JPH11205775A - Remote monitoring device and its picture displaying method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote monitoring method capable of improving operability at the time of remote-controlling a monitoring camera from a monitoring device by displaying the pseudo picture of a picture photographed by the remote-controlled camera at the monitoring device at the time of remote- controlling the camera installed at a remote place. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a camera 10 installed at a remote place, a monitoring device 20 installed at a center and a communication line 30 connecting the camera and the device 20, issues a moving command to the camera 10 from the device 20 to remote-control the direction or the state of the camera and displays the picture photographed by the camera 10 on the device 20. At the time of issuing a moving command to the camera 10 from the device 20 to change the direction or the state of the camera 10, based on the contents of the moving command from a control means (controller 21) and a moving amount, a pseudo picture of the picture photographed by the camera 10 whose direction or state is changed by the moving command is generated from the picture displayed at the device 20, and displayed at the device 20.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote monitoring device for controlling a camera installed in a remote place to monitor the situation of the remote place and an image display method thereof, and more particularly to a camera installed in a remote place. The present invention relates to a technique effective for a remote monitoring device in which transmission of image data of a captured image causes a delay in transmission of the image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a remote monitoring device has been used in order to grasp a traffic volume on a road. The remote monitoring device includes a monitoring camera installed at a remote place, a monitoring device installed at a center side for remotely operating the monitoring camera, and a communication line connecting the monitoring camera and the monitoring device. . The surveillance camera installed in this remote place,
By changing the state of the surveillance camera (zoom amount of the zoom lens, etc.) or the direction of the surveillance camera (arbitrary horizontal and vertical directions) by remote control from the surveillance device, an image of the photographing target is taken I do. Image data of an image captured by the monitoring camera is transmitted to a monitoring device on the center side via a communication line, and an image captured by the monitoring camera is displayed on a display device of the monitoring device. This allows the monitoring device to view the image displayed on the display device,
By changing the state or direction of the monitoring camera, it is possible to monitor the situation at a remote place.

[0003]

In a conventional remote monitoring apparatus, a public line or a dedicated line is used when transmitting image data of an image captured by a monitoring camera to the monitoring apparatus. When a low-speed communication line is used as the public line or the dedicated line, a transmission delay of the image data occurs when the image data of the image captured by the monitoring camera is transmitted to the monitoring device. That is, it takes a certain amount of time before image data of an image captured by the monitoring camera whose state or direction has been changed by remote control from the monitoring device is transmitted from the monitoring camera to the monitoring device,
It was not possible to immediately know whether or not the image taken by the surveillance camera whose state or direction was changed was the desired image. Therefore, for example, when changing the direction of the surveillance camera by remote control from the monitoring device, the surveillance device may pass through a desired position in the first operation and change to the desired position again by another operation. There is a problem that it is difficult to control the state or the direction of the monitoring camera by remote control from the user. In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the surveillance camera may be roughly remote-controlled first, and then the surveillance camera may be remotely operated again after the result image is transmitted. Was very bad.

As a means for solving this problem, a method of displaying the current direction of the camera on a display device of a monitoring device or the like and remotely operating the monitoring camera based on the display is conceivable. Since it is not possible to know the amount of movement on the image, there is a problem that it cannot be used when tracking and enlarging a target in the image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring apparatus and an image display method for remotely controlling a camera installed at a remote place. When generating, from the image data of the image previously captured by the camera, generate image data of a pseudo image of an image captured by a remotely operated camera,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique capable of improving operability when remotely operating a monitoring camera from a monitoring device by displaying the pseudo image without time delay.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Among the inventions disclosed in the present application, the outline of a representative one will be briefly described.
It is as follows.

