JPH09322042A - Video camera equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the circuit scale and to improve the vertical resolution. SOLUTION: CCDs 49-52 have resolution corresponding to four reduced image areas on a display screen 28. The picked-up images by the CCDs 49-52 are read in a timing based on scanning of the screen and fed to an image synthesis circuit 54. The image synthesis circuit 54 synthesizes video signals from the CCDs 49-52. A monitor 27 displays the four reduced images onto the display screen 28 based on the multi-video signal from a camera control circuit 53. Since the CCDs 49-52 have resolution corresponding to the four reduced image areas, the image synthesis circuit 54 obtains the multi-video signals through a simple addition and then the circuit scale is reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video camera device suitable for monitoring, mounting on a vehicle or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a video camera device used as a surveillance camera system for crime prevention or vehicle installation has become widespread. In such a video camera device, a video camera is installed at a predetermined position to shoot a surveillance place, and an image based on a video signal from the video camera is displayed on a monitor for monitoring, or a video from the video camera is monitored. Video signal is V
It is designed to be recorded on a TR (video tape recorder) or the like.

By the way, when used for crime prevention, it is desirable to be able to simultaneously monitor a plurality of different monitoring locations. In addition, when used as a vehicle, it is desirable to be able to monitor a plurality of front, rear, left and right directions of the vehicle. For this reason, a video camera device has been developed in which a plurality of video cameras for respectively photographing desired surveillance places are provided, and video signals from the plurality of video cameras are switched and displayed on a monitor.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional video camera device using such a plurality of video cameras. Further, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation.

The video cameras 1 to 4 are supported by a support member (not shown) so that a predetermined surveillance place can be imaged.
The heads 5 to 8 at the tip are arranged so as to face the monitoring place. Note that the arrangement state is not shown in FIG. 7. The head units 5 to 8 are provided with a CCD (charge coupled device) not shown. The CCD converts the image light of the monitoring place into an electric signal and outputs the image signal to an image processing circuit (not shown) of the video cameras 1 to 4. The video processing circuits of the video cameras 1 to 4 perform a predetermined video signal processing on the input video signal to generate video signals A, B, C, respectively.
D is output to the 4-screen multi unit 9.

Now, for example, it is assumed that the video camera 1 shoots a person as a subject 30, as shown in FIG.
The CCD 31 in the video camera 1 photoelectrically converts the optical image of the subject 30. The CCD 31 has the number of effective pixels (for example, 768 × 494 pixels) corresponding to the number of pixels of the entire display screen of the monitor 27. The imaged image 32 of the CCD 31 is subjected to video signal processing, and then output as it is from the video camera 1 as an output image 33.

In the apparatus shown in FIG. 7, an image based on video signals A, B, C and D from four video cameras 1 to 4 (hereinafter referred to as images A, B, C and D) is reduced, It is designed to be displayed simultaneously on one screen of the monitor. The four-screen multi-unit 9 displays the video signals A, B, C, and D so that the images A, B, C, and D are simultaneously displayed on one screen of the monitor 27.
Synthesize D. FIG. 9 shows a 4-screen multi-unit 9 in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of FIG.

The video cameras 1 are respectively connected to the input terminals 11 to 14.
The video signals A to D from 4 to 4 are input. These video signals A to D are supplied to the frame memories 15 to 18, respectively, and also to the memory write control circuits 19 to 22. The memory write control circuits 19 to 22 store the video signals A, B, C and D in the frame memory 15 based on the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals of the input video signals A, B, C and D, respectively.
Write to 18 through 18. In this case, the memory write control circuit
19 to 22 are written while thinning the lines in the vertical direction so that the images A, B, C, and D are displayed in the 1/4 area of the display screen of the monitor, respectively.

The memory read control circuit 23 reads the video signals A, B, C and D stored in the frame memories 15 to 18 in synchronization with the screen scanning of the monitor. In this case, the memory read control circuit 23 reads the images A, B, C, and D in the horizontal direction at double speed so that the images are displayed in the quarter of the display screen of the monitor.

