a personal computer installed with dedicated viewer software.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a CCTV operation screen of a conventional personal computer. The CCTV operation screen 101 includes a plurality of screens such as a camera selection screen 102 for selecting a camera and a camera control screen 103 for controlling the shooting direction and zoom of the selected camera.
A map screen 104 shown in FIG. 5A is one of the CCTV operation screens 101, displays a map of the area where the surveillance camera is installed, and accepts an operation from the user.
The camera icon 110 is an icon displayed on the map so as to match the position where the surveillance camera is installed, and can be clicked with a mouse.
When the user wants to view the camera image, first, the user clicks the camera icon 110 on the map displayed on the map screen 104 or selects one from the camera selection list displayed on the other camera selection screen 102. To do. Then, the screen shifts from the CCTV operation screen 101 to the video display screen 105 in FIG.
The video display screen 105 is a screen for displaying live video or recorded video, and most of the screen is used for video display, and buttons 106 for returning to the CCTV operation screen are arranged in the remaining area.

  In addition to the above, as a related art related to the present invention, a playback device for a BD-ROM having a preview function for synchronously playing back the corresponding content when the cursor is placed on the menu (for example, see Patent Document 5), A telecast service (see, for example, Patent Document 6) having an interactive interface that provides a viewer with a moving image preview of an available program is known.

JP 2008-199531 A JP 2010-272943 A JP 2010-068189 A JP 2009-303033 A JP 2008-245307 A Japanese National Patent Publication No. 10-505976

Conventionally, in a personal computer which is a client device, processing for video display has been started in response to a clear selection operation such as a mouse click, and thus the user has been waiting until the display is started. Further, in the method of transitioning from the CCTV operation screen for performing camera selection to the video display screen (window), the user has to manually close the video display screen after confirming the video.
In addition, as a method for easily confirming multiple camera images, there is a method that reduces the multiple camera images using a part of the screen and displays them in tiles, but in a large-scale system with many cameras, all cameras There is a problem that not all images can be displayed, and if all the images are acquired in real time, the network load increases.

In the techniques of Patent Documents 5 and 6, the video to be previewed is a recorded video that does not require real-time property, and the recording medium is locally provided or transmitted by a large-capacity transmission medium (optical fiber network). Therefore, consideration to response and network load is insufficient for application to the CCTV system.
As described above, the conventional surveillance camera system has a problem that an arbitrary camera image cannot be instantly previewed, and there is room for improvement in operability.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a surveillance camera system capable of instantly previewing an arbitrary camera image and improving operability.

  In order to achieve the above object, a surveillance camera system according to the present invention includes a camera that captures a surveillance area, an encoder that delivers video information input from the camera, and the encoder delivered from the encoder via a communication network. CCTV controller that receives video information, displays it on the operation screen and monitors the monitoring area, and is installed in the monitoring area on the operation screen by the operation of the operator. A monitoring camera system that displays a camera icon indicating the position of the camera and displays video information from a desired camera on the operation screen by a selection operation of the camera icon by a mouse click from the operator. The CCTV controller is operated by a mouse cursor on a camera icon on the map screen. If it is determined that the loaded was activates the viewer software encoder for distributing video information from the camera of the camera icon, and performs a preview display of the image information from the camera.

  In addition, a surveillance camera system according to the present invention for achieving the above object is provided by a camera that captures a surveillance area, an encoder that distributes video information input from the camera, and the encoder that is distributed via a communication network. A CCTV controller that receives the video information and displays the video information on an operation screen to monitor the monitoring area. A map of the monitoring area on the operation screen and the monitoring area are operated by an operator. A camera icon indicating the position of the camera installed in the camera and a list of the cameras are displayed, and video information from a desired camera is displayed by selecting a desired camera name in the list by a mouse click from the operator. The surveillance camera system displays on the operation screen, wherein the CCTV controller is operated by the operator in response to the operation. When it is determined that the mouse cursor is placed on the camera name in the list, the viewer software of the encoder that distributes the video information from the camera with the camera name is started, and the video information preview from the camera is displayed. And

  In addition, in the surveillance camera system according to the present invention for achieving the above object, the CCTV controller has a storage unit, and maps the map data and the place name / facility name in the storage unit. A desired map is called from the map database and displayed on the operation screen by a search operation based on character input of a place name / facility name which is stored as a database and is to be displayed by an operator to display a monitoring video. .

