JP3494214B2 - Image trend management system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image trend management system for managing images taken by a camera installed at a surveillance position as a time series trend.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In plant equipment, a camera is installed at a monitoring position in order to ensure safe plant operation.
Some constantly monitor whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the plant. Conventionally, in order to view past images taken by a camera installed at a plant site, the camera image was recorded on a video tape and the reproduced image was checked later.

However, in such a method, in order to view past images, a lot of time is spent because the video deck is loaded with tape and rewound to search for an image to be viewed. However, there was a problem of inefficiency.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and digitizes an analog image signal obtained from a camera, and adds a time stamp to the digital image signal in order. And store it,
When an external signal is input, the
From a point in time that is a predetermined time before the point in time
Cut out the image and drop it in another storage means
Image is displayed, and the time to cut out the image is set.
By making it possible to perform multifaceted failure analysis,
The objective is to realize an image trend management system that can

[0005]

The present invention is an image trend management system having the following configuration.

(1) In an image trend management system that manages images taken by a camera installed at a monitoring position into a time-series trend, a camera server, an image train
And a client computer, the camera server has digitizing means for converting an analog image signal sent from a camera into a digital image signal, and the image trend server stamps the converted digital image signal. Time stamp adding means , time
First memory for storing stamped images in chronological order
Time attached to the image when means and external signals are input
Based on the stamp, a predetermined time than when an external signal was input
The image from the time point just before is cut off from the first storage means.
The extracted and cut out image is dropped into the second storage means.
An image collecting unit is provided, and the client computer has an image dropped in the first or second storage unit.
An image trend management system having display means for displaying .

(2) A network is installed in an image trend management system that manages images taken by a camera installed at a monitoring position into time series trends.
A camera server, an image trend server, and a client computer are connected to this network, and the camera server has a digitizing means for converting an analog image signal sent from a camera into a digital image signal. Is a time stamp adding means for applying a time stamp to the converted digital image signal ,
First time-series image storage with time stamps
Attached to the image when the storage means and external signal came in
Based on the time stamp, than when the external signal came in
An image from a time point before a predetermined time is stored in the first storage means.
And cut out the cut image to the second storage means.
The client computer has an image collecting means for embedding, and the client computer is stored in the first or second storing means.
A display means for displaying an image is provided, and the image is displayed for the predetermined time.
An image trend management system characterized by being set in an image collecting means .

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. A network 1 is installed in the image trend management system shown in FIG. 1, and a camera server 2, an image trend server 3 and a client computer 4 are connected to the network 1. Communication means 21, 31 for communicating with the camera server 2, the image trend server 3 and the client computer 4 via the network 1.
And 41 are provided respectively. The camera 5 is installed at the monitoring position of the plant equipment.

In the camera server 2, the digitizing means 22
Converts the analog image signal sent from the camera 5 into a digital image signal and places the converted digital image signal on the network 1. When converting an analog image signal into a digital image signal, for example, Motion JPEG which is a standard image compression method is used. Camera control means 2
3 controls the operation of the camera.

In the image trend server 3, the time stamp adding means 32 puts a time stamp on the digital image signals sequentially sent by the network 1. Storage means 3
3 stores the time stamped images in time series. Since the images are continuously stored, when the storage area of the storage unit 33 is full, the images are discarded in the old order and updated with new images. The storage unit 33 is realized by the main storage device of the image trend server 3, for example.

When the external signal SIG is input, the image collecting means 34 stores the image from the time point before the external signal SIG is input based on the time stamp attached to the image by a predetermined time. Collect from. External signal SIG
Is given from the sequencer SQ which receives the contact signal, for example. The external signal SIG may be provided from the distributed control system that has received the contact signal. The contact signal is, for example, a signal generated in association with an alarm.

The storage means 35 stores the images collected by the image collection means 34. The collected image is an image file 351.
And store. The image file 351 is, for example, JPE
It is in the G file format. As a result, only the necessary portion of the time-series image stored in the storage means 33 is cut out and dropped into the storage means 35. In the storage means 35, in addition to the image file 351, H which is an image display program in the client computer is displayed.
TML file 352, image search execution program 353
Etc. are stored. The image search execution program 353 is, for example, CGI (Common Gateway).
Interface) program, ASP (Acti)
ve Server Page) program and the like.

