JP4256500B2 - Remote image monitoring device with index image search function - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a remote image monitoring apparatus using a communication line, and more particularly to a remote image monitoring apparatus capable of searching for an image based on index image data using the communication line.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Recently, for example, mechanical security by performing endless recording with an analog video recorder has been widely performed. However, with this method, the recording image quality deteriorates in time series, and it is extremely difficult to search and extract partial images that are important for security.
[0003]
For this reason, there has appeared a recording medium that can perform digital recording of a security target image using a magneto-optical disk or the like as a recording medium. However, there is a drawback that a recorded image cannot be retrieved and displayed online from a remote location. In order to overcome this drawback, an apparatus for searching, transferring, and displaying recorded images online using a communication line has been developed and used.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, even in the monitoring device using the communication line described above, (1) the recording image quality per data amount is poor. (2) When performing a remote online operation search for the target image, the search data is transferred through the communication line. However, since it takes time to transfer a large amount of image data, it is difficult to determine the importance of the target image in terms of machine security until the peripheral image to be searched is transferred and reproduced and displayed. (3) Using the search index image as a whole When searching for an image, there is a problem that the number of times of recording is newly increased for the index image and the amount of recorded image data is further increased.
[0005]
The present invention is a remote image monitoring apparatus, which first realizes a rapid image monitoring process by transferring only a search index image of a stored target image to a display device via a communication line. An object is to provide a monitoring device.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In a remote monitoring device having a storage device having a wavelet transform function and a storage function and a display device connected to the storage device via a communication line and having a wavelet transform function and a display function.
A capturing unit provided in the storage device, which captures an image signal supplied from the outside and converts it into an image file;
Provided in the storage device, the image file by wavelet transform
First band image data obtained by passing through a horizontal low-pass filter for downsampling and a vertical low-pass filter, respectively,
Second band image data each obtained by passing through a horizontal low-pass filter for downsampling and a high-pass filter in the vertical direction;
Third band image data obtained by passing through a horizontal high-pass filter for downsampling and a low-pass filter in the vertical direction, respectively.
Conversion means for converting each of the horizontal band high pass filter for downsampling and the fourth band image data obtained by passing through the vertical high pass filter;
A storage unit provided in the storage device for storing the first band image data, the second band image data, the third band image data, and the fourth band image data converted by the conversion unit in a storage area;
A transfer request unit provided in the display device, connected to the storage device via a communication line, and requesting the storage unit to transfer only the first band image data according to a given instruction;
Transfer means, provided in the storage device, for transferring only the first band image data to the display device via the communication line in response to a transfer request of the transfer request means;
Provided in the display device, receives the first band image data from the transfer means, and passes the first band image data through the vertical low pass filter and the horizontal low pass filter for upsampling by the wavelet transform. First decoding means for decoding,
First display means provided in the display device for displaying an index image corresponding to the first band image data decoded by the decoding means;
Provided in the first display device, when the index image is designated, the remaining second band image data, third band image data, and fourth band image data of the image including the designated index image are transmitted. Requesting means for requesting the storage device to
The remaining second-band image data, third-band image data, and fourth-band image data of an image that is provided in the storage device and includes the first-band image data in response to a request from the request unit is stored in the storage area. Transmitting means for reading and transmitting to the display device;
Provided in the display device and receiving the second band image data, the third band image data, and the fourth band image data from the transmission means;
Each of the second band image data is decoded by passing through a vertical high-pass filter and a horizontal low-pass filter for upsampling.
Each of the third band image data is decoded by passing through a vertical low-pass filter and a horizontal high-pass filter for upsampling.
Second decoding means for decoding the fourth band image data, each passing through a vertical high-pass filter and a horizontal high-pass filter for upsampling;
Second display means for combining and displaying the first band image data decoded by the first decoding means and the second to fourth band image data decoded by the second decoding means;
A remote image monitoring apparatus characterized by comprising:
[0016]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0017]
1 is a block diagram of a remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the remote image monitoring apparatus, and FIG. 3 is an example of a search input screen of a display device included in the remote image monitoring apparatus. FIG.