  As described above, according to the present invention, an arbitrary camera image can be instantly previewed, and operability can be improved.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the surveillance camera system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the CCTV operation screen which the CCTV controller 4 of FIG. 1 provides. It is a flowchart of the display process by the CCTV operation device 4 of the surveillance camera system which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the CCTV operation screen which the CCTV controller 4 of the surveillance camera system of Embodiment 3 of this invention provides. It is a figure which shows the CCTV operation screen of the conventional personal computer, (a) shows a CCTV operation screen, (b) shows a video display screen.

  The present invention relates to a monitoring camera system in which a client selects and views a desired camera image on a monitoring screen of an operating device. In the monitoring camera system, a camera icon or camera on a map screen displayed on the monitoring screen by the operation of the client When it is determined that the mouse cursor is placed on the selection list, etc., the viewer software for the transmission device such as the encoder that distributes the camera video is started to display the preview, thereby operating the operating device. It is intended to improve the performance.

<Embodiment 1>
First, the surveillance camera system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a surveillance camera system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
The camera 1 is a CCTV camera device that captures an optical image to be monitored, and outputs the obtained video signal as an analog signal such as composite video or an uncompressed digital signal using CoaXPress (registered trademark). A plurality of cameras 1 are provided in the surveillance camera system. However, since the configurations are the same, the cameras 1 are referred to as cameras 1 without being distinguished below.

The encoder 2 converts the video signal from the camera 1 to H.264. It is converted into digital data of a H.264 format moving image or JPEG format still image, converted into an IP packet, and sent to the IP network 3.
The IP network 3 is a network that can deliver an IP packet to its destination (CCTV controller 4), and may be constructed using a public wireless broadband communication service.
The CCTV controller 4 is a personal computer in which CCTV operation viewing software including a Web browser, ActiveX plug-in (ActiveX is a registered trademark), dedicated application software, codec, and the like is introduced. A CCTV operation screen is provided to the user, and various operations with a mouse or the like from the user are accepted. As a feature of this example, when the CCTV controller 4 determines that the mouse cursor is placed on a camera icon or a camera selection list on the map screen, it is a viewer for a transmission device such as an encoder that distributes camera images. Start the software and display the preview.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a CCTV operation screen provided by the CCTV controller 4 of FIG.
The CCTV operation screen 10 displays a camera selection screen 12 for selecting a camera, a camera control screen 13 for controlling the shooting direction and zoom of the selected camera, and a map screen 11 as in the conventional case (see FIG. 6). ing.
Further, the map on the map screen 11 is an area where the camera 1 of FIG. 1 is installed, and a camera icon 15 is displayed along with a river, a main road and the like.
The camera icon 15 is displayed with an icon image prepared separately from the map image arranged at the corresponding position on the map based on the camera installation position information acquired in advance, and is linked even if the map is scrolled or enlarged / reduced To do.
The mouse cursor 16 is always displayed in the foreground on the screen, and represents an arbitrary position on the map screen 11 according to the mouse operation from the user. FIG. 2A shows a state where the mouse cursor 16 is placed on the camera icon 15 of the camera c.

The preview image 14 in FIG. 2B is a live camera image that is displayed as an overlay near the camera icon in a very short time after the mouse cursor 16 is placed on the camera icon 15. . The display position of the preview image 14 is automatically determined so that it is within the CCTV operation screen 10 (window) and does not overlap with a plurality of camera icons as much as possible. Lead lines are added between the images 14. The display size remains the size of the received camera image (for example, 320 * 240) or is adjusted to a predetermined size by resizing processing. The preview video 14 continues to be displayed while the cursor is on it, and preferably the latest (current) video is displayed as a moving image with a frame rate of 1 fps or higher.
Further, even when the cursor is moved from the camera icon 15 onto the preview video 14 while the preview video 14 is displayed, the display of the preview video 14 is continued. Then, by performing an operation such as clicking the mouse on the preview video 14, the screen is shifted to the conventional video display screen 105, or the video recording screen of the corresponding camera and the related alarm are switched to the video recording screen. The display of the preview video 14 can be continued even if the cursor is removed from the preview video 14.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, the surveillance camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
In the surveillance camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the communication protocol between the encoder 2 and the CCTV controller 4 in FIG. 1 is compliant with ONVIF (registered trademark), the CCTV controller 4 is a Web browser, A configuration when DirectShow (registered trademark) is used for display processing will be described.