That is, the present invention comprises a camera installed at a remote location, a monitoring device installed at a center side, and a communication line connecting the camera and the monitoring device. A remote monitoring device that issues a movement command to remotely control the direction or state of the camera and displays an image captured by the camera on the monitoring device. When issuing a command to change the direction or state of the camera, based on the content and amount of the movement command from the control means, from the image data of the image being displayed on the monitoring device, It is characterized in that image data of a pseudo image of an image taken by a camera whose state has been changed is generated, and the pseudo image is displayed on the monitoring device.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

In all the drawings for describing the embodiments, those having the same functions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and their repeated description will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a remote monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a remote monitoring device according to the present embodiment includes a monitoring camera 10 installed at a remote location, a monitoring device 20 installed at a center side, a monitoring camera 10 and a monitoring device 20. And a communication line 30 for connecting The monitoring camera 10 is disposed on the camera platform 12, and is driven (panned or tilted) in an arbitrary horizontal or vertical direction by rotating a designated driving motor of the camera platform 12. Also,
The state of the monitoring camera 10, for example, the zoom amount of the lens, is set to a predetermined state by the lens driving mechanism 11 of the monitoring camera 10. The monitoring camera 10 is connected to the communication device 13, and the image data of the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is transmitted to the monitoring device 20 via the communication device 13 and the communication line 30. (Command) is transmitted to the monitoring camera 10. In FIG. 1, the monitoring camera 10 and the communication device 13
Although the communication device 13 is illustrated separately from the monitoring camera 10, the communication device 13 may be configured integrally with the monitoring camera 10.

The monitoring device 20 includes a controller 21, a processor 22, a communication device 23, a reception buffer 24, a display image memory 25, a display device 26, and an image operation memory 27. Image data of an image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is transmitted to the monitoring device 20 via the communication device 13, the communication line 30, and the communication device 23. The image data is sequentially stored in the reception buffer 24, and when image data for one screen is stored in the reception buffer 24, the image data for one screen is stored in the display image memory 25.
The image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is displayed on the display device 26.

When the direction or the state of the monitoring camera 10 is changed by remote control, a movement command is sent from the controller 21 of the monitoring device 20 via the communication device 23, the communication line 30, and the communication device 13. Surveillance camera 1
Issued to 0. The movement command from the controller 21 is
In the case of a command to change the direction of the monitoring camera 10,
The control unit (not shown) of the monitoring camera 10
Is rotated to change the camera platform 12. Thereby, the monitoring camera 10 is set in a predetermined direction. When the movement command from the controller 21 is a command to change the state of the monitoring camera 10,
The control unit of the monitoring camera 10 rotates the designated drive motor, and sets the state of the monitoring camera 10, for example, the zoom amount of the lens, to a predetermined state.

In this embodiment, the movement command from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 is
Is also entered. When the movement command is input, the processor 22 transfers the image data stored in the display image memory 25 to the image operation memory 27 at that time. Thereafter, based on the content of the movement command from the controller 21 (for example, zoom, pan, tilt) and the amount of movement (for example, zoom, pan, tilt operation amount), the image displayed on the display device 26 is displayed. Calculate the movement amount.
Next, based on the calculated movement amount, the image data stored in the image operation memory 27 is subjected to parallel movement and enlargement / reduction processing, and the surveillance camera remotely operated according to a movement command from the controller 21. 10 to generate image data of a pseudo image of the image captured by
5 and the pseudo image is displayed on the display device 26.
As a result, it is possible to know a rough state of the image currently being photographed, and it is possible to greatly improve the operability when remotely operating the monitoring camera 10 from the monitoring device 20.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the processor 22 according to the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the processing procedure of the processor 22 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the processor 22 clears the reception buffer 24 (step 101), and then determines whether or not a movement command for the monitoring camera 10 has been input from the controller 21 (step 102). Step 102
In the case where the movement command for the monitoring camera 10 is not input from the controller 21, that is, when the controller 21 is not remotely operating the monitoring camera 10, image data for one screen is stored in the reception buffer 24. It is determined whether or not it has been stored (step 103). If image data for one screen is not stored in the reception buffer 24 in step 103,
2 is repeated.
When the image data is stored in one screen, the image data in the reception buffer 24 is transferred to the display image memory 25, and the image being captured by the monitoring camera 10 is displayed on the display device 26.
, And steps 101 to 104 are repeated.