[0018]
In these figures, the remote image monitoring apparatus of the present invention has a display device 1, a communication network 2 connected thereto, and a storage device 3 for storing image data. Further, the storage device 3 is supplied with sensor signals from an automatic cash payment device, an unmanned automatic contract machine, an unmanned monitoring device 4 and the like, and further supplied with a video signal from a monitoring camera 5 provided in a room where these are arranged. ing.
[0019]
The display device 1 further includes a search request unit 12, an image receiving unit 13, a decoding unit 14 by wavelet transform, an index image display / whole image display unit 15, and a control unit 16 for controlling them. Further, the storage device 3 described above has a sensor detection unit 19, a digitization / encoding unit 18 by wavelet transform, an image file 21 for storing image data, and a search / image transmission unit 17, and further controls them. The control unit 20 is provided.
[0020]
Next, in this configuration, the processing operation of the remote monitoring apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0021]
First, the video signal encoding process and the encoded image data storage process in the storage device 3 will be described.
[0022]
The storage device 3 receives a sensor signal from an automatic cash payment device, an unmanned automatic contract machine, an unmanned monitoring device 4, etc., and a video signal from the monitoring camera 5 is converted from a sensor detection unit 19 by a digitizing encoding unit 18 by wavelet transform. Wavelet transform processing is sequentially performed in accordance with a given photographing signal.
[0023]
Here, the wavelet transform process is an image compression method in which image data can be divided into a high frequency band and a low frequency band (corresponding to a reduced image component of the entire image) on the spatial frequency axis and can be reconstructed. That is, to display the index image for search, only the reduced image portion of the low-frequency original image is transferred, and the remaining high-frequency components are transferred only for the video judged to be effective for machine security. By decoding this together, the original image is reproduced.
[0024]
Further, the wavelet transform processing of the present invention will be described below with reference to the explanatory diagram of FIG. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a filter bank for wavelet transform that realizes wavelet transform processing performed by the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention. The original image data 61 is supplied to a filter bank provided in the digitizing encoding unit 18 by wavelet transform in the storage device 3, which initially includes a horizontal low-pass filter 62 and a horizontal filter provided in parallel thereto. Down-sampled by a high pass filter 63 in the direction. Further, the compressed image data that has passed through each filter is a low-pass filter 64 in the vertical direction, a high-pass filter 65 in the vertical direction, a low-pass filter 66 in the vertical direction, and a high-pass filter in the vertical direction, respectively. 67. Then, the LL band output from the filter 64 is stored in the image file 21 as the low-frequency compressed image data 52 together with the search header 51 in accordance with the image storage format shown in FIG. Furthermore, the LH band, the HL band, and the HH band that are the outputs of these filters 65, 66, and 67 are stored in the image file 21 as the high-frequency compressed image data 53. It should be noted that the wavelet transformed low-frequency image data 52 is used as an index image that is a feature of the present invention.
[0025]
Next, the operation of transferring the compressed image data stored in the image file in this way to the display device 1 linked via the communication line will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0026]
FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of a search input screen of a display device included in the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of an index image display screen of the display device, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an entire image displayed by the apparatus, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image storage format when the storage apparatus accumulates image data, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of the display apparatus. These are flowcharts showing the processing operation of the storage device.
[0027]
In these figures, remote image monitoring apparatuses 1 and 3 according to the present invention are connected online via a communication line 2.
[0028]
As shown in the flowcharts of the display device 1 and the storage device 3 in FIGS. 7 and 8, if there is a request for establishing a session via the communication line 2 after each initial setting (S1, S12) (S2, S15). Both sessions are established (S3, S16). In the storage device, when the sensor detects a photographic signal, the input image signal is converted into an image file, subjected to two-dimensional two-dimensional wavelet transform, and then the low frequency and high frequency are separately encoded in Huffman. And store the image in the storage device.
[0029]
Next, in the display device 1, when an image search key (shooting time, etc.) necessary for machine security is input by the operator of the monitoring system (S4), the device responds to an index image search request. (S18) and the security sensor-linked recording function (S13, S14) are executed in a multitasking operating environment.
[0030]
The security sensor linked recording function means a function of recording a digital image in conjunction with a sensor signal input from the security target device 4 or the like to the storage device 3. Also, in this case, digital image recording means that the input image signal is converted into an image file, subjected to multiple two-dimensional wavelet transforms, and then Huffman coding is separately performed on the low and high frequencies to store the images. Means processing stored in the device. With these functions, the index image and the entire image including the index image can be configured by one image file for one captured image. This file format will be described with reference to FIG. That is, one image data is configured and stored by a search header 51, a low-frequency image 52 extracted by wavelet transformation, and a high-frequency image 53 extracted by wavelet transformation.
[0031]
When information (image capturing time or the like by sensor detection) as an image search key as shown in FIG. 3 is input from the display device 1 by the operator (S6), these are transferred to the storage device 3 (S17). When the target image corresponding to the search key exists in the storage device 3, the index image 7 (corresponding to a reduced image) is sent from the storage device 3 to the display device 1 as a search result on the communication line 2 for which the session has been established. , Corresponding to the low band 52 in FIG. 6) is transferred (S18). The search key input screen 6 at this time shows, for example, a start date 31 and an end date 32, and a search execution request button 33 is displayed at the same time.
[0032]
In response to this, the display device 1 displays a plurality of index images 41 as shown in FIG. 4 as the index image list 7 with the shooting date and time 42 (S7). In this list 7, icons 43 for instructing the previous page and the next page are also shown.
[0033]
At this time, the low-frequency image data 52 transferred from the storage device 3 via the communication line 2 is first received by the image receiving unit 13 and then supplied to the decoding unit 14 by wavelet transform.
[0034]
Here, in the decoding unit 14, filter groups 68 to 73 in the latter half of the filter bank for the wavelet transform of FIG. 9 are provided. That is, in FIG. 9, the decoding unit 14 supplies a low-pass filter 68 in the vertical direction to which low-frequency compressed image data (LL band) used as an index image is supplied, and high-frequency compressed image data (LH band). A vertical high-pass filter 69, a vertical low-pass filter 70 to which high-frequency compressed image data (HL band and HH band) are respectively supplied, and a vertical high-pass filter 71 are provided. Yes. Furthermore, a horizontal low-pass filter 72 to which outputs from a vertical low-pass filter 68 and a vertical high-pass filter 69 are supplied, and a vertical low-pass filter 70 and a vertical high-pass A horizontal high-pass filter 73 to which an output from the filter 71 is supplied is provided.
[0035]
The LL band given by these filter configurations is reproduced and displayed as an index image.
[0036]
Further, on this screen, the operator can designate only an image in which a significant part for machine security is photographed. When designated (S5, S17), the designated index image is obtained from the search key (image file name, etc.). Is transmitted from the storage device 3 to the display device 1 for the remaining data portion (that is, the LH band, the HL band, and the HH band) of the image including “S” (S19). Then, the reconstructed image 74 is reproduced by being upsampled by the filter bank for wavelet transform of the decoding unit 14 shown in FIG.
[0037]
That is, a given compressed image (LL band, LH band, HL band, HH band) is supplied to the vertical filters 68 to 71, respectively, and this output is further converted to a horizontal low-pass filter 72 and a horizontal high-pass filter 72. The output is supplied to the pass filter 73, and these outputs are combined to reproduce the first original image 61.
[0038]
The entire image is received by the display device 1 and displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. In the whole image 8, the shooting date and time 42 is shown in the image 44, and an icon 43 for designating the previous page and the next page is also displayed at the same time (S9).
[0039]
Thereafter, when a session release is requested (S10, S19), the communication link between the display device 1 and the storage device 3 is released, and all search processes are completed.
[0040]
When the all process end signal (shutdown signal) is input to the storage apparatus by pressing the shutdown switch of the apparatus (S22), the storage apparatus ends all the processes of the apparatus (S23). Until then, the search process (S15 to S20) and the sensor-linked recording process (S13, S14) are repeated.
[0041]
The index image described above is a reduced image obtained by extracting only the low-frequency image portion obtained by performing the two-dimensional wavelet transform a plurality of times on the entire image recorded by sensor interlocking.
[0042]
In this way, by performing remote monitoring using this device (display device and storage device), it is possible to efficiently and quickly search and select a security-predictable image among recorded images. it can. Thereby, after the sensor detection, it is possible to quickly grasp the outline of the event that has occurred at the monitoring target location. In addition, after an overview is obtained from an index image, a detailed event at a monitoring target location can be grasped by searching and displaying an entire image corresponding to the index image.