In the client computer 4, the retrieval means 42 instructs the image retrieval execution program 353 with time as a keyword to retrieve the image from the storage means 35.
The display unit 43 displays the image obtained by the search.
The display means 43 also displays the instantaneous images collected in the storage means 33. The display means 43 displays an image using a standard WWW browser. HTML file 35
2 is downloaded from the image trend server 3 to the client computer 4 when displaying the image. The downloaded HTML file 352 is executed by the WWW browser in the search means 42 and an image is displayed. That is, the client computer 4 does not have to have the HTML file 352 for constant display.
In other words, H is assigned to a specific client computer 4.
It is not necessary to have the TML file 352. The instruction signal output means 44 outputs a signal for instructing camera operation start, camera operation stop, camera position adjustment, or camera angle adjustment to the sequencer SQ or the camera control means 23.
Give to.

The operation of the image trend management system of FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the image storage procedure. The time stamp adding means 32 sequentially applies time stamps to the images G1, G2, G3, ... Sent by the network 1 and stores them in the storage means 33. For the time of the time stamp, refer to the clock 321.
As a result, the time stamped images G1 ′, G2 ′, G3 ′, ... Are stored in the storage unit 33. In the example in the figure, a time stamp is added to the image sent every one second from "8:30:00" and stored.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a procedure for storing a necessary image in the storage means 35. In FIG. 3, the images sequentially sent by the network 1 are stored in the storage area M of the storage unit 33 in the order of addresses. In the example in the figure, "10
Images are stored every one second from "hour 00 minutes 00 seconds".
When the storage area M has been stored until it is full, the images are discarded in the old order and updated with a new image.

Here, it is assumed that an external signal is input at "10:32:00". It is assumed that the user wants to see images from the time when an external signal is input to one minute before. At this time, the image collecting means 34 displays "1" one minute before "10:32:00".
The image from “0:31:00” is cut out from the storage area M and dropped into the storage means 35. After that, the image from the camera server 2 continues to be stored in the storage unit 35 until a stop signal from the outside is input. On the client computer 4 side, the image dropped into the storage unit 35 is displayed on the display unit 43. by this,
It is possible to see the situation image before the occurrence of contact alarms, etc., and perform multifaceted failure analysis. The above-mentioned predetermined time (1 minute in this example) is set in the image collecting means 34.

Since the digital images are transferred via the network, the images captured by a plurality of cameras connected to the network via the camera server can be displayed on one client computer. Each client computer can display images from multiple cameras. This allows the camera image to be viewed in the relationship of (client computer) :( camera) = N: N.

The contact signal may be directly received by the image trend server 3 and given to the image collecting means 34.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the image data obtained from the camera is used.
Digitize the log image signal
Stored in sequence with a time stamp, and
When a signal is received, the external signal is sent based on the time stamp.
The image from the time point before the time when
Image cut out and dropped into another storage means
The image is displayed. This allows external and status signals
Are linked and recorded, and multifaceted failure analysis can be performed.
it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the predetermined time is set as an image.
Since it is set as the collection method, the time to cut out the image is set.
Can be set.

As described above, according to the present invention, an image trend management system capable of efficiently reproducing and retrieving a monitor image to be viewed has been realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 network 2 camera server 3 Image trend server 4 client computers 5 camera 22 Digitalization means 23 Camera control means 32 Time stamp adding means 33 storage means 34 Image collection means 42 Search method 43 display means 44 Instruction signal output means

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI H04N 7/18 H04N 7/18 EU (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/225 H04N 5/76- 5/775 H04N 5/91-5/956 H04N 7/18

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image trend management system for managing images taken by a camera installed at a surveillance position as a time-series trend, wherein a camera server, an image trend server, and a client
Computer, the camera server has digitizing means for converting an analog image signal sent from a camera into a digital image signal, and the image trend server adds a time stamp for stamping a time stamp on the converted digital image signal. Means , thailand
The first note that stores images with stamps in chronological order
When a memory and an external signal come in, the
Based on the stamp, it is more predetermined than the time when an external signal is input
An image from a point in time previous by time from the first storage means
Cut out and drop the cut out image into the second storage means
Image collecting means, and the client computer has the first or second
Display means to display the images dropped in the storage means of
An image trend management system characterized by: 2. An image taken by a camera installed at a surveillance position
Image trend tube that manages images as time series trends
A network is installed in the management system, and cameras are connected to this network.
Server, image trend server and client computer
Connected to the camera server, and the camera server displays analog images sent from the camera.
Has a digitizing means to convert the signal into a digital image signal.
Then , the image trend server converts the converted digital image signal.
Time stamp adding means to put a time stamp on
The first note that stores images with stamps in chronological order
When a memory and an external signal come in, the
Based on the stamp, it is more predetermined than the time when an external signal is input
An image from a point in time previous by time from the first storage means
Cut out and drop the cut out image into the second storage means
Image collecting means, and the client computer has the first or second
Display means to display the images dropped in the storage means of
However, the predetermined time is set in the image collecting means.
Image trend management system to be.