JP2017050607A - Intercom device for collective housing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an intercom device for collective housing capable of allowing a user to check a desired point in an image of a visitor when the user reconfirms the video after a ringing call.SOLUTION: The intercom device includes a stored image transmitter 10b that temporally stores every images of a visitor picked up by a slave camera 15, transmits in non-real time the every images temporally stored to a home information panel 11. The home information panel 11 accumulates the stored images transmitted from the stored image transmitter 10b, and receiving a reproduction operation, reproduces the accumulated stored images.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement of a collective intercom apparatus having a video call function for transmitting a visitor image taken by a camera unit installed at a common entrance to a home information board as a call image and reproducing it.

  In the collective intercom apparatus as described above, it is security that the camera slave unit captures a visitor with high image quality (high bit rate) during a call and reproduces the high-quality visitor video on the home information board. It is desirable from a viewpoint. However, since the intercom line has a limited transmission capacity, it is difficult to transmit a high-quality visitor video as it is in real time during a call.

  As an example of the prior art related to such a problem, the following patent document 1 describes that during a call, the transmission is performed by changing the compression rate of the visitor video according to the transmission capacity of the interphone line. Yes. Further, Patent Document 2 describes that an entrance is photographed with a wide-angle camera, and a zoom button is operated on the base unit of the living room so that a video that can distinguish a visitor and a video around the entrance or the entire entrance are displayed. Has been.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2015-56672 JP 2011-55103 A

  In addition, from the viewpoint of security, there is a demand for reconfirming the visitor video after the call. However, even if the visitor video is stored on the housing information board every time a call is made, the video stored in this way will be processed after some video processing is applied to the high-resolution video taken by the camera unit. The information that you want to confirm may be missing.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to such a problem. When a resident reconfirms a visitor image after a call, the intercom apparatus for gathering can confirm a desired portion of the image. The purpose is to provide.

  The present invention relates to a collective intercom apparatus having a video call function for transmitting a visitor image taken by a camera unit installed at a common entrance to a home information board as a call image and reproducing it. Temporarily storing the entire captured visitor video, and comprising a storage video transmission device that transmits the entire temporarily stored video as a storage video to the home information board in non-real time, The storage video transmitted from the storage video transmission apparatus is accumulated, and when the reproduction operation is performed, the stored storage video is reproduced.

  In the present invention, the storage video transmission device temporarily stores the entire visitor video taken by the camera slave unit, and transmits the entire video as a storage video to the housing information board in non-real time after the call. It is said. Therefore, the entire high-resolution visitor video can be stored in the housing information board. Therefore, when the resident reconfirms the visitor video after the call, the desired location can be confirmed because there is no omission in the video information.

It is a block diagram which shows the basic composition of the intercom apparatus for a gathering made into an example of embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining the basic operation of the intercom apparatus for gathering. (A) is a schematic waveform diagram of an interphone line showing an example of a transmission mode of a call video and a storage video, and (b) is a schematic waveform diagram of an interphone line showing another example of a transmission mode of a video for a call and a storage video. It is. (A) is an example of a screen for storage video, (b) is an example of a playback screen for the storage video, (c) is another example of a screen for storage video to be processed, (d) is It is an example of the reproduction | regeneration screen of the video for a preservation | save. (A), (b) is an example of a screen of each of a plurality of visitor videos constituting the storage video, (c) is an example of a playback screen of the storage video, and (d) is a playback of the storage video. It is another example of a screen.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a collective intercom apparatus as an example of an embodiment.
The intercom device 1 controls a common entrance handset 10 installed at a common entrance of an apartment house, a plurality of housing information panels 11 installed in each house in the building, and a management room base unit 12 installed in a management room. The basic configuration is interconnected via the device 13 and the intercom line 14. The control device 13 is an element that controls transmission in order to make a calling call among the common entrance unit 10, the house information panel 11, and the management room base unit 12. The type of the intercom line 14 is not particularly limited and has a certain transmission capacity. The operation related to the calling call of the intercom device 1 is the same as the conventional one. The intercom apparatus 1 also has a video call function for transmitting and reproducing a visitor video imaged by the camera slave unit 15 installed at the common entrance as a video for a call to a housing information board.