The video signals A, B, C and D read from the frame memories 15 to 18 are switched and selected by the switch 24, and output terminals are output at a timing corresponding to the display position on the screen.
Output to 25. Thus, from the output terminal 25, the image A,
A multi-video signal based on B, C and D is output.

In FIG. 7, the monitor 27 performs display based on the input multi-video signal. This allows the monitor 27
Images A, B, C and D are simultaneously displayed on the display screen 28 of FIG.

In the example of FIG. 8, the image data of the output image 33 is written in the frame memory 15 while being thinned out line by line. Reading from the frame memory 15 is performed at double speed, and a reduced image 34 obtained by reducing the output image 33 to 1/2 in the horizontal and vertical directions is obtained. This reduced image 34 is displayed in the upper left 1/4 reduced image area of the display screen 28.

In this way, the user can simultaneously monitor four monitoring locations on the display screen 28 of the monitor 27. By supplying only one video signal of the video signals A to D to the monitor 27 without performing the reduction processing by the four-screen multi-unit 9, a display screen is displayed.
It is also possible to display any one of the images A to D on the entire screen on the screen 28.

However, the configuration of FIG. 7 requires a four-screen multi-unit and has a problem that the circuit scale is extremely large. Further, the vertical direction is reduced to 1/2 by thinning out the scanning lines every other line, which causes a problem that the vertical resolution is lowered.

[0015]

As described above, the conventional video camera device described above has a problem that the circuit scale is extremely large. Further, since the thinning processing is performed in the vertical direction, there is a problem that the vertical resolution is reduced.

An object of the present invention is to provide a video camera device capable of reducing the circuit scale and improving the vertical resolution.

[0017]

A video camera device according to the present invention picks up one of a plurality of reduced images displayed on a predetermined display screen, and the plurality of reduced images are displayed respectively. A plurality of solid-state image pickup devices each having a number of pixels corresponding to the number of pixels of a plurality of reduced image areas, and video signals from the plurality of solid-state image pickup devices are synthesized based on screen scanning of the display screen to display the display screen. And a synthesizing means for supplying the monitor to the monitor.

In the present invention, the plurality of solid-state image pickup elements are
Each of the pixels has a number of pixels corresponding to the number of pixels in the reduced image area, and images a subject and outputs a video signal. These video signals are combined by the combining means based on screen scanning and supplied to the monitor. The monitor displays a reduced image based on the output of the synthesizing unit in a plurality of reduced image areas on the display screen.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a video camera device according to the present invention. The present embodiment is applied to an example in which images captured by four video cameras are simultaneously displayed on one monitor.

Each of the video cameras 41 to 44 has photographing lenses 45 to 48 on the tip end side thereof, and image pickup surfaces of CCDs 49 to 52 are arranged at the focal positions of the photographing lenses 45 to 48. The subject light from the subject is passed through the taking lenses 45 to 48 to the CCD 49
An image is formed on the imaging planes 52 to 52. In the present embodiment, the number of effective pixels of the CCDs 49 to 52 is set to the number of pixels corresponding to the number of pixels in the half (horizontal image area) of the display screen 28 of the monitor 27 in the horizontal and vertical directions. .

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the CCDs 49 to 52 in FIG.

As a CCD compatible with the current NTSC broadcasting, a CCD of 1/2 inch 400,000 pixels can be considered. This C
As shown in FIG. 2A, the effective pixel number of the CD is horizontal 76
8 pixels × vertical 494 pixels. The CCDs 49 to 52 used in this embodiment are the CCD shown in FIG.
In 49 to 52, CC compatible with current NTSC broadcasting
It has half the resolution horizontally and vertically with respect to D. That is, the number of effective pixels of the CCDs 49 to 52 is horizontal 384 pixels × vertical 247 pixels, as shown in FIG.

The display area when an image picked up by a CCD compatible with the current NTSC broadcast is displayed on the display screen 28 of the monitor compatible with the current NTSC broadcast is shown by the diagonal lines in FIG. 2 (c). In contrast, CCD 49 to 52
When the image obtained by the above is displayed at the resolution corresponding to the display screen 28 of the monitor corresponding to the current NTSC broadcasting, as shown by the diagonal lines in FIG. 2D, the reduced image area of 1/4 in the display screen 28 is displayed. Only 29 will be displayed.

