JPH09331521A - Video recording system in monitor control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record video images of lots of cameras and record video data even when an abnormality takes place simultaneously at a plurality of places by selecting a video image for a camera to be recorded for each frame and storing the video image to an area corresponding to each camera. SOLUTION: A video image changeover means 1 selects a video image received from a plurality of cameras monitoring respectively a state of each section of the system and provides an output of a video image of any camera. A video data storage means 2 stores a video image outputted from the video data changeover means 1 to a memory storing the video data such as an auxiliary storage device like a disk to an area corresponding to the camera picking up the output image. The video image received from a plurality of the cameras is selected by the video changeover means 1 in the unit of frames such as one frame and outputted to an image processing board preferably.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to, for example, a monitoring control system for monitoring and controlling the state of a production system, and more specifically to the images of a plurality of cameras for monitoring the state of each part of the system in a computer file. The present invention relates to a video recording method in a supervisory control system for recording in a corresponding area.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a production system, for example, a supervisory control system for an operator to monitor and control the state of the system is used, and video data and audio as a result of monitoring the state of the system are used. The data is stored in the computer as digital data.
The computer is equipped with an image input board for capturing video and is used for video storage. Generally, a plurality of cameras are connected to a surveillance control system, and a video switching device is used to select a camera to be connected to an image input board.

Thus, for example, in monitoring the situation of a production site, it is effective for monitoring and controlling the system to record video and audio as digital data using the image input board. However, in the past,
Generally, only one video is selected by the video switching device as the video that can be input to the computer, and the video input from multiple cameras cannot be recorded because the video is continuously recorded. There is a problem that important video data indicating an abnormality cannot be recorded when an abnormality occurs at the same place.

According to the present invention, in a supervisory control system for monitoring and controlling the state of a system, in accumulating video data as digital data, video images input from a plurality of cameras are stored in a file in a computer, and a plurality of files are stored. It is an object of the present invention to be able to record video data indicating the occurrence of an abnormality even when an abnormality occurs simultaneously at a place.

[0005]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention. This figure is a block diagram of the principle of a video recording system in an industrial supervisory control system that monitors and controls the state of a production system, for example.

In FIG. 1, the video switching means 1 switches the video input from a plurality of cameras which monitor the states of the respective parts of the system, and outputs the video of any one of the cameras. Also, the video data storage means 2
Is for storing the video output by the video switching means 1 in a memory in which video data is stored, for example, in an auxiliary storage device such as a disk, in an area corresponding to the camera that captured the output video.

The video switching means 1 is, for example, a video switching device and outputs the video of any one of a plurality of cameras to, for example, an image processing board. The video data storage means 2 stores the digital video data processed by the image processing board in a file corresponding to the camera that captured the video selected by the video switching device.

In the present invention, the video switching means 1, for example, the video switching device, switches the video input from a plurality of cameras frame by frame, for example, frame by frame, and outputs the video to the image processing board. The images of two or more portions of the above are stored in the image data storage means, for example, the data file in the auxiliary storage device.

In the present invention, further, a video recording camera management means, for example, a video, is stored inside the system for storing the video recording flag indicating whether or not the video of each of the plurality of cameras needs to be recorded. A recording camera management table is provided, and the video switching unit 1, for example, a video switching device, can switch and output only the video of the camera whose video recording flag indicates that the video needs to be recorded, so that the camera to record the video can be specified Becomes

Further, the video recording flag as the storage content of the video recording camera management means can be changed by the operator side of the system, so that the video recording of a certain camera is newly started or the video is recorded. By updating the video recording flag for the camera, the video recording of the camera can be ended.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to switch the images of a plurality of cameras for each frame and record them in a file.

[0012]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a supervisory control system using the video recording system of the present invention.
In the same figure, for example, a configuration of a plant used as a production process is shown, and various devices installed on site, here, a supervisory control system for performing supervisory control of operations of three motors A to C and 10 to 12 are shown. It is shown.

In FIG. 2, an operator 13 generally uses a control console 14 in a central monitoring room, which is remote from the site, to operate and monitor the equipment. For example, when the operator 13 operates a predetermined switch on the control console 14, a signal from the control console 14 causes the monitoring control system 15 to receive a signal.
Is transmitted to the motor A10, for example.