Here, the transmission process of the camera video by ONVIF will be described.
ONVIF uses a service-oriented architecture, and NVT (Network
Communication between settings such as Video Transmitter (NVD) and Network Video Display (NVD), management, control (including camera, camera platform and image recognition), event delivery, etc. is done using WSDL (Web Service Description Language) These functions are provided as Web services. WSDL is described in an XML syntax and communicated as a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) message. The SOAP message (envelope) is further stored in the BODY using HTTP and transmitted.
In many cases, cameras and encoders constituting an NVT can output a plurality of types of video streams (referred to as media streams including audio) having different resolutions, frame rates, and encoding methods. Such NVT holds the attribute as a media profile for each type of media stream that can be output, and “GetProfiles” from NVD etc.
When inquired by "command", it responds with a plurality of media profiles available at that time.

  In order for the NVD to acquire a camera image, a GetStreamUri or GetSnapshotUri request is sent to the NVT with the desired media profile as an argument. The NVT returns a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) to be accessed in order to obtain a live moving image by the former, and a URI to be accessed in order to obtain a still image just taken by the latter. In the case of a moving image, processing after acquiring a URI is the same as stream transmission by normal RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) (RFC 2326). That is, by sending the RTSP DESCRIBE method to the URI, a series of procedures for initializing the session is performed, and the presentation is started.

Next, display processing by DirectShow will be described. DirectShow is an architecture that realizes playback, capture, simple editing, etc. of video and audio streams on a personal computer equipped with a Windows (registered trademark) OS. In DirectShow, a desired function can be realized by dynamically connecting COM components called filters, and there are basically three types of filters: source filters, conversion filters, and render filters.
The source filter takes a stream from a file or a network and passes it to the next filter. A function of receiving a H.264 video stream, appropriately decrypting it, and outputting it as a NAL layer stream is realized by connecting one or more source filters.
The conversion filter performs decoding of encoded video, image processing, a copyright management function, and the like, and passes them to the next filter. H.264 decoding is performed. Decoding processing by the conversion filter can be performed by using GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) by using DirectX Video Acceleration (DirectX is a registered trademark), and the load on the CPU can be reduced.
The render filter is located at the end of the filter graph and draws to the display device or writes to a file. In this example, a VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) or EVR (Enhanced Video) provided by US Microsoft Corporation is used.
Renderer) is used. In VMR or the like, composition with other video or subtitle images, chroma format conversion, scaling, and the like can be performed. A DMO (DirectX Media Object) may be used instead of the DirectShow filter. For both DirectShow and DMO, only native code can directly use them. In addition to the Web browser, the CCTV controller 4 of this example controls the necessary DirectShow filter, video playback application software (for example, Windows Media) using DirectShow, video playback application software, and hardware information of the CCTV controller 4. It is assumed that browser extensions for acquisition (also called add-ons, plug-ins, ActiveX controls, etc.) are installed.

Based on the above, the display process in the CCTV controller 4 in the surveillance camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of display processing by the CCTV controller 4 of the surveillance camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
First, the map screen 11 is displayed as step S101. The map screen 11 shows that the parent content (document in DMO) that is read first (original data of the CCTV operation screen 10 in FIG. 2) is the operation button display content (source of the camera control screen 13 in FIG. 2) through the DMO. Data), map display content (original data of the map screen 11 in FIG. 2), and the like, are dynamically configured according to user operations. Immediately after reading, it is in the default state. Each content is composed of files such as HTML or XML, a style sheet, and a script.
The map display content includes GIS (Geographic Information).
A code for displaying a map provided by the service using an API of a System (geographic information system) service (in this example, Google Maps (Google is a registered trademark)) is included. Specifically, this code displays the center position of the map to be displayed, the display area size (fixed), the scale, the installation position information of each camera 1 to be displayed on the map, etc. To the GIS service via the API. In the case of Google Maps, the longitude and latitude of the camera 1 is registered by adding an overlay. Thereby, the camera 1 can be displayed as an arbitrary camera icon (custom marker) 15 on the map. The camera icon 15 is generated by creating an instance of a GIcon object and setting an address (URI) or the like where the image of the camera icon 15 exists in its properties.

