JPH1157175A - Monitoring device in game center - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To photograph an illegal action in a game center with fewer storage capacitance by judging one of still picture recording or animation recording in accordance with a detecting signal and the setting contents of a recording instruction setting means and recording a still picture or an animation. SOLUTION: This monitoring device is provided with monitor cameras arranged in the respective places of the game center, event detecting means for detecting various kinds of events in the game center, which are arranged in the respective places of the game center, a picture recording means for recording photographing data of the monitor cameras, the recording indication setting means for previously setting and storing whether the picture is still picture-recording or animation-recorded in accordance with the detected event of the event detecting means, a first control means for executing a photographic operation by the monitor camera which responds to the detecting signal and the second control means for judging to which one of still picture recording or animation recording the detecting signal applies in accordance with the setting contents of the recording indication setting means when the detecting signal is issued from the event detecting means and recording the still picture or the animation in a picture recording means in accordance with the judgment contents so as to photograph an illegality in the game center.

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 monitoring impropriety of a game arcade such as a pachinko parlor, and more particularly to a simple device capable of recording and saving a monitoring photographed image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a surveillance system for monitoring impropriety in a game hall such as a pachinko parlor, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-265
There is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 583.

[0003] In this prior art, a pachinko game machine or the like is selectively and temporally projected on a monitor television according to signals indicating various operating states of a hall device such as a pachinko game machine. A technique is disclosed in which, when a malfunction occurs due to fraud, the situation is recorded on a video tape recorder. And
When the recording is made, the video is reproduced to confirm again whether there is any fraud.

[0004]

However, in this conventional technique, all the photographing events determined to be recorded are recorded as moving images, so that a large storage capacity is required for the recording device. is there.

That is, in this prior art, an inexpensive recording medium (video tape) such as a video tape recorder is used, and there is not much problem in terms of storage capacity if enduring the trouble of changing tapes. In the case of analog recording such as a video tape recorder, various information such as shooting time, type of event that occurred, pachinko machine number, membership number, receipt number, etc. should be added to the recorded image data and recorded. Can not.

On the other hand, in the case of digital image recording,
Since the above various information can be added to the image data and managed on a personal computer, the subsequent image search can be executed at high speed and with a high degree of freedom.

[0007] In recent years, fraud in pachinko parlors has also become vicious and sophisticated, and the images captured and recorded are recorded in various forms such as the above-mentioned photographing time, type of event that occurred, pachinko machine number, member number, receipt number and the like. There is a demand for a system that can easily and quickly retrieve information using information as a keyword.

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, as described above, all the photographing events determined to be recorded are recorded as moving images, so that a portable magneto-optical device such as a hard disk or MO is used as a recording medium. When a digital recording medium such as a disc is used, a huge amount of recording medium is required to store moving image data, and when a general personal computer is used, a large amount of money is required to secure the capacity of the recording medium. And

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a monitoring apparatus in a game hall which can efficiently record photographing data in the game hall with a smaller storage capacity. .

[0010]

According to the present invention,
Surveillance cameras installed at various locations in the amusement arcade, event detection means installed at various locations in the amusement arcade to detect various events in the amusement arcade, image recording means for recording image data of the surveillance cameras, Recording instruction setting means for presetting and storing whether to record an image as a still image or moving image in response to a detection event of the elephant detection means; and, when a detection signal is issued from the event detection means, the detection signal First control means for executing an image pickup operation by the monitoring camera in response to the event, and when a detection signal is issued from the event detection means, the detection signal is recorded in accordance with the setting of the recording instruction setting means. And a second control unit for making the image recording unit record a still image or a moving image in accordance with the content of the judgment.

That is, in the present invention, whether to record a still image or a moving image is set in advance according to the content of the detected event, and the captured image of the surveillance camera is recorded as a still image or a moving image according to the set contents. To do.

For example, when a pachinko machine window frame open signal is issued, it is not possible to specify whether the signal was made by a clerk or by a player, so that the pachinko machine window frame was opened. A series of motions (illegal ball operation, nail operation, etc.) of the suspicious person after moving are recorded as a moving image or a plurality of continuous still images are recorded. On the other hand, when an illegal signal of a game console such as the use of a magnet is issued, it is sufficient that the human face of the person can be identified because the illegality has already occurred, and one or more still image records can be recorded. Execute.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment shows a monitoring system in a pachinko parlor.

The surveillance system shown in FIG. 1 has an island information collection system 10, a server system 20, a camera interface server 30, and an image recording system 40, and a local area network (LAN in a hall) therebetween.
Connected through.

The in-island information collection system 10 collects various events that occur in each of the appropriately divided islands.
That is, the hall in the pachinko parlor is divided into a plurality of islands, and each island has a plurality of pachinko machines 11, a ball counter, a ball renting machine, a member card reader, a currency exchange machine, and other various equipment 12 (pachinko machines). Peripheral devices other than the above). The pachinko machine 11 and the equipment 12 are provided with various sensors 13 for detecting various events.