Industrial television cameras 16-18 are installed for each on-site device, here three motors, to see if they are operating properly. These industrial television (ITV) cameras 16-
The video from 18 is input to the video switching device 20. The video switching device 20 includes three ITV cameras 16
Select one of the images from 18 to 18 and output the image to the image processing system 21. Further, the video output from the video switching device 20 is displayed on the video display monitor (display) 22. The video switching device 20 selects a video signal to be output according to the switching control signal input from the image processing system 21.

The video input to the image processing system 21 is digitized as necessary and stored in an auxiliary storage device inside the image processing system 21. The monitor control system 15 and the image processing system 21 are connected by a network. The video data stored in the auxiliary storage device inside the image processing system 21 is reproduced inside the image processing system 21 according to an instruction from the operator 13 and displayed on the displays 23 and 24 of the control console 14.

FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of the image processing system 21 of FIG. In the figure, the image processing system 21 is composed of a computer 30 and a CRT display 35.

In FIG. 3, the image of any one of the images output from the three cameras 16 to 18 is selected by the image switching device 20, and the image is displayed on the image processing board 36 inside the computer 30. Is entered.
At this time, the CPU 37 inside the computer 30 operates the data bus 3
A switching control signal is sent to the image switching device 20 via the general-purpose interface 9 and the general-purpose interface 40 to perform control such that the image of the camera A16 is first input to the image processing board 36, for example. The image of the camera A16 input to the image processing board 36 is digitized and sent as one still image via the data bus 39, and is stored in the data file for the camera A inside the auxiliary storage device 38. It

Next, the CPU 37 inside the computer 30 sends a switching control signal to the video switching device 20 via the general-purpose interface 40 in accordance with a program stored in the main storage device 41, for example, and sends it to the video switching device 20. The image of the camera B17 is selected. Camera B1
The video from 7 is processed by the image processing board 36 in the same manner as described above.
Is digitized by and stored as a still image in the data file for the camera B inside the auxiliary storage device 38.

Thereafter, the CPU 37 of the computer 30 sends a switching control signal for selecting the image of the camera C18 to the image switching device 20 in the same manner as described above, and in response to this, the CPU 37 of the camera C18 input to the image processing board 36. The video is digitized and stored as a still image in the data file for the camera C inside the auxiliary storage device 38. By repeating such operations, the images of the three cameras A, B, and C can be recorded in the corresponding areas inside the auxiliary storage device 38. FIG. 3
Then, the video data digitized by the image processing board 36 is displayed on the CRT display 35 as needed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the video recording process according to the present invention. When the process is started in FIG.
First, in step S1, the video output of the video switching device is set in the camera A. This is because the image of the camera A is first stored in the auxiliary storage device 38 in FIG. 3, and it goes without saying that the image of the camera B or the camera C may be recorded first.

In FIG. 4, next, in step S2, a still image is acquired as a digital image using the image processing board. When this one still image, that is, one frame of digital image is acquired, the data file in the auxiliary storage device corresponding to the camera set in the image switching device in step S3, that is, the camera whose image output is selected. The still image acquired in is saved.

After that, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the recording is ended, that is, whether or not the recording end condition is satisfied. If the recording is not ended, in step S5, the output of the video switching device is the next camera, here. The camera B is switched to, and the processing from step S2 is repeated. In addition,
The end condition may be a recording end request from the operator via the control console 14, a preset number of recording frames (see FIG. 6), or the completion of recording the data of the recording time.

As a result, the output of the video switching device changes between the three cameras A, B, C, A, B, ... One after another, and as a result, the video output from each camera is one frame at a time. 3 will be stored in the data file corresponding to each camera inside the auxiliary storage device 38 of FIG. Then, when the recording end condition is satisfied in step S4, the recording process is ended.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, the image switching device 20 sequentially switches and outputs the images of a plurality of cameras for each frame, and the images are recorded. This is to shorten the time that is not recorded at all and enable the supervisory control of the system.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the output images from the three cameras are switched and output one frame at a time, one frame image is recorded for a certain camera and then one frame image is recorded next. The image that cannot be recorded is 2 frames until the above.

On the other hand, the video switching device 20
An operation of switching and outputting a camera image every plural frames, for example, every 5 frames can be considered, but in this case, an image of 5 frames is recorded to a certain camera and then an image of 5 frames is recorded next. Until then, the period during which an image cannot be recorded is 10 frames, and even if some abnormality occurs during this period, the image is not recorded. Therefore, it is considered that the method of switching and outputting the camera image every plural frames is not suitable for the supervisory control system.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a storage format of video data in the auxiliary storage device. In the figure, an auxiliary storage device 38
Data file 3 corresponding to each camera inside the
A series of still images, that is, frame data, is stored in the 8a one after another, and by continuously displaying these still images, it is possible to display a moving image.

In an actual plant system, the number of cameras in the field is quite large, and may be several tens.
Therefore, if the images of all cameras are always recorded, the amount of data to be recorded will be very large, and the time for recording one still image for each camera will be long and the recording speed will be limited. Will be done. Therefore, it is more efficient to pre-designate a camera that does not need video recording and a camera that needs video recording, and perform video recording only for the required camera.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a video recording camera management table used for such a purpose. In the figure, the camera identification number is the identification number of the camera connected to the video switching device 20, the video recording flag indicates whether or not video recording of the corresponding camera is necessary, and 1 (O
N) is required, and 0 (OFF) is not required. Figure 6
Indicates that it is not necessary to record the camera images with the identification numbers 1, 3, 4, and 8 and record the camera images with the other identification numbers. The number of recording frames indicates the number of recording-required frames designated in advance, which is used for the above-described determination of the recording end.

In order to create such a video recording camera management table, the operator 13 in FIG. 2 inputs the number of the camera for which video recording is required from the control console 14, and the camera number data is the image processing system 21. To the main storage device 41 or the auxiliary storage device 38 of FIG.
It is stored as a video recording camera management table inside.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the video recording process using the video recording camera management table. When the process is started in the figure, first, in step S11, the CPU 37 inside the computer 30 of FIG. 3 determines whether or not the video recording camera management table exists in the main storage device 41,
If the table does not exist, the table is read into the main storage device 41 in step S12. If the table exists in the main storage device 41, the process proceeds to step S13 without performing any processing.

In step S13, the contents of the video recording flag in the video recording camera management table are checked and all of them are OF.
It is determined whether or not it is F, and if all are OFF, there is no need to record video, so the processing ends. If not all are OFF, the process proceeds to step S14, the pointer is set for the camera on the first row of the video recording camera management table, and the video recording of the camera pointed to by the pointer is performed in step S15. It is determined whether the flag is ON.

If the flag is ON, step S
The video output of the video switching device is set to the camera indicated by the pointer in 16 and the image processing board 36 is set in step S17.
Thus, one still image is acquired, and the acquired still image is stored in a data file inside the auxiliary storage device 38 corresponding to the camera set in the video switching device 20 in step S18.

Thereafter, in step S19, it is determined whether or not the recording is to be ended. If the ending condition is not satisfied yet, the pointer to the video recording camera management table is moved to the next camera in step S20, and the step S1 is performed.
The processes after 5 are repeated. If the video recording flag pointed to by the pointer is not turned on in step S15, the processes of steps S16 to S19 are not performed and the processes of step S15 and subsequent steps are repeated after the process of step S20. Then, when it is determined in step S19 that the recording end condition is satisfied, the recording process ends.

For example, in a supervisory control system in which several tens of cameras are installed in the field, an image of one camera is recorded and an image of a camera which is not recorded is recorded in a state where the images of other cameras are not recorded. May need to be recorded. In this case, by changing the storage contents of the video recording camera management table described with reference to FIG.
It is possible to start video recording of a camera that has not recorded video until now.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a video recording management table when a video recording camera is added. In the figure, as shown in FIG. 6, the images of the cameras with the camera identification numbers 1, 3, 4, and 8 are recorded. This shows the result of changing the video recording flag to 1 (ON) when it is necessary to record.

The video recording camera management table of FIG. 6 is shown in FIG.
2 in FIG. 2, the operator 13 refers to the video recording camera management table displayed on the control console 14 to newly record the identification number 6
Change the video recording flag for the camera to ON. The video recording camera management table changed on the control console 14 is sent to the image processing system 21. The process of changing the video recording camera management table in the image processing system 21 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the supervisory control system, contrary to the case where the recording of the image of a certain camera is newly started as described above,
It may not be necessary to record the image of the camera that has recorded the image until now. Even in such a case, the recording of the video of the specific camera can be ended by updating the content of the video recording camera management table.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the result of changing the video recording camera management table when the video recording of a certain camera is ended in this way. Of the images of camera identification numbers 1, 3, 4, and 8 in which the images were recorded in FIG. 6, it is not necessary to record the image of the camera of identification number 3 due to recovery from an abnormality, for example. Flag is 0
The result changed to (OFF) is shown. The operation by the operator for this change is the same as that described in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the process of changing the video recording camera management table in the image processing system 21. When the process is started in the figure, step S
In step 21, the image processing system 21 receives the video recording camera management table changed by the operator 13 on the control console 14, checks in step S22 all video recording flags in the table, and records in step S23 all video recording. It is determined whether the flag is OFF.

If some of the flags are ON instead of OFF, the image is recorded between the image recording camera management table received in step S24 and the image recording camera management table stored in the main memory 41. The states of the recording flags are compared, and it is determined in step S25 whether the states of the flags are different. If the flag states are different, the video recording management table in the main storage device 41 is changed in accordance with the video recording management table received from the control console 14 in step S26, and the process ends.

If the state of the video recording flag does not differ between the video recording camera management table received from the control console 14 in step S25 and the video recording camera management table in the main storage device 41, the table is updated. Since there is no need to perform it, the processing is ended as it is. Step S2
When it is determined in step 3 that all the video recording flags in the video recording camera management table received from the control console 14 are OFF, the video recording processing itself is not necessary, and thus the video recording processing described in FIG. The video recording process end is notified to the processing unit that performs the process, and the process ends.

[0043]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, for example, by switching the image of the camera to be recorded for each frame, and by storing the image in the area corresponding to each camera, the monitoring is performed. It is possible to record the images of a large number of cameras in the control system, and it is possible to record those image data even when abnormalities occur at a plurality of places at the same time. Also, it is possible to manage the cameras that should record video using the video recording camera management table, reduce the amount of data to be recorded, and acquire one still image for all cameras that should record video. Can be shortened. Furthermore, by changing the contents of the video recording camera management table, it is possible to easily start recording a certain camera video and end recording of the recorded camera video.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a principle configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a supervisory control system using the video recording system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of an image processing system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a video recording process.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a format of video data in an auxiliary storage device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a video recording camera management table.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a video recording process using a video recording camera management table.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a result of changing a video recording camera management table when video recording of a certain camera is newly started.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a result of changing a video recording camera management table when video recording of a camera is terminated.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process of changing a video recording camera management table in the image processing system.

[Description of Codes] 1 video switching means 2 video data storage means 13 operator 14 control console 20 video switching device 21 image processing system 36 image processing board 37 CPU 38 auxiliary storage device 39 data bus 40 general-purpose interface 41 main storage device

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A monitoring control system for monitoring and controlling the system status, wherein a video output from one of the cameras is switched by switching the video input from a plurality of cameras monitoring the status of each part of the system. The switching means and the video data storage means for storing the video output by the video switching means in an area corresponding to the camera that captured the output video in the memory storing the video data are provided at two locations in the system. A video recording method in a supervisory control system, which is capable of recording the video of the above parts. 2. The video recording method in the supervisory control system according to claim 1, wherein the video switching means switches and outputs the video input from the plurality of cameras in units of frames. 3. In the monitoring control system, a video recording camera management means for storing, for each video input from the plurality of cameras, a video recording flag indicating whether or not the video of the camera needs to be recorded. Further equipped with,
3. The video recording method in the supervisory control system according to claim 1, wherein the video switching means performs switching output of the video of the camera indicating that the video recording flag indicates that recording is necessary. 4. In the surveillance control system, a video recording camera change instruction receiving means for receiving an instruction to change the stored contents of the video recording camera management means by an operator of the system, and the video recording camera change instruction receiving means. 4. The monitoring control system according to claim 3, further comprising video recording camera management content updating means for updating the content of the video recording flag stored in the video recording camera management means in response to a change instruction. Video recording method. 5. The video recording in the supervisory control system according to claim 4, wherein the change instruction by the operator is an instruction to start recording video of one or more of the plurality of cameras. method. 6. The video recording in the supervisory control system according to claim 4, wherein the change instruction by the operator is an instruction to end the recording of the video of one or more of the plurality of cameras. method.