KR100632228B1 - Monitoring camera system with storage device extending storing time on power cut-off - Google Patents

Abstract

A monitoring camera system integrated with a storage unit is provided to extend a time of storing images of a monitoring camera in the event of suspension of electric supply and to minimize violation of private life caused by a CCTV. A monitoring camera system having a monitoring camera and a storage unit, which are integrated with each other, includes a charger normally charged with external power, a power sensor(16) for sensing the supply of the external electric power, a large-capacity hard disk(19) for storing monitored images for a long time, a small-capacity semiconductor memory(25) for temporarily storing the monitored images, a hard disk controller(26) for controlling power supply to the hard disk, a battery switch(14) for controlling the charger to supply electric power to the monitoring camera system when the power senses interruption of electric power, and a processor(18). The processor controls the hard disk controller to turn on the hard disk to store monitored image related data in the hard disk when the power sensor senses supply of external electric power. When the power sensor senses interruption of the external electric power, the processor controls the hard disk controller to turn off the hard disk to store the monitored image related data in the semiconductor memory and after a predetermined lapse of time, controls the hard disk controller to turn on the hard disk to transfer the monitored image related data stored in the semiconductor memory to the hard disk.

Description

Monitoring Camera System with Storage Device Extending Storing Time on Power Cut-Off}

1 is a block diagram of a storage device integrated surveillance camera system according to the present invention

2 illustrates an operation according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to a storage-integrated surveillance camera, which can increase the storage time when the power is cut off.

Recently, due to the development of Internet technology, it is possible to transmit images to a remote control center via the Internet, which enables remote monitoring by surveillance cameras.

However, in the case of such a remote surveillance camera system, if an error occurs in the video transmission communication line to the control center, the remote transmission of the surveillance video is impossible, so that it cannot be properly monitored.

In particular, if the control center is located far away from the Internet using the Internet to transmit the remote, due to the frequent breakdown of the Internet can be a period of time impossible to remote video.

In order to make up for the shortcomings, even in the case where an error occurs in the communication line in the important places (banks, public places, etc.) and the image transmission is impossible, in order to recognize the intruder or the criminal while watching the stored images later In addition, by installing a separate storage device for storing the video on the video tape or hard disk together with the surveillance camera in the field, it detects when an error occurs in the communication line and stores the image on the site by the separate storage device. It keeps updating and saving the latest video with or without it.

However, even in this case, since the electronic circuits of the surveillance camera and the storage device operate properly only when the power is normally applied, the surveillance camera and the storage device may operate in the event of a power failure or an intruder cuts off the power line. It becomes impossible to make field monitoring and image storage.

In order to prevent such a problem, it is possible to additionally install a rechargeable battery for the surveillance camera and the storage device to supply power from the rechargeable battery even during a power failure or a power failure, thereby allowing the surveillance camera and the storage device to operate for a predetermined time.

However, this conventional technology consumes a lot of power when the hard disk and the related electronic circuits used as a storage device continue to operate, and thus, image storage is impossible for a long time (for example, days) unless a large capacity rechargeable battery is used. In order to use for a long time, the size of the rechargeable battery is inevitably increased. Of course, there may be a small high-performance battery, but the unit price is too expensive to use for general purpose surveillance cameras.

On the other hand, in recent years, intruders have been miniaturized so as not to recognize the existence of surveillance cameras, and many hard disks have also been miniaturized, and as the size of the rechargeable battery increases, the entire surveillance camera system (surveillance + storage + charging) The size of the battery increases, so that an intruder can easily recognize the existence of the surveillance camera, and the intruder destroys the surveillance camera system and disables the surveillance camera system, and it becomes difficult to install in a narrow place.

The present invention, in view of the problems of the prior art as described above, is capable of a very small surveillance camera system such that the intruder does not recognize the existence, and can store the image taken in the field where the surveillance camera is installed for a long time even in the event of power failure or power off. Provides a surveillance camera system.