The video cameras 41 to 44 are installed so that they can be imaged at a predetermined monitoring place by being supported by a predetermined supporting member. Note that FIG. 1 does not show the arrangement state of the video cameras 41 to 44. The CCDs 49 to 52 are controlled by an image pickup element drive circuit 57, which will be described later, and convert the optical image of the subject image at the monitoring place into video signals A, B, C and D.
In this embodiment, the video cameras 41 to 44 have no video processing circuit, and the video signals A to D from the CCDs 49 to 52 are supplied to the camera control circuit 53 as they are.

The camera control circuit 53 includes an image synthesizing circuit 54, a video processing circuit 55, a synchronizing signal generating circuit 56, and an image pickup element driving circuit.
It is composed of 57. The sync signal generation circuit 56 generates horizontal and vertical sync signals in synchronization with the screen scanning of the monitor 27 to control the image synthesizing circuit 54, the video processing circuit 55 and the image pickup device driving circuit 57.

The image pickup device drive circuit 57 drives the CCDs 49 to 52 of the video cameras 41 to 44 based on the synchronizing signal. That is, in the present embodiment, the image pickup element drive circuit
Reference numeral 57 is for outputting video signals from the CCDs 49 to 52 at a timing corresponding to the image display timing of the monitor. For example, the image A based on the video signals A to D
Through D are respectively the reduced image area of the upper left quarter on the display screen 28 of the monitor 27, the reduced image area of the upper right quarter, and the lower left one.
When displaying in the / 4 reduced image area and the lower right ¼ reduced image area, CC is applied to the upper half area of the screen.
The video signal of the predetermined line of D49 is read out and then CCD50
The video signal of the corresponding line of the CCD 52 is read, and the video signal of the corresponding line of the CCD 52 is read after the video signal of the predetermined line of the CCD 51 is read in the lower half area of the screen.

The image synthesizing circuit 54 receives the video signals A to D from the video cameras 41 to 44 based on the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals.
Are synthesized to create a multi-video signal whose effective pixel number corresponds to the pixel number of the monitor display screen and output it to the video processing circuit 55. The video processing circuit 55 performs predetermined video signal processing on the input multi-video signal based on the horizontal and vertical synchronization signals and outputs the processed multi-video signal.

The multi-video signal from the video processing circuit 55 is supplied to the monitor 27. The monitor 27 displays a multi-image based on the input multi-video signal on the display screen 28.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus configured will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment, and FIG.
6 is a timing chart for explaining the driving of CCDs 49 to 52. 4A to 4D show the horizontal driving of the CCDs 49 to 52, and FIGS. 4E to 4H show the vertical driving of the CCDs 49 to 52, respectively. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the display on the display screen.

Optical images from the surveillance locations are incident on the video cameras 41 to 44, respectively. These optical images are the shooting lens
An image is formed on the image pickup surface of the CCD 49 to 52 via 45 to 48.
CCDs 49 to 52 convert incident light on the image pickup surface into image signals A to D and output the image signals A to D. Now, for example, the video camera 41 to
Each of the 44 subjects 61 to 64 is a person, as shown in FIG.
It shall be a flower, tree or mountain. As shown in FIG. 3, the CCDs 49 to 52 obtain captured images 65 to 68 having an effective pixel number of 384 pixels × 247 pixels.

The CCDs 49 to 52 are controlled by the image pickup element drive circuit 57 of the camera control circuit 53.
As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3C, the CCDs 49 and 51 are driven in the first half of the horizontal (H) period to output the video signals A and C. In addition, as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3D, the CCD
50 and 52 are driven in the latter half of the horizontal (H) period and output video signals B and D. As shown in FIGS. 3 (e) and 3 (f),
The CCDs 49 and 50 are driven in the first half of the vertical (V) period to output the video signals A and B. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3G and 3H, the CCDs 51 and 52 are driven in the latter half of the vertical (V) period to output the video signals C and D.

