JPH07162542A - Monitoring equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make automatic dialing to a remote location when a fault is detected in the monitoring equipment sending information collected by using a video camera and a microphone to the remote location. CONSTITUTION:A detection circuit 15 detects a condition for automatic dialing depending on a detection condition set by the user by using an operation panel 13 based on plural sets of information generated by a video signal processing circuit 3, a video coder 4, a voice signal processing circuit 8, and a vocoder 9 gives a command to a line control means 16 to send video and voice information to a remote location via a network interface 6. Since the detection condition is set depending on a supervisory object based on the plural sets of information thereby. the function for automatic communication adaptable to various monitored objects is realized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surveillance device for transmitting an image taken by a video camera to a remote place via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Images taken by a video camera are ISDN.
There is conventionally a device for transmitting to a remote place via a network such as, and performing monitoring at the remote place. In such a device, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-249860, a call to a remote place is automatically made by changing the data amount of an image or audio signal, and the remote place is called. It is equipped with a mechanism that reduces line connection time and call charges.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, since only the change in the image or audio data amount is detected, a call is always generated in a place where people come and go or where there is a lot of noise. There is a possibility of malfunction such as if there is little movement even if a suspicious person intrudes, there is a possibility of malfunction, and an automatic call is made only when it is used in a specific monitoring place. It was possible to expect an effective operation by. That is, there is a problem in that cases in which an effective operation by automatic calling can be expected are limited.

Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the purpose thereof is to enable adaptive automatic call in various situations. To provide such a monitoring device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with a detecting means for a condition for automatically making a call, and is generated from a video signal processing section as input information to the detecting means. And the image data, the control data of the video camera unit, the audio signal generated by the audio signal processing unit, and the encoded control signal issued by the encoding unit. Further, there is provided condition setting means for selecting necessary information from the plurality of pieces of information and setting conditions for automatic calling.

[0006]

By using the condition setting means, the information used for detection for automatic calling according to the place where the monitoring is to be performed is selected from the plurality of information supplied to the detection means. , Set conditions for automatic call detection in each information. As a result, conditions suitable for various monitoring locations can be set, so that it is possible to provide a monitoring apparatus having an automatic calling function not limited to a specific location.

[0007]

The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a monitoring apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the configuration shown in the figure, the lens 1 forms an image of incident light on the image sensor 2. The image sensor 2 converts an optical signal into an electric signal and outputs it. The video signal processing circuit 3 performs a predetermined process on the signal output from the image pickup element 2 and outputs it as a digital image signal.
The video encoder 4 encodes the digital image signal output from the video signal processing circuit 3 with high efficiency, and outputs compressed image data. The microphone 7 converts the collected audio signal into an electric signal and sends it to the audio signal processing circuit 8. The audio signal processing circuit 8 performs a predetermined process on the audio signal and outputs it as a digital audio signal. The voice encoder 9 encodes the digital voice signal output from the voice signal processing circuit 8 with high efficiency and outputs it as compressed voice data. The multiplexer 5 multiplexes the image data output from the video encoder 4 and the audio data output from the audio encoder 9 into one data string. In response to a command from the line control circuit 16, the network interface 6 converts the data output from the multiplexer 5 into ISDN (Integrated Services Digita).
l Network) and other networks.