[0043]
Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the present invention is not limited to the case of a set of storage devices, an automatic cash payment machine 4 and a monitoring camera 5 connected thereto, but a plurality of sets of storage devices 3 via a communication network 2. It is very effective when connected to the network. In this case, the target storage device 3 is specified from the plurality of storage devices 3 from the display device 1, and the subsequent processing is the same as that described above.
[0044]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described range, and various modifications are conceivable within the scope of the gist of the invention, and it goes without saying that the same effects are produced.
[0045]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the present invention, not all image data for monitoring is transferred from the storage device to the display device as in the prior art, but only index images (low-frequency images) created by wavelet transform are used. Is transferred to the display device, and the operator examines the index image, and when the image that is really necessary for monitoring is designated by the operator, the remaining wavelet transformed high-frequency image is also transferred. Accordingly, only the image data necessary for the minimum monitoring is transferred to the display device, and a remote image monitoring device that realizes a very quick and efficient monitoring image transfer process can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a search input screen of a display device included in the remote image monitoring device according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an index image display screen of a display device included in the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an entire image displayed by a display device included in the remote image monitoring device according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an image storage format when the storage device included in the remote image monitoring device according to the present invention stores image data.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the display device included in the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the storage device included in the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a filter bank that realizes wavelet transform processing performed by the remote image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Display apparatus 2 ... Communication network 3 ... Accumulation apparatus 5 ... Surveillance camera 7 ... Index image 12 ... Search part 13 ... Image receiving part 14 ... Decoding part 15 by wavelet transformation ... Index image display part and whole image display part 16 ... Control unit 17 of display device ... Search / image transmission unit 18 ... Digitization / encoding unit 19 ... Sensor detection unit 20 ... Control unit 21 of storage device ... Image file

Claims (1)

In a remote monitoring device having a storage device having a wavelet transform function and a storage function and a display device connected to the storage device via a communication line and having a wavelet transform function and a display function.
A capturing unit provided in the storage device, which captures an image signal supplied from the outside and converts it into an image file;
The image file provided in the storage device and captured by the capturing means is converted by wavelet transform.
First band image data obtained by passing through a horizontal low-pass filter for downsampling and a vertical low-pass filter, respectively,
Second band image data each obtained by passing through a horizontal low-pass filter for downsampling and a high-pass filter in the vertical direction;
Third band image data obtained by passing through a horizontal high-pass filter for downsampling and a low-pass filter in the vertical direction, respectively.
Conversion means for converting each of the horizontal band high pass filter for downsampling and the fourth band image data obtained by passing through the vertical high pass filter;
A storage unit provided in the storage device for storing the first band image data, the second band image data, the third band image data, and the fourth band image data converted by the conversion unit in a storage area;
A transfer request unit provided in the display device, connected to the storage device via a communication line, and requesting the storage unit to transfer only the first band image data according to a given instruction;
Transfer means, provided in the storage device, for transferring only the first band image data to the display device via the communication line in response to a transfer request of the transfer request means;
Provided in the display device, receives the first band image data from the transfer means, and passes the first band image data through the vertical low pass filter and the horizontal low pass filter for upsampling by the wavelet transform. First decoding means for decoding,
First display means provided in the display device for displaying an index image corresponding to the first band image data decoded by the decoding means;
Provided in the first display device, when the index image is designated, the remaining second band image data, third band image data, and fourth band image data of the image including the designated index image are transmitted. Requesting means for requesting the storage device to
The remaining second-band image data, third-band image data, and fourth-band image data of the image that is provided in the storage device and includes the first-band image data in response to a request from the request unit is stored in the storage area Transmitting means for reading and transmitting to the display device;
Provided in the display device and receiving second band image data, third band image data, and fourth band image data from the transmission means;
Each of the second band image data is decoded by passing through a vertical high-pass filter and a horizontal low-pass filter for upsampling.
Each of the third band image data is decoded by passing through a vertical low-pass filter and a horizontal high-pass filter for upsampling.
Second decoding means for decoding the fourth band image data, each passing through a vertical high-pass filter and a horizontal high-pass filter for upsampling;
Second display means for combining and displaying the first band image data decoded by the first decoding means and the second to fourth band image data decoded by the second decoding means;
A remote image monitoring apparatus comprising:

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