That is, the video signal A output from the video camera 41 produces the output image 69 shown in FIG. 3, and the video signal B output from the video camera 42 produces the output image 70 shown in FIG. Similarly, output signals 71 and 72 shown in FIG. 3 are obtained from the video signals C and D output from the video cameras 43 and 44.

The video signals A to D from the CCDs 49 to 52 are supplied to the image synthesis circuit 54 of the camera control circuit 53. The image synthesizing circuit 54 synthesizes the input video signals A to D to create a multi-video signal according to the screen scanning of the monitor 27.
As shown in FIG. 3, a multi-image 73 based on this multi-video signal includes an image A displayed on the upper left of the screen, an image B displayed on the upper right of the screen, and an image C displayed on the lower left of the screen. , And an image D displayed at the bottom right of the screen.

The multi-video signal from the image synthesizing circuit 54 is subjected to predetermined video processing by the video processing circuit 55 and is then monitored.
It is output to 27. The monitor 27 displays the input multi-video signal on the display screen 27. Thus, as shown in FIG. 5, the images A, B, C, and D are displayed in the reduced image areas on the upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right on the display screen 27, respectively.

As described above, in the present embodiment, a plurality of CCDs having a resolution corresponding to the resolution of each reduced image area displayed on the monitor are adopted, and the reading of the video signal from each CCD corresponds to the screen scanning. By controlling
A multi-video signal synthesized by a simple addition process is obtained without providing a multi-screen multi-unit for controlling writing and reading using a frame memory for synthesizing a video signal from a CD. As a result, the circuit scale can be significantly reduced, and the cost can be reduced.

Further, in the conventional example, as described above, the resolution is deteriorated because the vertical line thinning processing is performed. However, in the present embodiment, the resolution is deteriorated because the thinning processing is not performed. There is nothing to do. Also,
Since the CCD resolution is 1/4 of the monitor resolution,
The CCD can be miniaturized, and the video camera can be miniaturized.

Further, it is not necessary to provide a plurality of video processing circuits in the video camera of this embodiment. Therefore,
The structure of the video camera can be simplified, and the installation of the video camera becomes easy. By connecting the video camera and the camera control circuit with a cable,
The degree of freedom in installing the video camera is increased.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing an installation example of the video camera.

The video cameras 41 to 44 have cables 81 to 84.
Is connected to the camera control circuit 53 via. The camera controller 53 is connected to the monitor 27 via a cable 85. Since the video cameras 41 to 44 and the camera control circuit 53 are connected by the cables 81 to 84,
41 to 44 can be installed at desired positions and in desired directions. This enables image pickup at any angle.

In the above embodiment, an example in which an image picked up by the video cameras 41 to 44 is divided into four and displayed on one screen of the monitor has been described. However, one screen of the monitor is displayed according to the number of video cameras. It is clear that multiple reduced images can be displayed on the.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the circuit scale can be reduced and the vertical resolution can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a video camera device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a CCD in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining operation of the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining operation of the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement example of video cameras.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional video camera device.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the conventional example.

9 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a 4-screen multi-unit shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

27 ... Monitor, 41-44 ... Video camera, 49-52 ... CCD,
53 ... Camera control circuit, 54 ... Image synthesis circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A device for picking up one of a plurality of reduced images displayed on a predetermined display screen, the pixel corresponding to the number of pixels of a plurality of reduced image regions in which the plurality of reduced images are displayed, respectively. A plurality of solid-state image pickup devices each having a different number; and a combination unit that combines the image signals from the plurality of solid-state image pickup devices based on screen scanning of the display screen and supplies the combined signals to a monitor having the display screen. Video camera device characterized by. 2. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of solid-state image pickup devices output the video signals at timings corresponding to positions of the plurality of reduced image areas on the display screen. apparatus. 3. The video camera device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesizing unit performs common signal processing on the video signals after synthesizing the video signals from the plurality of solid-state image pickup devices. .