The control circuit 12 controls the lens 1 and the image pickup element 2 via the drive circuits 10 and 11 based on the user's instruction input from the operation panel 13 and various information output from the video signal processing circuit 3. Drive to control focus and iris respectively, and
Controls various parameters of the video signal processing circuit 3. The detection circuit 15 determines the control information given from the control circuit 12, the video signal processing circuit 3, the audio signal processing circuit 8, the video encoder 4, the audio encoder 9 and the timer circuit 14, and performs line control. It issues command signals for circuit connection, disconnection, and calling to the circuit 16. The line control circuit 16 controls the network interface 6 in accordance with commands from the detection circuit 15 and performs operations such as line connection, disconnection, and call origination. The storage medium 18 stores the multiplexed data output from the multiplexer 5 according to the instruction from the line control circuit 16. The memory 17 also stores the determination operation condition data set by the detection circuit 15.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the video signal processing circuit 3. The video signal processing circuit 3 of this example separates an analog / electrical signal from the image pickup device 2 into a digital signal, and an output of the A / D converter 21 into a luminance signal and a color difference component. A color component separation circuit 22, a brightness signal processing circuit 23 that performs level adjustment and filter processing of the separated brightness signal, and a color signal processing circuit 24 that performs processing such as hue and color saturation adjustment of the separated color signal. And an iris detection circuit 25 for detecting the iris control level from the output of the luminance signal processing circuit 23,
Similarly, it comprises a focus detection circuit 26 for generating a focus control signal from the output of the luminance signal processing circuit 23, and a white balance detection circuit 27 for detecting white balance from the output of the color signal processing circuit 24. The outputs of the luminance signal processing circuit 23 and the color signal processing circuit 24 are sent to the video encoder 4 and the detection circuit 15, respectively. The outputs of the iris detection circuit 25, focus detection circuit 26, and white balance detection circuit 27 are sent to the control circuit 12, respectively. On the other hand, the control circuit 12 sends operating parameters such as output levels and filter coefficients of the luminance signal processing circuit 23 and the color signal processing circuit 24.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of the video encoder 4, and the video encoder 4 of this example is, for example, C
Recommendation H.264 for image compression algorithms for communication defined by CITT. H.261 is used for a video encoder or the like. The video signal input to the video encoder 4 is passed through the switch 33 and the orthogonal converter 34.
Is converted by an arithmetic process such as DCT (discrete cosine transform), then quantized by a quantizer 35, and further coded by a variable length coding circuit 42, for example, a Huffman code, and output. Further, the output of the quantizer 35 is restored by the inverse quantizer 36 and the inverse orthogonal transformer 37, and after being added to the output of the switch 41 by the adder 38, the motion compensation predictor 3
9 is input. The motion compensation predictor 39 detects the motion vector by comparing the input video signal with the output of the adder 38, and outputs the motion-compensated video signal. The motion-compensated video signal passes through the loop filter 40 and the subtractor 3
Sent to 2. The subtracter 32 subtracts the motion-compensated video signal, that is, the predicted value from the input video signal to obtain the motion-compensated inter-frame difference value, and supplies this to the switch 33. The switches 33 and 41 switch between interframe coding and intraframe coding, and switch based on a command from the coding controller 31. The encoding controller 31 determines the state of code generation and the state of motion vectors in the variable length encoder 42 to switch between inter-frame / intra-encoding, quantizing characteristics of the quantizer 35, and motion. Switches compensation on / off and loop filter on / off. These pieces of coding control information are sent to the variable length coder 42, coded together with the video data, and sent to the receiving side. The coding control information is also sent to the detection circuit 15 described above. Encoding is performed in block units, and luminance signals and chrominance signals are processed in time series.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above video encoder, and may be, for example, an MPEG system defined by ISO / IEC or a system such as wavelet (subband) coding. good. Usually, in such a high-efficiency coding system for moving images, an adaptive code amount control means is used in order to increase the compression efficiency of image information, and information such as the code amount used for such purposes is stored. By supplying the above-mentioned detecting means, it is possible to construct a video encoder which meets the object of the present invention. In addition, not only the individual functional blocks of the video encoder are configured by independent hardware as described above, but also the entire encoder or a part of the encoder is software using a general-purpose DSP (digital signal processor) or the like. You may implement | achieve by a wear method.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the voice signal processing circuit 8 and the voice encoder 9.
In this example, the audio processing circuit 8 includes a preamplifier 51, a bandpass filter 52, a preemphasis circuit 53, and an A / D.
The converter 54 and the converter 54 convert an analog audio signal input from the microphone 7 into a digital signal. The speech encoder 9 includes a subtractor 55, a quantizer 56, an inverse quantizer 57, an adder 58, a predictor 59, a variable length encoder 60, and an encoding control unit 61. Composed of and. The speech signal input from the speech signal processing circuit 8 to the speech coder 9 is quantized by the quantizer 56 with respect to the difference from the prediction value output from the predictor 59, and is coded by the variable length coder 60. The audio data is compressed by the PCM method. Then, the audio signal output from the audio signal processing circuit 8 and the encoding control information output from the encoding control unit 61 are sent to the detection circuit 15.