In step 102, the controller 21
When a move command to the monitoring camera 10 is input from the CPU, the image data stored in the display image memory 25 is transferred to the image operation memory 27 (step 10).
5) the contents of the movement command (for example, zoom, pan, tilt) from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10;
From the movement amount (for example, the parallel movement amount of the image in the case of panning, or the enlargement / reduction amount in the case of zooming), the movement amount of the image displayed on the display device 26 immediately before is calculated (step 106). ). Based on the movement amount calculated in the step 106, the image data in the image operation memory 27 is subjected to, for example, a parallel movement of the image in the case of panning and an enlargement / reduction in the case of zooming, The image data of the pseudo image of the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 remotely operated by the controller 21 is generated (step 107), and the image data is displayed on the display image memory 25.
And the pseudo image is displayed on the display device 26 (step 108). Next, it is determined whether or not the movement command from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 has been completed (step 109). Step 109 is repeated. In step 109, when the movement command from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 is completed, the processing from step 101 is repeated.

FIG. 3 shows a display device 26 in the case where a movement command for panning right is transmitted from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 in this embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display image displayed on the screen. In the present embodiment, when a movement command for panning right is transmitted from the controller 21 as a movement command for the monitoring camera 10, the processor 22 moves the image (201 in FIG. 3) displayed on the display device 26. The amount is calculated, the image data of the image being displayed on the display device 26 (the image data stored in the image operation memory 27) is subjected to a parallel movement process, and the image data of the pseudo image panned to the right is generated. Is transferred to the display image memory 25, and the pseudo image panned to the right is displayed on the display device 26 (202 in FIG. 3).
In this case, a portion where no pseudo image data can be generated because there is no image data is left blank. At this time, the surveillance camera 10 displays the image after actually panning to the right (203 in FIG. 3).
When the image data of one screen of the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is received, the image is displayed.

FIG. 4 shows a display device 2 in the case where a command to zoom in is transmitted from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 in the present embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a display image displayed on a display 6; In the present embodiment, when a movement command to zoom in is transmitted from the controller 21 to the monitoring camera 10 as a movement command, the processor 22 determines the movement amount of the image (204 in FIG. 4) displayed on the display device 26. The image data of the image being displayed on the display device 26 (the image data stored in the image operation memory 27) is subjected to an enlargement process, and the zoomed-in pseudo image image data is generated. And the pseudo image is displayed on the display device 26 (205 in FIG. 4). In this case,
Since the image displayed on the display device 26 is an enlarged display, the image quality is slightly degraded. At this time, the surveillance camera 10 is currently capturing an image (206 in FIG. 4) after zooming in. When image data for one screen of the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is received, the image is displayed. Is displayed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the image data of the image captured by the monitoring camera 10 is transmitted to the monitoring device 20, the remote operation is performed even if the transmission delay of the image data occurs. Since the pseudo image of the image captured by the monitoring camera can be displayed without time delay, the operability when remotely controlling the monitoring camera 10 from the monitoring device 20 can be improved. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is effective in tracking and enlarging a target in an image captured by the monitoring camera 10.

Further, in the conventional remote monitoring device, there is a drawback that a still image is displayed for a while after the remote operation is performed from the monitoring device, which causes a sense of incongruity. However, according to this embodiment, , A pseudo image of the image captured by the remotely controlled surveillance camera is displayed,
The uncomfortable feeling does not occur.

According to the present embodiment, the camera platform 12
Even if there is a drive delay, the pseudo image of the image captured by the remotely operated monitoring camera can be displayed without time delay, as described above, so that the monitoring camera 10 is remotely operated from the monitoring device 20. In this case, operability can be improved.