  Next, in step S102, it is determined whether or not an operation for displaying an image is possible in a single action (such a camera is hereinafter referred to as an immediate display camera). (Or recorded video) is specified. The one-time action here refers to, for example, movement of the mouse cursor (without clicking). The processing in this step is started by an event such as all mouse operations in the map screen 11. For example, when map display content is displayed, the map display range is known from the current map center position and scale, so each position (latitude and longitude) information in the camera table prepared in advance The inside / outside determination may be performed for the position indicated by. The camera table is a virtual table that covers all attributes (camera name, type, installation position, address, protocol, compatible codec, transmission path environment, etc.) of all cameras to be monitored. In the case of the above protocol, it is constructed by acquiring it from each camera (NVT) whenever necessary, collecting it in advance and caching it.

Next, as step S103, when it is determined in step S102 that there is an immediate display camera, the camera table is referred to obtain the protocol of each immediate display camera and the corresponding codec, and the still image (snapshot) is acquired from the immediate display camera. ) If there is a camera that can be acquired, whether the elapsed time since the last still image acquisition exceeded a predetermined update cycle (depending on the number of cameras, individual transmission path environment, etc.) If it exceeds, a still image acquisition request is transmitted to the camera (NVT). The still image acquisition request is an http get method to the URI acquired in advance by GetSnapshotUri.
Upon receiving the still image acquisition request, the camera (NVT) transmits the latest captured image (still image) as a response to the request source. The acquired still image is assumed to be held in the CCTV controller 4, but when there are a large number of CCTV controllers 4, a still image acquisition request is transmitted via a proxy server or the like that can be commonly accessed by HTTP, The captured image as a response may be cached for a predetermined valid period, or the image may be HTTP-accessed from the CCTV controller 4 by the URI of the proxy server.

In step S104, a live video transmission preparation request is transmitted to each of the immediate display cameras using the RTSP protocol or the like. In the case of RTSP, the transmission preparation request means Describe and Setup methods. The Describe method specifies a low-resolution, low-rate media profile suitable for live video preview. Note that a transmission preparation request is not made for an immediate display camera that has already performed a process competing with this transmission preparation request or a high load process, or an immediate display camera with a poor transmission path environment.
In addition, in this step S104, a Directshow filter corresponding to the immediate display camera determined in step S102 may be loaded in advance. If there are a plurality of immediate display cameras and the filters corresponding to the protocols are not the same, an arbitrary one is loaded. If the density of the camera icons on the displayed map is not so high, it is effective to load the Directshow filter corresponding to the camera icon closest to the acquired mouse cursor.

  In the state where the steps S101 to S104 are ready, in step S105, it is detected that the mouse cursor is placed on a certain camera icon (mouseover event of the GIS service API). In this step S105, the camera to which the mouse cursor is placed (referred to as a preview camera) is specified, and based on the size of the map screen 11 and the coordinates in the map screen 11 of the camera icon to which the mouse cursor is placed. Determine the area (position and size) for displaying live video from the camera. Basically, the size is the same as that of the still image, the position is set to the upper right by a predetermined amount with respect to the position of the camera icon, and the position and the size are adjusted when they cannot be displayed in the map screen 11. These processes are automatically performed in the draw () method when the subsequent step S106 uses the information window of the GIS service API, or the PanoramioLayer or GroundOverlay object.

  In step S106, a live video transmission request (PLAY method) is transmitted to the preview camera using the RTSP protocol or the like. As a response, the preview camera starts encoding the live video, and transmits the encoded video stream to the CCTV controller 4 or the multicast address by the RTP protocol or the like. In general, it takes a maximum of one video frame time from the reception of a transmission request to the start of encoding, and further 0. 0 from the start of encoding until the first RTP packet is generated. It takes time from several frames to several frames. Meanwhile, step S107 described later is performed.

In step S107, the still image of the preview camera acquired in advance (in step S103) is drawn in the area determined in step S105.
When using the above information window etc., create an InfoWindow options object etc. for each of the immediate display cameras in advance and use the URL returned by the GetSnapshotUri response or the still image URL held by the proxy server etc. in the DOM tree It may be added to a predetermined node.
On the other hand, if the still image is local, the video playback application software is started, a filter graph corresponding to the still image is specified, and rendering is performed by Dirctshow. The render filter uses the windowless mode of the VMR filter. When the drawing position is specified to be the same as the position of the area determined in step S105 by the IVMRWindowlessControl :: SetVideoPosition method, and the handle of the drawing destination window (map screen 11) is specified by the SetVideoClippingWindow method, the graph is executed. Immediately after drawing, the filter graph is changed for live video while holding the drawing result. The VMR filter has a characteristic that video redrawing processing is not performed unless notified, and a drawn still image can be easily maintained as it is.
Even when an information window or the like is used, the video playback application software is activated and the filter graph for live video is specified and executed during this step.

  In step S108, the video stream from the preview camera is received, decoded, and rendered in the area determined in step S105. The video stream received at the socket is directly guided to the Directshow source filter and rendered. If a still image is drawn by Directshow in step S107, it is necessary to redraw with the RepaintVideo method when changing from the drawing position or size at that time.

As described above, in this example, since thread-safe DirectShow and video playback application software are used, a plurality of videos can be played back simultaneously with few resources. For example, 12 VGA videos in full screen mode ( It is possible to display 4 × 3 × 3 relatively easily.
In addition, since the still image acquired in advance is displayed until the preview video starts to be reproduced, the subjective response to the mouse-over operation on the camera icon is improved.

<Embodiment 3>
Next, the surveillance camera system according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
In the surveillance camera system according to the third embodiment of the present invention, when a map screen is displayed by the CCTV controller 4, a function for jumping the map to the corresponding camera or place name by text search is added.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a CCTV operation screen provided by the CCTV controller 4 of the surveillance camera system according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
The CCTV operation screen 20 in FIG. 4 is obtained by adding a text search keyword input text box 25 and a search button 26 to be used when selecting a map to be displayed on the map screen 21 with respect to the CCTV operation screen 10 in FIG. It is.

Therefore, an operation method of the CCTV operation screen 20 will be described with reference to FIG.
An operator inputs characters such as an area in which a surveillance video is to be displayed or a place name of a camera or a facility name in a text box 25 in the CCTV operation screen 20 and clicks a search button 26 with a mouse or the like, so that the CCTV controller A desired map is called from the memory on the basis of information in which map data registered in a database (not shown) in FIG. 4 is associated with a place name / facility name, and is automatically displayed on the map screen 21.

  As described above, according to the surveillance camera system according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention, in a large-scale surveillance camera system having a large number of cameras, a camera that displays an image on the CCTV operation screen is selected from the CCTV controller. At this time, even when a person unfamiliar with the operation of the CCTV controller or a person who is not familiar with the land operates, it is possible to easily select a desired camera and improve operability.

1: Camera, 2: Encoder, 3: IP network, 4: CCTV controller, 10: CCTV operation screen, 11: Map screen, 12: Camera selection screen, 13: Camera control screen, 14: Preview video, 15: Camera Icon: 16: Mouse cursor, 20: CCTV operation screen, 21: Map screen, 25: Text box, 26: Search button, 27: Camera icon, 101: CCTV operation screen, 102: Camera selection screen, 103: Camera control screen 104: Map screen, 105: Video display screen, 106: Button, 110: Camera icon.

Claims (3)

A camera that captures the monitoring area, an encoder that distributes video information input from the camera, and the video information distributed from the encoder via a communication network is received and displayed on an operation screen to display the monitoring area. A CCTV controller that performs monitoring, and displays a map of the monitoring area and a camera icon indicating a position of the camera installed in the monitoring area on the operation screen by an operation from an operator, and the operation A monitoring camera system that displays video information from a desired camera on the operation screen by a selection operation of a camera icon by a mouse click from a person,
When the CCTV controller determines that the mouse cursor is placed on the camera icon on the map screen by an operation from the operator, the viewer starts an encoder viewer software that distributes video information from the camera of the camera icon. And a preview display of video information from the camera. A camera that captures the monitoring area, an encoder that distributes video information input from the camera, and the video information distributed from the encoder via a communication network is received and displayed on an operation screen to display the monitoring area. A CCTV controller for monitoring, and a map of the monitoring area, a camera icon indicating the position of the camera installed in the monitoring area, and a list of the cameras on the operation screen by an operation from an operator A monitoring camera system for displaying video information from a desired camera on the operation screen by a selection operation of a desired camera name in the list by a mouse click from the operator;
When the CCTV controller determines that the mouse cursor is placed on the camera name in the list by an operation from the operator, the CCTV controller starts an encoder viewer software that distributes video information from the camera with the camera name. A surveillance camera system that displays a preview of video information from the camera. The surveillance camera system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the CCTV controller has a storage unit, and stores information in which the map data is associated with a place name / facility name in the storage unit as a map database. A surveillance camera system, wherein a desired map is called from the map database and displayed on the operation screen by a search operation based on a character input of a place name / facility name to be displayed by a person to display a surveillance video.