The voice encoder 9 may use a method other than the above-mentioned method, for example, a sub-band encoding method in which the signal band is divided into several parts and processing is performed for each band. Further, as in the case of the video signal, the whole or part of the audio encoder 9 can be constructed by software using a general-purpose DSP or the like.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the detection circuit 15. In the figure, differentiating circuits 71,
Reference numerals 73 and 75 respectively receive the iris, focus, and white balance control signals detected by the video signal processing circuit 3, and detect the respective changes. The amount of change in each signal is sent to each of the level detection circuits 72, 74, 76 and compared with the reference value set by the detection control unit 81, and the respective comparison results are sent to the determination circuit 82. The extraction circuit 77 detects the presence or absence of a specific subject such as a person using the luminance signal and the color signal output from the video signal processing circuit 3, and outputs the detection result to the determination circuit 82. As a method of extracting such a specific subject, for example, Sasaki et al. “Marathon Image Processing System Using General-purpose DSP”; Television Society Journal Vol. 45, No. 1
0, October 1991, there is a method of detecting a skin color portion. Comparing circuits 78, 79,
Reference numeral 80 denotes each data of the video code amount output by the video encoder 4, the audio signal output by the audio signal processing circuit 8, and the audio code amount output by the audio encoder 9, respectively.
The comparison result is compared with the reference data set by the detection control unit 81, and the comparison result is output to the determination circuit 82. The detection control unit 81
Based on the condition set by the user using the operation panel 13 and the command from the timer circuit 14, the operating conditions of the level detection circuits 72, 74, 76, the extraction circuit 77, the comparison circuits 78-80, and the determination circuit 82. Are set respectively. Further, the detection control unit 81 transfers the set operating condition to the memory 17 and stores it therein. Then, the judgment circuit 82 comprehensively judges the comparison result input from each section under the set operating condition, and gives the line control circuit 16 commands such as calling, line connection and disconnection. In this way, a monitoring device capable of detecting an abnormal state based on a plurality of pieces of information generated by each part of the monitoring device and automatically transmitting an image and a sound to a distant observer through a line is provided. realizable.

The outline of the actual operation of the monitoring device having the above configuration will be described below. For example, when trying to monitor an intruder in an office that is unmanned at night, the conditions are noise generation, change in brightness,
Examples include capturing a person with an image sensor. With respect to, the occurrence of the output of the voice signal processing circuit 8 and the change in the code amount of the voice encoder 9 can be detected by setting the detection condition of the determination circuit 82. Further, can be detected by occurrence of changes in iris level and white balance. For, regarding the change of the focus signal and the extraction of the person by the extraction circuit 77,
This can be detected by setting this as the determination operation condition of the determination circuit 82. Then, when the user inputs the above conditions on the operation panel 13, the monitoring operation can be performed under the predetermined conditions.

When trying to monitor the situation during the day in a store or the like, a person can be detected by the extraction circuit 77 so as to detect an abnormality such as the absence of a clerk who should always be at the cash register. It suffices to set that it has disappeared as a determination condition.

Further, by using the time information from the timer 14 in addition to the information from each part of the monitoring device as described above, it is possible to switch the operating condition between daytime and nighttime.

Furthermore, since the conditions set as described above can be stored in the memory 17,
Once set, it is not necessary to reset each time. Further, by adopting a memory card using a non-volatile storage element such as a flash memory as the memory 17, it is possible to set the conditions for automatic calling only by replacing the card.

When a call is made in order to notify a remote supervisor of the abnormality, there is a possibility that the line connection to the remote place may fail due to the abnormality of the line or other reasons. In such a case, it is possible to register a plurality of report destinations in the line control circuit 16 in advance and take a measure to switch the calling party one after another. Further, in the recording medium 18, when the line connection at the time of making a call fails, the image and sound at that time can be recorded. As a result, even if the supervisor cannot be notified, the situation of the image and sound at that time can be recorded. Recording medium 18
Any storage medium can be used for
As an example, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory element such as a flash memory, a magnetic disk, or the like can be used.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the surrounding conditions are multilaterally judged based on the information of the image and the sound inputted from the image pickup device and the microphone, and the image and the image are automatically displayed to the observant at the remote place. It is possible to provide a monitoring device that reports a voice. Also, at that time, the detection conditions for making a call do not have to be fixed in advance, so the possibility of erroneous determination can be reduced, and the entire system need not be redesigned according to individual applications. Therefore, cost reduction due to mass production effect can be expected.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the structure of the monitoring apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, components equivalent to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals as in FIG.
The explanation is omitted to avoid duplication. The difference between this embodiment and the first embodiment is that a command processing section 19 is provided instead of the operation panel of the monitoring device of FIG.

In the monitoring apparatus of this embodiment, when a caller from a remote place receives a call, the command processing section 19 sends a message for prompting the watcher to perform an operation to set the condition of the detection circuit 15. Give guidance to do. Based on this guidance, the remote observer sets the conditions for the monitoring device to automatically call. The message and the guidance are issued as voice signals by the voice synthesis circuit 91 of the command processing section 19, and the command from the supervisor detects the tone pulse issued by pressing the dial button of the terminal on the supervisor side (not shown). Is received by the tone detection circuit 92, and is processed by the control circuit 93 of the command processing section 19 based on the received signal. And
The processing result is sent to the detection circuit 15 and a predetermined detection operation condition is set.

As described above, also with the monitoring apparatus of this embodiment, similar to the monitoring apparatus of the first embodiment of FIG. 1, the surrounding conditions are multilaterally judged and the remote monitoring person is automatically notified. It is possible to provide a monitoring device that visually notifies images and sounds. Furthermore, in the monitoring device of this embodiment, the conditions for automatic calling can be set according to a command from a remote monitor.

It should be noted that instead of using voice as guidance to the monitor, an image is used, and this is used as the video signal processing circuit 3
It may be supplied to a remote supervisor. Alternatively, it is possible to provide a command generating function for displaying an image on the terminal on the monitor side in the monitor and multiplex this as transmission information in the multiplexer 5.

Here, in the monitoring devices of the first and second embodiments,
The description has been given by taking the configuration in which the lens portion has the autofocus function and the iris is adjusted in the image pickup element as an example, but the present invention is not limited to these configurations. For example, the lens may have a fixed focus. Even in that case, if the focus error signal generated by the video signal processing circuit is guided only to the automatic call detection circuit, an automatic call function similar to that of the monitoring device of FIGS. 1 and 6 can be realized. . Further, it is obvious that the same function can be realized even in a configuration having a diaphragm.

Further, in the present invention, the network for transmitting the image and voice signals as the monitoring result to a remote place is not limited to ISDN, but may be a normal telephone line or a dedicated line.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a monitoring device capable of making an automatic call by detecting an abnormality in the surroundings at various monitoring places by multilaterally judging images and voice information captured by the image sensor and the microphone.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a monitoring device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a video signal processing circuit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a video encoder in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of configurations of a voice signal processing circuit and a voice encoder in FIG.

5 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a detection circuit in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a monitoring device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 image pickup device 3 video signal processing circuit 4 video encoder 6 network interface 7 microphone 8 audio signal processing circuit 9 audio encoder 13 operation panel 14 timer 15 detection circuit 16 line control circuit 17 memory 18 recording medium 19 command processing unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Noriyuki Iura Inventor Noriyuki Iura 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Inside the Video Media Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Taya Imade Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 292 Hitachi, Ltd. Visual Media Research Center

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means, a video signal processing means for processing an output signal of the image pickup means, a video coding means for coding an output signal of the video signal processing means, and an output of the video coding means. A network interface for outputting to the outside, a detection means for determining information generated by the video signal processing means and the video encoding means based on a predetermined condition, condition setting means for setting a determination condition in the detection means, A monitoring apparatus comprising: a line control unit that controls the network interface based on a determination result of the detection unit. 2. The microphone according to claim 1, further comprising a microphone, an audio signal processing means for processing an output of the microphone, and an audio encoding means for processing an output signal of the audio signal processing means. A monitoring device, wherein the outputs of the means and the voice encoding means are added to the detection means and used as input information for the determination processing by the detection means. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising timer means for displaying the present time, wherein the output of the timer means is added to the detecting means and used as input information for the determination processing by the detecting means. Characteristic monitoring device. 4. An image pickup means, a video signal processing means for processing an output signal of the image pickup means, a video coding means for coding an output signal of the video signal processing means, and an output of the video coding means. A network interface for outputting to the outside, a detection means for determining information generated by the video signal processing means and the video encoding means based on a predetermined condition, condition setting means for setting a determination condition in the detection means, A monitoring device comprising: a line control means for controlling the network interface based on the determination result of the detection means; and an information recording means for recording the output of the video encoding means. 5. The information recording means according to claim 4, wherein the recording of information in the information recording means is controlled according to an operation result of the network interface controlled by the line control means. Characteristic monitoring device. 6. The audio signal processing according to claim 4, further comprising: a microphone, an audio signal processing means for processing an output of the microphone, and an audio encoding means for processing an output signal of the audio signal processing means. A monitoring device, wherein the outputs of the means and the voice encoding means are added to the detection means and used as input information for the determination processing by the detection means. 7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising timer means for displaying the present time, wherein the output of the timer means is used as input information for the determination processing by the detection means in addition to the detection means. Characteristic monitoring device. 8. An image pickup means, a video signal processing means for processing an output signal of the image pickup means, a video coding means for coding an output signal of the video signal processing means, and an output of the video coding means. A network interface that outputs information to the outside and inputs information from the outside, a detection unit that determines information generated by the video signal processing unit and the video encoding unit based on a predetermined condition, and a determination condition in the detection unit A monitoring apparatus comprising: condition setting means for setting information from the outside received via the network interface; and line control means for controlling the network interface based on the determination result of the detecting means. 9. The audio signal processing according to claim 8, further comprising: a microphone, an audio signal processing means for processing an output of the microphone, and an audio encoding means for processing an output signal of the audio signal processing means. A monitoring device, wherein the outputs of the means and the voice encoding means are added to the detection means and used as input information for the determination processing by the detection means.