  The camera unit 15 is installed in the common entrance, but may be configured integrally with the common entrance unit 10. The camera subunit 15 includes one or a plurality of photographing units 15a. The photographing unit 15a is composed of a CMOS or CCD image sensor or the like, and is configured to photograph a visitor at a high bit rate (high resolution, for example, 1080i, 720p, 1080p, etc.). The visitor video may be in color or monochrome. The camera unit 15 may include a lighting unit for night photography (not shown).

  The common entrance child device 10 is installed in the common entrance. The common entrance device 10 includes a call video transmission device 10a and a storage video transmission device 10b as elements for transmitting visitor video to the housing information board 11. During the call, the visitor video shot by the camera slave unit 15 is sent simultaneously to both the video transmission device 10a for call and the video transmission device 10b for storage.

  The call video transmission device 10a is configured to take a part of the visitor video taken by the camera slave unit 15 and transmit it to the home information board 11 in real time as a call video.

  More specifically, the call video transmission device 10a performs video processing for extracting part of the visitor video captured by the camera slave unit 15 so that real-time transmission via the interphone line 14 is possible. As a result, a low bit rate call video (standard resolution, for example, 480i, 480p, etc.) is generated. As processing for extracting a part of an image, reduction of the screen (thinning out pixels), extraction of a part of the screen, and the like can be considered. The processed video is encoded into a predetermined file format such as MPEG1, MPEG2 or MPEG3 format. The call video transmission device 10a performs such video processing and transmits the processed video to the house information board 11 in real time through the interphone line 14. Here, the real-time transmission is a transmission mode in which, for example, an image for one second is transmitted in one second. The home information board 11 is reproduced while receiving the video during the calling call, thereby realizing a comfortable video call.

  The storage video transmission device 10b temporarily stores the entire visitor video photographed by the camera slave unit 15 during the calling call, and then stores the entire video temporarily stored as a storage video through the interphone line 14. 11 is configured to transmit in non-real time.

  More specifically, the storage video transmission device 10b sequentially stores the visitor video captured by the camera slave unit 15 in the storage unit 15c during the call. At the time of storage, the identification number and date / time information of the house information board 11 as a call destination are added to the visitor video. Then, after the call is completed, the storage video transmission device 10b reads out the temporarily stored video little by little and transmits it to the corresponding housing information board 11 in non-real time. Here, the non-real-time transmission is a transmission mode in which, for example, an image of 1 second is transmitted over a time longer than 1 second, and it does not matter whether the transmission is continuous or discontinuous. The video transmitted in non-real time can be reproduced on the house information board 11 only after the transmission of the entire video is completed. Further, since the video for storage is a high bit rate, it cannot be displayed as it is on the display unit of the house information board 11.

  The storage unit 15c is a rewritable memory that is used as a temporary storage location for visitor videos, and may be constituted by, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory) mounted on the common entrance unit 10. It is considered sufficient for the capacity to be able to store the visitor video for 1-2 hours.

  The house information board 11 is connected to a door phone slave unit 16, and can make a call with the door phone slave unit 14. Further, the house information board 11 includes a display unit 11a for reproducing a visitor video, a video recording device 11b for accumulating the visitor video, a video processing unit 11c for performing various video processes when reproducing the visitor video, And an operation unit 11d for receiving a visitor video reproduction operation and the like.

  The display unit 11a is composed of a touch panel or the like and supports low bit rate video (standard resolution). That is, the display unit 11a can reproduce the call video transmitted in real time from the call video transmission device 10a only by decoding it.

  The video processing unit 11c executes video processing for generating a low bit rate video by extracting a part of the storage video so that the high bit rate storage video can be displayed on the display unit 11a. This video processing may be, for example, processing including any one of extraction of a screen, reduction, composition, and switching. This process may be executed based on a reproduction operation on the house information board 11.

  The video recording device 10b may be a non-volatile memory on which the house information board 11 is mounted, or a removable medium such as a memory card or a USB memory. However, since a high bit rate storage video is accumulated, a large capacity is desirable.

  The operation unit 11d is not limited to a specific configuration as long as an operation such as selection of a storage video to be played back and screen movement with respect to the video being played back can be performed. A dedicated operation key may be provided on the housing surface of the house information board 11, or necessary touch keys may be appropriately displayed on the display unit 11a.

Next, the basic operation related to the transmission of the visitor video by the collective intercom apparatus will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the interaction of the camera unit, the common entrance unit, and the house information panel in such a basic operation in time series.

In this basic operation, when a call operation is performed by designating a house number on the common entrance unit, the common entrance unit activates the camera unit and calls the corresponding house information panel. The camera slave unit starts photographing the visitor and transmits the photographed visitor image to the common entrance subunit (time T1).
The housing information panel called from the common entrance unit sounds a ringing tone, and when a response operation is performed, a call path is formed between the joint entrance unit and the housing information panel, and a call can be made (time). T2).
At this time, in the common entrance unit, video processing for extracting a part of the visitor image taken by the camera unit by the video transmission unit for calling and generating a video for calling is started. Is transmitted to the housing information board in real time through the intercom line. At this time, the storage video transmission unit also starts processing for temporarily storing the entire visitor image captured by the camera slave unit.
In the housing information board, during the call, the video for call transmitted from the common entrance unit in real time is reproduced on the display unit. This enables a video call while watching the visitor video (time T3).
Thereafter, when a termination operation is performed on the housing information panel, the communication path formed between the common entrance unit and the housing information panel is opened, and the calling call is terminated. At the time when the calling call is terminated, the common entrance unit stops the video processing by the calling video transmission unit, and also stops the transmission of the calling video to the home information board. Also, the temporary saving process of the visitor video by the video transmission unit for saving is stopped (time T4).
After the calling call is finished, in the common entrance unit, the storage video transmission unit starts the process of transmitting the entire temporarily stored visitor video as a storage video to the housing information board in non-real time. In the housing information board, the storage video transmitted in non-real time from the common entrance unit is stored in the video recording unit (time T5).
When the playback operation is performed on the home information board after the storage of the storage video is completed, the video processing unit executes video processing for extracting a part of the storage video based on the operation, and for the storage after the processing The video is reproduced on the display unit (time T6).

  As described above, in this embodiment, the storage video transmission device temporarily stores the entire visitor video imaged by the camera slave unit, and after the call, the entire video is stored as a storage video on the housing information board in real time. It is a mechanism to transmit to. Therefore, the entire high-resolution visitor video can be stored in the housing information board. Therefore, when the resident reconfirms the visitor video after the call, the desired location can be confirmed because there is no omission in the video information.

  Next, a method for transmitting the video for conversation, the video for storage, etc. through the interphone line will be described in detail. In large-scale apartment houses, two or more common entrance units (including camera units) are provided. However, since the video for call and the video for storage are all transmitted through the same interphone line, a transmission method that does not cause a shortage in the transmission capacity of the interphone line is required.

  As an example of such a transmission method, the transmission capacity required for each of the call video and the storage video is within the total transmission capacity of the interphone line so that the transmission video and the storage video can be started at any time. It is conceivable to make a reservation in advance.

Specifically, for example, when two common entrance doors are installed in an apartment house and the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is 8 Mbps, transmission of video for calls, etc. (transmission of visitor's voice and resident's voice) 3 Mbps is reserved, and 1 Mbps is reserved for transmission of the storage video.
FIG. 3A is a schematic waveform diagram of an interphone line showing a transmission mode of a call video and a storage video when the transmission capacity is reserved as described above. This waveform diagram shows the type of signal transmitted through the intercom line at each time.
The first call call (regardless of system) has already started at the start of the waveform diagram, and this call call has ended at time T2. At times T1 and T2, 3 Mbps out of the total transmission capacity of 8 Mbps on the interphone line is occupied by transmission of call video, caller's voice, and resident's voice for this call. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are indicated by white waveforms.
At time T3, transmission of the storage video by the first call is started. At times T3 to T8, 1 Mbps of the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by the transmission of the storage video. In the figure, the transmission of the storage video is indicated by a light gray waveform.
The second call is started at time T5. At times T5 to T8, 3 Mbps of the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by the transmission of the call video, the visitor's voice, and the resident's voice for this call. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are shown by dark gray waveforms.
The third call is started at time T7. At times T7 and T8, 3 Mbps out of the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by transmission of call video, caller's voice, and resident's voice for this call. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are indicated by black waveforms.

  As described above, according to this method, a certain transmission capacity is reserved for each of the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, the voice of the resident, and the transmission of the video for storage. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform complicated transmission control such as restricting the transmission of the storage video while the call video, the visitor's voice, and the resident's voice are being transmitted. For example, at times T5 to T8 in FIG. 3 (a), transmission of the video for storing the first call, transmission video for the second and third call, voice of the visitor, voice of the resident Transmission is performed in parallel (time division).

As another example of the transmission method, the call video has a higher transmission priority than the video for storage, and when transmission of the video for call becomes necessary, it is necessary for the transmission from the total transmission capacity of the interphone line. It is conceivable to dynamically allocate the capacity assumed to be. At this time, the remaining free space is allocated to the transmission of the storage video. Further, when the transmission of the call video and the transmission of the storage video compete, the capacity allocated to the storage video is reduced, and the corresponding amount is reassigned to the transmission of the call video.
Specifically, for example, when two systems of common entrance units (including camera units) are provided in a housing complex, and the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is 8 Mbps, transmission of video for calls (visitor's voice, residence, etc.) 3 Mbps is dynamically allocated to each person's voice transmission). In addition, all the remaining free space at that time is allocated to the transmission of the storage video. At this time, the transmission capacity required to transmit the two lines of call video is 6 Mbps. Therefore, even during the transmission of the two lines of call video, the storage video can be transmitted at 2 Mbps.

FIG. 3B is a schematic waveform diagram showing a transmission mode of the video for conversation and the video for storage when the transmission capacity is dynamically allocated as described above.
The first call is already started at the start of the waveform diagram, and this call is ended at time T12. At times T11 and T12, 3 Mbps of the total transmission capacity of 8 Mbps on the interphone line is occupied by transmission of call video, caller's voice, and resident's voice for this call. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are indicated by white waveforms.
At time T13, transmission of the video for storing the first call is started. At times T13 and T14, the entire transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by the transmission of the storage video. In the figure, the transmission of the storage video is indicated by a light gray waveform.
The second call is started at time T15. From time T15 to time T18, 3 Mbps of the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by transmission of the call video for this call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are shown by dark gray waveforms. As a result, at times T15 and T16, the transmission capacity occupied by the transmission of the storage video is limited to 5 Mbps. That is, priority is given to the transmission of the call video during a call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident, and the transmission of the video for storage is restricted.
The third call is started at time T17. At times T17 and T18, 3 Mbps of the total transmission capacity of the interphone line is occupied by the transmission of call video, caller's voice, and resident's voice for this call. In the figure, the transmission of the video for call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident are indicated by black waveforms. At this time, 3 Mbps of the total transmission capacity is occupied by the transmission of the call video for the second call, the voice of the visitor, and the voice of the resident. Therefore, at times T17 and T18, the transmission of the first system storage video is limited to the remaining transmission free capacity of 2 Mbps.

  According to this method, it is necessary to perform transmission control such as limiting the transmission of the storage video during the call. However, when no calling call is made, the entire transmission capacity of the interphone line can be allocated to the transmission of the storage video, so that there is an advantage that the storage video can be transmitted in a short time.

Next, an example of video processing executed when the video processing unit of the house information board reproduces the video for storage will be described.
The video processing unit performs real-time video processing for generating a low bit rate video by extracting a part of the video for storage in response to a resident's playback operation as video processing for reproducing the video for storage on the display unit. To run. This video processing makes it possible to reproduce the video for storage on the housing information board. The reproduction operation performed by the resident includes an operation for selecting a storage video to be reproduced and starting the reproduction, and various screen operations performed while viewing the screen being reproduced. The video processing described below corresponds to the latter screen operation.

FIG. 4A shows an example of a screen for saving video, and FIG. 4B shows an example of a playback screen for the saving video. FIG. 4C shows another example of a screen for saving video to be processed, and FIG. 4D shows an example of a playback screen for the saving video.
For example, it is assumed that the storage video S1 has a resolution of 720p. On the other hand, it is assumed that the display unit can reproduce a video having a resolution of 480p. At this time, if the range indicated by the broken line frame is extracted from the screen of the storage video S1, a video V1 having a resolution of 480p can be generated. That is, the video processing unit can generate a low-bit-rate video V1 as shown in FIG. 4B by extracting a predetermined range of the screen of the storage video S1.
However, at this time, a visitor may appear in a position off the center of the screen of the storage video S1. In order to make it possible to confirm such a visitor, the video processing unit may be able to move a range to be extracted from the storage video S1 based on a moving operation performed during reproduction. Specifically, the resident performs an operation of moving the range to be extracted while looking at the reproduction screen of the storage video V1.
For example, when a moving operation is performed in the upper right direction here, the range to be extracted from the screen of the storage video S1 is changed from the position indicated by the broken line frame in FIG. 4A to the position indicated by the broken line frame in FIG. Moved. If the range indicated by the broken line frame in FIG. 4C is extracted, a reproduction screen V2 as shown in FIG. 4D is obtained. In this reproduction screen V2, the visitor is reflected in the center of the screen. This allows visitors who were not in front of the camera unit to check later.

Further, the video processing apparatus may be capable of enlarging / reducing the range to be extracted from the storage video based on the enlarging / reducing operation (reference diagram is omitted). When the range to be extracted is enlarged from the standard, the extracted screen is too wide to reproduce on the display unit as it is simply by extracting the range. Therefore, in this case, the screen may be reduced by thinning out pixels.
On the other hand, when the range to be extracted is reduced from the standard, simply extracting the range makes the extracted screen too small to make it difficult for the visitor to confirm. Therefore, in this case, the screen may be enlarged by interpolating and adding pixels.

Furthermore, another example of the video processing executed when the video processing unit of the house information board reproduces the storage video will be described.
When the camera unit has a plurality of photographing units, a plurality of visitor images photographed by the photographing units are transmitted to the housing information board as storage images. In this case, the video processing unit may generate a video having a lower bit rate than the storage video by synthesizing one video from the plurality of visitor videos.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are examples of screens of a plurality of visitor videos constituting the storage video, FIG. 5C is an example of a playback screen of the storage video, and FIG. It is another example of the reproduction | regeneration screen of the video for a preservation | save. Since FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are photographed by different photographing units, the screen contents are different.
At this time, the video processing unit synthesizes the video V3 as shown in FIG. 5C from the two visitor videos S2 and S3 shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. That is, the video V3 is synthesized by superimposing the reduced screen of the visitor video S3 on the upper left of the screen of the visitor video S2. If the position where the images are superimposed can be moved according to the moving operation performed during the reproduction, the problem that the reduced screen is in the way and the visitor cannot confirm can be avoided.
Further, when a switching operation is performed during reproduction, the order of superimposing images may be changed. In FIG. 5C, the reduced screen of the visitor video S3 is superimposed on the screen of the visitor video S2, but when the switching operation is performed, the superposition order is changed and the screen of the visitor video S3 is displayed. In addition, the reduced image of the visitor video S2 may be overlapped to generate the video V4 to switch the storage video being reproduced.

  Further, the video processing unit selects any one of a plurality of visitor videos and plays only the video on the display unit as video processing for reproducing the storage video on the display unit. If a switching operation is performed during the reproduction, the other video for saving may be reselected to switch the storage video being reproduced (the reference diagram is omitted).

  Each of the plurality of visitor videos constituting the storage video may have a high bit rate. In this case, a method of generating a low bit rate video by extracting a predetermined range of the screen of the video for storage as described above can be applied to each visitor video.

  In addition, as described above, the video transmission device for a call executes video processing for generating a low bit rate video by extracting a part of the visitor video during the call. You may comprise so that the process similar to the said process by a process part may be performed. That is, the call video transmission apparatus executes the corresponding video processing when the above moving operation or the like is performed during reproduction of the call video on the house information board. Then, it becomes easy to confirm a visitor by the video for calls.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Intercom apparatus for collectives 10b Image | video transmission apparatus for preservation | save 11 Housing information board 11c Image processing part 15 Camera subunit 15a Image pick-up unit

Claims (3)

In the collective intercom device with a video call function that transmits and reproduces the visitor video taken by the camera unit installed at the common entrance to the home information board as a video for calling,
A storage video transmission device for temporarily storing the entire visitor video taken by the camera slave unit and transmitting the temporarily stored video as a storage video to the housing information board in non-real time;
The collective intercom apparatus, wherein the house information board accumulates the storage video transmitted from the storage video transmission apparatus and reproduces the stored storage video when a reproduction operation is performed. The collective intercom apparatus according to claim 1,
The camera sub unit includes a plurality of photographing units for simultaneously photographing a visitor,
The collective intercom apparatus, wherein the storage video transmission device temporarily stores the entire visitor video imaged simultaneously and transmits the video as a storage video to the housing information board. In the intercom apparatus for gathering according to claim 1 or 2,
The home information board performs video processing including at least part of the screen extraction, reduction, composition, and switching on the stored video for storage based on the playback operation. A collective intercom apparatus comprising a video processing unit for extracting a part.

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