The events detected by the sensors 13 include, for example, the following.

(1) Unauthorized use of the game console (by a magnet sensor installed on the game console) (2) Stop and release (Generation of a stop release signal) (3) Abnormal equipment (installed on pachinko machine 11 or equipment 12) (By abnormality detection sensor) (4) Disconnection of electric wiring (for example, no response from count-up sensor of daima ball lending machine) (5) Use of blacklist member card (by collation processing in server system 20) (6) Member card (7) Window frame open (by window frame open detection sensor of pachinko machine) (8) Door open (by door open detection sensor of equipment such as money changer) The detection signals of these various sensors 13 are picked up by an island computer 14 that manages the island, and the island computer 1
4 to the server system 20 (hall computer) for centrally managing the pachinko parlor.

The photographing and recording system 40 includes a plurality of fixed-view digital video cameras 41 arranged at various points in the pachinko parlor hall, and a plurality of tracking-type digital cameras 41 capable of performing tracking processing such as moving the field of view and zooming. A digital video camera 42, a plurality of monitor devices 43 for displaying the photographing data of the fixed camera 41 and the tracking camera, and a plurality of recording devices for recording the photographing data of the fixed camera 41 or the tracking camera 42 on a video tape. A video tape recorder (VTR) 44, a camera control device 45 for controlling the tracking camera 42, a manual operation panel 46 for manually controlling the tracking camera 42, and control of each component of the photographing and recording system 40. And an image recording controller 47 for transmitting and receiving information to and from other systems via the in-hall LAN. .

In this case, the photographed image of the fixed camera 41 is always inputted to the monitor device 43, and the photographed contents are always displayed. An image captured by the fixed camera 41 is constantly output to the VTR 44 so that the content of the image is constantly recorded.

The image recording controller 47 has a function of converting the video signals of the fixed camera 41 and the tracking camera 42 into a moving image signal composed of a plurality of frames of still image signals which are continuous in time series. It has a function of converting a video signal into a still image signal composed of a still image signal for one screen. At this time, the still image signal may be compressed using JPEG or the like, and the moving image signal may be compressed using MPEG or the like.

The server system 20 centrally manages the entire hall of the pachinko parlor, and has a server body 21 and an operation instruction input terminal 22. In the server body 21,
When an event detected by the sensor 13 occurs, an operation instruction table is provided for selecting whether or not to perform a shooting process by a video camera in response to the event. Data indicating whether or not to perform this imaging is set for each event.

The camera IF server 30 stores a camera number to be selected according to the content (type, location) of the event that has occurred.
If the camera to be selected is of the tracking type, the content of the shooting (zooming method, moving field of view), shooting time, VTR4
4 has a shooting / recording instruction table in which a shooting / recording instruction signal indicating whether or not recording is performed is set and stored.
This shooting record instruction table includes, in addition to the above data,
Identification information as to whether to perform still image recording or moving image recording is set and stored for each event, and this information is also included in the shooting / recording instruction signal.

The camera IF server 30 refers to the storage contents of the shooting / recording instruction table, creates a shooting / recording instruction signal including the shooting / recording content corresponding to the event that has occurred, and uses this signal for shooting / recording of the shooting / recording system 40. Controller 47
Send to

The camera IF server 30 stores a photographed image (moving image or still image) photographed in accordance with the photographing / recording instruction signal, and thereafter records the photographing time, the type of event that occurred, the pachinko machine number, the member It has an image search table that can search the stored captured image using various information such as a number and a receipt number as keywords. For this image search table, a digital recording medium such as a hard disk or MO is used.

The operation of the system shown in FIG. 1 relating to the photographing and recording processing will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, it is assumed that some event has occurred in the pachinko hall to execute a photographing process by a camera (step 100).

This event is detected by a sensor of any of the island information collection systems 10 in the pachinko hall,
The sensor generates a detection signal for this event (11
0). The detection signal of this sensor is input to the island computer 14.

The island computer 14 determines the type of event that has occurred from the detection signal of the sensor, and determines the event occurrence time,
Information indicating the event occurrence location is added, and the types of these events,
Event occurrence information including the time and place of occurrence, LA in the hall
The data is transmitted to the host server system 20 via N (step 120).

When the server main body 21 of the server system 20 receives the event occurrence information from the island computer 14, it recognizes the type, time and location of the event from the event occurrence information (step 130). It is determined whether or not the event needs to be photographed by a video camera with reference to the operation instruction table (step 140).

If it is determined that it is necessary to take a picture, the server main body 21 sends the event occurrence information including the type, time and location of the event to the camera IF server 3.
0 (step 150).

Upon receiving the event occurrence information, the camera IF server 30 recognizes the type, occurrence time, and location of the event from the event occurrence information (step 160), and furthermore, captures and records the content corresponding to the event occurrence information. The camera IF
It is read from the shooting record instruction table in the server 30 (step 170). As described above, the camera IF server 2
In the shooting record instruction table in 0, the camera number to be selected, the content of shooting (zooming method, method of moving the visual field) when the selected camera is of the tracking type, shooting time, VT
In addition to the presence / absence of recording by R, identification information such as whether to perform still image recording or moving image recording is previously set and stored for each event, and the camera IF server 30 includes A photographing / recording instruction signal corresponding to the event is transmitted to the photographing / recording controller 47 of the photographing / recording system 40 via the LAN in the hall (step 180).

Upon receiving the photographing / recording instruction signal, the photographing / recording controller 47 of the photographing / recording system 40 selects a required camera 41 or 42 according to the photographing / recording operation instruction signal, and performs photographing with this camera in accordance with the instruction contents. So let it run. If the recording instruction signal includes a recording instruction from the VTR 44, the photographed data is recorded on a predetermined VTR 44 (step 190). The images captured by each camera are displayed on the monitor device 43.

Here, when the photographing / recording controller 47 is instructed to record a still image by the photographing / recording instruction signal sent from the camera IF server 30, the photographing / recording controller 47 converts the video signal input from the selected camera in advance. At a set predetermined timing, it is converted into a still image signal for one frame (step 200). In the case of a fixed camera, this image capturing timing for a still image may be performed immediately at the time of occurrence of an event.In the case of a tracking camera, a predetermined delay time for tracking operation is provided, and after this delay time, What should be done from.

Further, when the photographing / recording controller 47 is instructed to record a moving image by the photographing / recording instruction signal sent from the camera IF server 30, it is instructed by the video signal inputted from the selected camera. The moving image signal is converted into a moving image signal composed of still image signals continuous in time series for frames corresponding to the shooting time (step 200).

The photographing / recording controller 47 converts the still image or moving image for recording into the LA in the hall.
The data is transmitted to the camera IF server 30 via N (step 210).

When the camera IF server 30 receives the still image data or the moving image data corresponding to the event from the recording system 40, the camera IF server 30 stores the received image data in the image search table recording medium in the camera IF server 30. Record (step 220).

The image data stored in the image retrieval table is associated with various types of information such as a pachinko machine number, a member number, and a receipt number, in addition to the type, time and location of the event included in the event occurrence signal. Thus, a desired photographed image can be easily and efficiently searched using these as keywords. For example, today, it is possible to easily search for information such as images of members' names and personalities counted over 50,000 shots with the third ball counter.

As described above, according to this embodiment, only a specific photographing event is recorded as a moving image, and the other photographing events are recorded as a still image. Therefore, a reasonable and efficient image recording can be performed. As a result, the recording capacity of the image recording medium can be reduced.

For example, of the above-mentioned events (1) to (8),
The events (1) to (6) record still images, and the events (7) and (8) record moving images. In other words, the main purpose of still image recording is to identify the person who operated the device, whereas the purpose of moving image recording is to identify the behavior of the person who has been the subject since the event was detected. Is to be recorded.

In the above embodiment, when recording a still image, a plurality of still images at different points in time are intermittently fetched from the image captured by the camera, and the still images corresponding to the plurality of frames correspond to one event. It may be recorded as a still image.

In the above embodiment, the video signal of the digital video camera is converted into a still image signal or a moving image signal for recording in the camera IF server 30 by the photographing / recording controller 47 of the photographing / recording system 40. This conversion may be performed by the camera IF server 30.

In the above-described embodiment, the VTR 44 constantly records the photographed data from the video camera as it is. However, the VTR 44 records a still image and a moving image when an event occurs. Is also good. In this case, since the amount of recorded data is reduced, the number of times of changing the VTR tape can be reduced.

Further, a shutter-type digital camera may be used as an image pickup device for picking up a still image.

The present invention can also be applied to a game arcade such as a game arcade other than a pachinko parlor.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since only a specific shooting event is recorded as a moving image and the other shooting events are recorded as still images, a reasonable and efficient image recording can be performed. As a result, the recording capacity of the image recording medium can be reduced. it can. That is, as compared with the case where all are recorded as moving images, more photographing events can be recorded on a recording medium having the same capacity, and a search for a reproduced image can be performed more quickly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a captured image recording procedure according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Island information collection system 20 ... Server system 30 ... Camera interface server 40 ... Photography recording system 41 ... Fixed camera 42 ... Tracking camera

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Surveillance cameras installed at various locations in a game arcade; Event detection means installed at various locations in a game arcade to detect various events at the game arcade; and image recording for recording image data of the surveillance cameras. Means, recording instruction setting means for setting and storing in advance whether to record an image as a still image or to record a moving image in response to a detection event of the event detecting means, and a detection signal is issued from the event detecting means. First control means for executing an imaging operation by the surveillance camera in response to the detection signal; and when the detection signal is issued from the event detection means, the detection is performed in accordance with the setting contents of the recording instruction setting means. A second control unit that determines whether the signal corresponds to still image recording or moving image recording, and causes the image recording unit to record a still image or a moving image in accordance with the content of the determination. Toss Monitoring device in the gaming field. 2. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image recording means digitally records image data.