The present invention for achieving the above object is a surveillance camera system in which a surveillance camera and a storage device are integrated,

A rechargeable battery which is normally charged by an external power source; A power detector detecting whether the external power is supplied;

 A large hard disk storing the surveillance image for a long time;

 A small flash memory for temporarily storing the surveillance video;

A hard disk controller for controlling power supply of the hard disk;

A battery switching unit which controls to supply power to the surveillance camera system to the rechargeable battery when the power detection unit detects that external power is cut off;

When it is determined that the external power is supplied from the power detection unit, the hard disk controller turns on the hard disk to control to store the surveillance video related data in the hard disk,

When it is determined that the external power is cut off by the power detection unit, the hard disk control unit turns off the hard disk and starts storing the surveillance video related data in the flash memory. And a processing device configured to turn on the hard disk by a hard disk controller to repeat the process of storing the surveillance video related data stored in the flash memory on the hard disk.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a surveillance camera system of the present invention.

The camera basically converts light entering through the lens 1 into an electrical signal through the sensor 2. The sensor uses CCD (charge coupled device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide) technology, through which the video signal converted into an electrical signal is processed through various image processing in the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) (3). It is transmitted to the outside through 10. In general, the video output stage is converted into an analog signal of a video standard method such as NTSC or PAL, but in the case of a digital camera, the digital signal is output as it is.

In the case of remote transmission, it is transmitted through an Internet interface (IP), an optical interface, power line communication, or a multi-level analog amplifier. The signal conversion unit 11 has an interface for connecting to these transmission networks and a protocol interface for simultaneously transmitting image information of several cameras. The signal thus converted is controlled to be monitored at a remote control center 13 through a transmission network. The control center 13 is configured to additionally / supplementally store the compressed video through an existing DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

On the other hand, the surveillance camera that can be remotely controlled has a control unit for P / T / Z (Pan / Tilt / Zoom) control and a P / T / Z drive unit (8) for driving the motor, the housing surrounding the There is (7).

The power source is supplied from the original unpurified power source 6, which may be supplied from an existing power line or may use a separate power source such as a solar panel. The power conversion unit 5 is responsible for converting such unrefined power supply into a DC 12V power supply generally used in a camera system.

The camera power supply unit 4 converts the input power into a power required for all electronic circuits of the camera such as a sensor, a DSP, various interfaces, and a driving unit.

The power supplied to the camera is stored in the secondary battery of the battery / switching unit 14 through the charging control unit 15. When it is determined that there is no power input by the power detector 16, the power switch is operated so that power is supplied from the battery. When the power is turned on again, the changeover switch is switched to the original main power source (5).

Now, the operation according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

When the power detecting unit 16 determines that the power is normally input, the image storing itself is performed by using the image compression unit 17, the MCU (main control unit) 18, and the HDD 19. That is, when the power is detected by the power detecting unit 16 as normal (S1), this signal is transmitted to the MCU 18, the MCU 18 sends a signal to the HDD control unit 26 to turn on the HDD 19 (S2) The image compressed by the image compression unit 17 is stored in the HDD 19 (S3), and the monitored image is stored in the HDD 19 as in a conventional manner. At this time, the HDD 19 has a considerably large storage capacity of several tens of gigabytes.

In this way, the power is supplied from the main power source and the image is continuously recorded according to the predetermined mode, and the information is repeatedly repeated in the form of first-in-first-out (FIFO) in the HDD 19 area having a large storage capacity. Will be saved.

Next, when the power is cut off due to power cut or power line cut by the intruder, the power detector 16 detects this (S4) and transmits the detected signal to the MCU 18. The MCU 18 sends a signal to the HDD control unit 26 to turn off the power supply of the HDD 19 for the power saving mode (S5), and starts storing the image of the image compression unit 17 in the flash memory 25. (S6). At this time, a pointer indicating how far the image data is stored in the flash memory 25 increases as the counting value is stored in the flash memory 25. In addition, the storage capacity is considerably less than that of the HDD 19, which is about several hundred megabytes.

 Then, it is determined by the pointer value whether or not the image data is almost full in the flash memory 25, and when that time is reached, the HDD 19 is turned on again via the HDD controller 26 (S7). The video data temporarily stored in 25 is stored in the HDD 19 (S8).

After the transmission of the image data from the flash memory 25 to the HDD 19, the pointer value is set back to the initial position, and the procedure goes to the initial power state detection step and repeats the subsequent steps.

At this time, if the power supply is resumed, the power detector 16 detects this and notifies the MCU 18, and repeats the steps S1 to S3, and if the power is still cut off, the step S4. ) To step S8.

As a result, when the main power is turned off, the power of the HDD 19 is cut off for a predetermined time interval, the image is stored in the flash memory 25, and the power is turned on to the HDD 19 at the end of the predetermined time interval. By storing the image stored in the HDD 25 on the HDD 25, for example, the image data stored in the flash memory 25 can be stored in the HDD 19 at a time interval (e.g., 1 hour interval) at which the flash memory is almost full. If the power consumption of the HDD (19) is supplied only once an hour if stored in the power storage, the power consumption of the entire surveillance system is greatly reduced, greatly reducing the useful life of the rechargeable battery in the battery / switching unit 14 Can be improved.

On the other hand, the abnormality of the transmission network 12 and the abnormality of the control center 13 can receive the health signal from the signal conversion section 11 at the event detection section 23 regularly, and the infrared rays from the detection element 24 It can be detected whether the sensor signal or voice signal is detected above the proper level. The collected information and the information of the power detecting unit 16 are determined by the MCU 18 to operate the camera according to a predetermined camera operating scenario and to perform image storage.

Scenarios of camera operation such as compression rate or storage interval may be controlled through an external connection terminal (connector) or a wireless interface of the surveillance camera at the site where the surveillance camera is installed, or may be controlled by the control center 13. To this end, the communication network 12 and the signal conversion unit 11 to enable the communication to the MCU (18).

It has an external image output unit 20 and an external control unit 21 so that the stored image can be read directly from the camera collection or installation site. When the command is sent to the MCU 18 through the external control unit 21, the MCU 18 reads out the general image information according to the command from the HDD 19 and outputs the same through the external image output unit 20. At this time, in order to maintain the security of the video, the encryption technique of the video signal is placed in the MCU 18 and the external video output unit 20. The external video output unit 20 also has an analog video output function. In this case, the MCU 18 sends a special command code through the external control unit 21 to maintain the security of the video. This general encryption method or encryption command system to be controlled remotely from the control center (13).

On the other hand, when reading the image information to enable the power supply through the charge control unit 15 through the connector 22 to maintain the power of the device from the outside. The charging controller 15 has a function of supplying power input to the connector 22 from the outside to the camera system simultaneously with charging the battery.

If the track is restored to its original state after an accident, it is not necessary to go to a remote site so that the image can be obtained directly from the control center 13. In this case, the control center 13 requests the video signal to the MCU 18 through the signal conversion unit 11. In this case, the image output unit 10 is not used. When the dangerous situation is terminated and the system needs to be operated normally, this also allows the control center 13 to control it through the MCU 18.

The MCU 18 periodically checks the normal operation state of the track through communication with the control center 13. The control center 13 allocates a part of the control command to continuously send a health signal at regular intervals, and if the signal is not received for a predetermined period or longer, an abnormal signal is transmitted from the MCU 18 or the signal conversion unit 11 to the control center. Send to If no connection is made, the system enters emergency mode.

In the above description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited thereto and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

For example, when the surveillance camera system uses a solar generator, the conventional technique of always storing on the HDD does not generate power because there is no light at night, so the surveillance system at night (using a general camera at night and at night) In order to supply power to the infrared camera), a large-capacity charging device must be installed externally, but according to the present invention, since the HDD is turned on and stored in the HDD at a given time interval, the battery / switching unit 14 Even a small rechargeable battery at will be able to store surveillance video until the sun rises the next day and enough light is available.

In addition, although the flash memory is described as a temporary storage medium in the above, it is also possible to use other semiconductor memory such as RAM instead of the flash memory.

In addition, in FIG. 1, the surveillance camera system of the present invention communicates with the control center 13 through the transmission network 12, and is connected to the surveillance camera system via a connector 22 to receive the surveillance image. In this way, if the user must receive the surveillance video through the control center 13 so that the user must pass through the control center 13, it is inconvenient, to connect to the connector 22 by wire in the field to receive the surveillance video It is quite inconvenient to connect to the connector 22 when the surveillance camera is installed in a place that is difficult for humans to access (such as a high place or a narrow place) and it is necessary to receive surveillance video for inspection work in the field. Do.

Therefore, if the surveillance camera system includes an RF interface device and an antenna for the wireless internet so that a user can freely receive surveillance video through a wireless internet-enabled device (a laptop or a dedicated device), the RF interface device and the antenna By using the user can wirelessly receive the surveillance image can solve this problem. In this case, if a directional antenna is used as an antenna of a mobile device for reading data, the directional antenna may be directed to a specific surveillance camera system to receive surveillance images only from a specific surveillance camera.

In addition, when identification information is given to each surveillance camera system to receive a surveillance image only from a specific surveillance camera system, first, specific identification information is transmitted, and only the surveillance camera system corresponding to the specific identification information is operated to transmit the surveillance image. It is also possible to make it.

By using the present invention as described above it is possible to significantly increase the time to store the image of the surveillance camera in the event of power failure or power off.

In particular, by using the present invention, it is possible to store the surveillance video in the surveillance camera system in the field and not transmit it at all times, thereby preventing personal privacy infringement by surveillance equipment such as CCTV, which is currently a worldwide problem. Minimizing, and when a serious matter such as a thief or a traffic accident occurs, when the public interest is the priority, it is effective to obtain the necessary video information by transmitting the necessary surveillance video.

Claims (10)

In a surveillance camera system in which a surveillance camera and a storage device are integrated, A rechargeable battery which is normally charged by an external power source; A power detector detecting whether the external power is supplied; A large hard disk storing the surveillance image for a long time; A small semiconductor memory for temporarily storing the surveillance image; A hard disk controller for controlling power supply of the hard disk; A battery switching unit which controls to supply power to the surveillance camera system to the rechargeable battery when the power detection unit detects that external power is cut off; When it is determined that the external power is supplied from the power detection unit, the hard disk controller turns on the hard disk to control to store the surveillance video related data in the hard disk, When it is determined that the external power is cut off by the power detecting unit, the hard disk control unit turns off the hard disk and starts storing the surveillance video related data in the semiconductor memory. And a processing device configured to control the memory device to turn on the hard disk to repeat the process of storing the surveillance video related data stored in the semiconductor memory on the hard disk by a hard disk controller. Surveillance camera system. The surveillance camera system of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor memory is a flash memory. 2. The surveillance camera system of claim 1, wherein the determination of how much time has elapsed is determined by a pointer indicating a degree stored in the semiconductor memory. 2. The surveillance camera system of claim 1, wherein the determination of how much time has elapsed is determined by whether the predetermined time has elapsed. The surveillance camera system of claim 4, wherein the predetermined time is controlled at a control center. The surveillance camera system of claim 1, further comprising an external image output unit configured to read an image stored in the hard disk. The surveillance camera system of claim 6, wherein the external image output unit is provided with a wireless Internet RF interface device. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing apparatus communicates with the control center periodically to determine the state of the track, and sends the health signal at a predetermined time interval from the control center so that the processing apparatus sends the health signal for a predetermined period or more. Surveillance camera system is integrated with the surveillance camera and the storage device, characterized in that it determines that there is an error on the track if not received. 2. The surveillance camera system of claim 1, wherein identification information is provided to each of the surveillance camera systems.  A method for storing surveillance video data of a surveillance camera system in which a surveillance camera and a storage device are integrated, A battery switching step of controlling to supply power to the surveillance camera system with a rechargeable battery when it is detected that the external power is cut off from the power detection unit; If it is determined that the external power is supplied by the power detection unit, controlling the hard disk controller to turn on the hard disk to store the surveillance image-related data in the hard disk; When it is determined that the external power is cut off by the power detecting unit, the hard disk control unit turns off the hard disk and starts storing the surveillance video related data in a flash memory. And turning on the hard disk by a disk control unit to repeat the process of storing the surveillance video related data stored in the flash memory on the hard disk. How to save surveillance video data of system.

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