In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which the controller 21 issues a movement command to the monitoring camera 10. However, the present invention is not limited to this. , And a movement command for the monitoring camera 10 may be issued from the processor 22. In FIG. 1, the case where the display image memory 25 and the image operation memory 27 are separately provided has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The memory 27 may be the same memory. Further, when the processor 22 performs the parallel movement and enlargement / reduction processing on the image data stored in the image operation memory 27, the image data stored in the reception buffer 24 is the image data to be discarded. So
It is also possible to use the same memory as the reception buffer 24 and the image operation memory 27. In the above embodiment, the monitoring device 20 includes the controller 21, the processor 22, the communication device 23, the reception buffer 24, the display image memory 25, the display device 26, and the image operation memory 27. Although the mode has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be executed by a general personal computer.

Further, the image data transmitted from the monitoring camera 10 may be compression-encoded, and in this case, even if there is a time delay due to image compression / decompression, according to the present embodiment, In the same manner as described above, a pseudo image of an image captured by a remotely operated monitoring camera can be displayed without time delay.
It is possible to improve the operability when remotely controlling 0.

As described above, the invention made by the present inventor is:
Although a specific description has been given based on the above-described embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.

[0025]

The effects obtained by typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

According to the present invention, even when a transmission delay of image data occurs when transmitting image data of an image taken by a camera installed in a remote place to a monitoring device, a remotely operated monitoring device is provided. Can display a pseudo image of the image taken by the camera without delay, improving the operability when remotely controlling the direction or state of the camera installed at a remote location from the monitoring device. Becomes

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a remote monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a processor according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display image displayed on the display device when a panning right movement command is transmitted from the controller as a movement command to the monitoring camera in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display image displayed on the display device when a zoom command is transmitted from the controller as a movement command to the monitoring camera in the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Monitoring camera, 11 ... Lens drive mechanism, 12 ... Head head, 13,23 ... Communication device, 20 ... Monitoring device, 21 ...
Controller, 22 ... processor, 24 ... reception buffer, 25 ... display image memory, 26 ... display device, 27 ...
Image operation memory, 30 ... communication line.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A remote monitoring device comprising: a camera installed at a remote place; a monitoring device installed at a center side for remotely controlling the camera; and a communication line connecting the camera and the monitoring device. The monitoring device, a control unit that issues a movement command to change the direction or the state of the camera to the camera, a display unit that displays an image captured by the camera, and a display unit that is displaying on the display unit. In a remote monitoring device having a display image memory for storing image data of an image, when the monitoring device issues a movement command to the camera from the control unit to change the direction or state of the camera, Based on the content and movement amount of the movement command from the control means, the direction or state is determined by the movement command from the image data of the image being displayed on the display means. Generating image data of the false image of the image to be photographed in a modified camera, remote monitoring apparatus characterized by having a pseudo-image generating means for displaying the pseudo-image on the display means. 2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the pseudo image generating unit transfers the image data stored in the display image memory to the image operation memory based on a movement command from the control unit. Means for calculating a movement amount of an image being displayed on the display means based on the content and movement amount of a movement command from the control means; and a movement amount calculated by the second means. Third means for generating, from the image data stored in the image operation memory, image data of a pseudo image of an image taken by a camera whose direction or state has been changed by the movement command, 4. The remote monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: fourth means for transferring the pseudo image generated by the third means to the display image memory. 3. A remote monitoring device comprising a camera installed at a remote place, a monitoring device installed at a center side, and a communication line connecting the camera and the monitoring device. An image display method of a remote monitoring device that issues a movement command to the camera, remotely controls the direction or state of the camera, and displays an image captured by the camera with the monitoring device. When issuing a movement command to the camera to change the direction or state of the camera, based on the content and movement amount of the movement command from the control unit,
From the image data of the image being displayed on the monitoring device, image data of a pseudo image of an image captured by a camera whose direction or state has been changed by the movement command is generated, and the pseudo image is displayed on the monitoring device. An image display method comprising: