KR101108202B1 - Container monitoring system using a pantoscopic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a container monitoring system for monitoring a container entering and exiting a container terminal gate.

In order to implement a single image, that is, two-dimensional or three-dimensional monitoring image by capturing the shape of the entire container, a large number of sensors and cameras are required. Therefore, the installation is complicated and expensive.

In the present invention, by using a wide-angle camera with a wide shooting angle to extend the shooting range, by converting the image obtained from the wide-angle camera to a planar image of a general camera to implement a monitoring image, by using the minimum number of cameras It is to provide a container monitoring system that provides a monitoring image.

Container, terminal, monitoring, gate

Description

Container monitoring system using a pantoscopic camera

The present invention relates to a container monitoring system for monitoring a container entering and exiting a container terminal gate, and more particularly, to implement an effective container monitoring system using a few wide-angle cameras to monitor a container entering and exiting a container. It relates to a container monitoring system using a wide angle camera.

At the entrance gate of the cargo terminal, customs clearance of container vehicles entering and exiting is performed.

Customs clearance proceeds by recognizing characters, symbols, and identification numbers printed on the outside of the container, and a gate through which the container vehicle passes a plurality of cameras for photographing the outside of the container in order to recognize the characters, symbols, and identification numbers. You will configure a container monitoring system that installs cameras at each location around.

As described above, a container monitoring system using a camera includes a gate formed to allow a vehicle loaded with a container to pass therethrough, a sensor unit disposed at a gate and detecting completion of entry and passage of the vehicle, and a sensor. And a camera for photographing the vehicle and the container by detecting the entry and passage of the vehicle by means, and a monitoring means for monitoring the vehicle or the container based on the image photographed by the camera. do.

The monitoring means comprises a wired and wireless communication means connected to a remote central control center, the camera is to install a plurality of cameras to shoot the identification number and the letter symbols printed according to the vehicle number and each position of the container. do.

Such a container monitoring system recognizes the vehicle and the container passing through the gate through the sensor means, and thus, the camera is operated to form the monitoring image by capturing each position of the vehicle and the container.

Such a conventional container monitoring system implements a predetermined monitoring image by photographing a specific position such as a vehicle number, a driver's seat, a printed character of a container, an identification symbol, and the like.

Recently, a technique of realizing a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image by capturing each image by implementing a monitoring image by combining images of respective positions as described above has been implemented.

Such a system,

(a). (B) a small number of high quality high speed cameras are installed and the vehicle enters and is taken continuously, and then these captured images are combined; or (b). It is implemented by installing multiple high-definition cameras and taking a shot when a vehicle comes in.

In the same method as (a), a large number of sensors for detecting vehicles and containers should be installed, and a separate building should be installed to uniformly take a picture.

Also, the method of (b) requires a large number of high definition cameras.

In this way, not only to recognize identification numbers, letters, and symbols printed on the container, but also to realize a single image, that is, two-dimensional or three-dimensional monitoring image by capturing the shape of the entire container, a large number of sensors and cameras. As the system is needed, installation is complicated and expensive.

In view of the above, the present invention extends the shooting range by using a wide-angle camera having a wide shooting angle, and converts an image obtained from the wide-angle camera into a planar image of a general camera, thereby realizing a monitoring image. It is to provide a container monitoring system that provides an optimal monitoring image using.

The present invention is configured to include a gate monitoring system installed for each gate to obtain the image information by recognizing containers entering and exiting through the gate, and a central monitoring system for centrally managing the image information obtained from the gate monitoring system.

The gate monitoring system includes a wide-angle camera unit including one or more pieces to obtain an image of a container passing through a gate, container sensing means for recognizing a container passing through the gate, and an error in entering a container entering the gate. It comprises a container distance detecting means for detecting the distance of the container to enter to be able to identify and correct the screen conversion,

The central monitoring system recognizes the container entering the gate through the container sensing means of each gate monitoring system to control the wide-angle camera unit to obtain image information, capture the image information by the wide-angle camera as a still image, and capture the captured still image. A monitoring server for converting and providing an image into a monitoring image, a manager input means for controlling an administrator's operation of the monitoring system and inputting an arbitrary variable related to the monitoring image conversion, and the image information provided from the gate monitoring system and the image converted from the monitoring server. It is characterized in that it comprises a database management means for receiving, storing and managing the transmission from the monitoring server, providing a search interface for searching, and display means for displaying the monitoring image.

According to the present invention as described above it is possible to provide the entire container image as monitoring information while installing a minimal camera, so that the system can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

Referring to the embodiment of the container monitoring system using a wide-angle camera of the present invention with reference to the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 8 will be described the configuration and operation as follows.

The gate monitoring system 100 installed for each gate and the central monitoring system 200 for centrally managing the image information obtained from the gate monitoring system 100 to acquire image information by recognizing containers entering and exiting through the gate. It is configured to include,

The gate monitoring system 100 includes a wide-angle camera unit 110 composed of one or more pieces to acquire an image of a container passing through the gate, a container recognition sensor unit 120 for recognizing a container passing through the gate, In order to identify an error when the container enters the gate, the container distance sensor unit 130 for detecting the distance of the container to be entered can be corrected to the screen conversion, and the lighting unit 140 provides illumination for photographing. ),

The central monitoring system 200 recognizes the container entering the gate through the container recognition sensor unit 120 of each gate monitoring system 100 to control the wide angle camera unit to obtain image information, and the wide angle camera unit 110. Monitoring server 210 for capturing the image information by the still image and converting the captured image into the monitoring image and providing the monitoring image, and the administrator input unit 220 for controlling the operation of the monitoring system and inputting any variable related to the monitoring image conversion. And a database manager 230 for storing and managing the image information and the converted image information of the gate monitoring system 100 provided from the monitoring server 210 and providing a user interface for data retrieval, and a monitoring image. It is configured to include a monitor unit 240 for displaying.

The monitoring server 210 recognizes the container in the gate through the container recognition sensor unit 120, and accordingly controls the wide-angle camera unit 110 to receive the image information of the container to receive the image information acquisition control unit 211. Then, the captured image is captured and image processing is performed to straighten the captured image distorted by the wide-angle camera to generate the original planar image. And an image converter 212 and a monitoring image generator 213 for producing and providing the converted image as a monitoring image to be provided.

The present invention is characterized by reducing the number of photographing cameras by configuring a wide-angle camera capable of enlarging a photographing range, and re-folding the distorted image by the wide-angle camera at this time to provide a monitoring image as a planar image.

The wide-angle camera unit 110 of the gate monitoring system 100 is installed at each position in order to photograph the vehicle and the container entered into the gate, from the plurality of wide-angle camera 111 and the plurality of wide-angle camera 111 And a switching hub 112 which is a network switching interface means for transmitting the captured image information to the central monitoring system 200.

3 and 4 show an installation example of the wide-angle camera.

The photographing range of the wide-angle camera 111 is set in advance, and the wide-angle camera 111 is installed accordingly.

The container recognition sensor unit 120 may be installed at the inlet and the outlet of the gate as a sensing means for recognizing the container passing through the gate.

The container distance sensor unit 130 is a sensing means for detecting a distance from the container. The container distance sensor unit 130 identifies information on an error of the container entering the gate and corrects the information by using the information in the subsequent screen conversion process. to provide.

The container distance sensor unit 130 includes a plurality of distance sensors 131 installed along the gate passage for each position, and a distance sensor concentrator for transmitting the values of each distance sensor 130 to the central monitoring system 200. 132).

The lighting unit 140 is a means for providing illumination when the photographing is made by the wide-angle camera unit 110 under the control of the central monitoring system 200.

The central monitoring system 200 displays a monitoring server 210, a manager input unit 220 that is an input means of the monitoring server 210, a database manager 230 for storing and managing image information, and displays a monitoring image. It is configured to include a monitor 240 for.

The monitoring server 210 controls the gate monitoring system 100 to provide a process for acquiring and capturing a captured image in the gate, providing and recording (storing) as a monitoring image.

The monitoring server 210 includes the installation position information of the wide-angle camera 111, and acquires and captures the captured image in the gate according to the identification information sent from the wide-angle camera 111 by using the information. Provide and provide recording process.

The image information acquisition control unit 211 recognizes the container in the gate through the container recognition sensor unit 120 to control the shooting time of the corresponding wide-angle camera 111 by using the wide-angle camera 111 information, the wide-angle camera 110 It provides a process for receiving and processing the image information taken from the).

The image converting unit 212 captures the image acquired as described above, performs image processing to straighten the captured image distorted by the wide-angle camera 111, and generates the original planar image. Provides a process for concatenating and converting to a single container image.

The monitoring image production unit 213 provides a process for producing and providing the converted image as a monitoring image to be provided through the monitor unit 240 to be provided.

The database manager 230 provides a database for providing a process for storing a captured video of a container provided from the gate monitoring system 100 and a monitoring image produced by the central monitoring system 200, and managing and searching the same. Means for providing a process for the process.

The database management unit 230 may be configured at a separate remote location through the network and the central monitoring system 200, and in this case, the central monitoring system 200 and the database management unit 230 may transmit image information through the network. And means for transmitting and receiving data.

The monitor 240 is a display means for providing a monitoring image.

The manager input unit 220 is a means for inputting an arbitrary variable related to monitoring image conversion, and is a means for controlling an administrator's operation of the monitoring system.

Referring to the operation of the present invention including such a configuration in detail as follows.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the container vehicle enters the gate, the container recognition sensor unit 120 recognizes this.

When the monitoring server 210 of the central monitoring system 200 recognizes this by the container recognition sensor unit 120, the photographing is controlled by controlling the wide-angle camera 111.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, when the vehicle passes through the gate, three surfaces of the left and right upper portions of the container are photographed, and the front and rear portions of the container are photographed.

In this case, the distance sensor 131 measures the distance to the container, and the distance sensor concentrator 132 measures the error when entering the container in the gate to the central monitoring system 200 using the distance information detected by each distance sensor 131. Identify and provide correction information for screen conversion.

The image photographed by the wide angle camera 111 is transmitted to the central monitoring system 200 through the switching hub 112.

The monitoring server 210 generates a still image by capturing a captured image obtained from the wide-angle camera 111, and performs processing for providing the generated still image as a monitoring image.

First, processing for converting an image distorted by the wide-angle camera 111 into a planar image is performed.

At this time, the image of the separated container, that is, the side, the plane image to be connected to create a single image to check the connection point to connect the image.

In FIG. 5, (a) shows three images of the sides of the container.

As shown in (a), the image by the wide-angle camera 111 is displayed in a distorted form. The distorted image is unfolded and connected to each connection point to convert into one container image as shown in (b).

Since the method for converting the distorted image by the wide-angle camera to the planar image and the method for connecting the image are applicable by various general methods, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Thereafter, the monitoring unit 240 generates a monitoring image to be displayed.

As described above, the converted image is generated and displayed as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 for each wide-angle camera 111 according to a predetermined monitoring image format.

6 shows an example in which the container image connected to one, the front of the vehicle, and the rear of the container are displayed in three stages left and two stages right according to the monitoring image format.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example in which a portion of a container, a container center part, a vehicle front side, and a rear side of the container are displayed in three stages, a center, and a second stage in accordance with the monitoring image format.

According to the monitoring image format, the image display apparatus includes a portion for displaying an image and a region for displaying information on the image, such as position time information of a gate.

Monitoring image formats can be designed and displayed in various ways.

8 shows an example of a gate actually installed in a container terminal.

The database manager 230 stores the captured video acquired through the wide-angle camera unit 110 and the converted video or captured video through the monitoring server 210 in the database as it is, and then the administrator searches as necessary. If required, processing is performed to retrieve and provide it.

Such a container monitoring system using the wide-angle camera of the present invention comprises the following process.

Determining the shooting operation time of the wide-angle camera by determining whether the container is recognized in the gate;

The shooting control is completed by controlling the wide-angle camera according to the shooting operation time, and the captured video information is received from the wide-angle camera, and the video is stored in the database management unit for each wide-angle camera according to the identification information of the wide-angle camera. An image capture process for generating an image,

The plane image conversion process converts the still image distorted by the wide-angle camera captured through the image capturing process into a planar image, and converts it into a single container image by connecting the side surface of the divided container and the planar image. and,

And a monitoring image generation process of generating the monitoring image by applying the planar image converted through the plane image conversion process to the monitoring image format to be displayed through the monitor unit.

The method may further include storing any one of the planar image generated through the planar image conversion process or the monitoring image generated through the process of generating the monitoring image.

On the other hand, as shown in Figure 9, when the container is approached to the gate from the freight transportation database management system stored by the procedure when the freight truck, the owner of the container when carrying out a contract or allocation of the container is provided as described above The system can be configured to be used for search by the user by storing it with captured image information and converted monitoring information.

In this case, the information provided includes a container number, a driver number, and a vehicle number.

In this way, if the freight related information is received and used, the character of the container can be recognized and the corresponding information can be obtained, but the character recognition means and the development can reduce the cost applied to the system and simplify the system.

In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a contract for providing information with a freight transport information providing service company is provided with container information entering and exiting a gate from a system (cargo transport database management system).

When the vehicle enters, the monitoring server 210 acquires image information provided from the gate monitoring system 100 and receives container information from a freight transportation related database management system through a network.

The image information provided from the gate monitoring system 100, the container information, and the monitoring image information converted by the monitoring server 210 are combined into one and stored in the database manager 230.

Thereafter, a user who approaches the database manager 230 and attempts to search for a photograph of a past freight vehicle can search and view the contents of the database of the database manager 230 by inputting some information as a search condition.

The search conditions in the embodiment of the present invention are a container number, a driver number, a vehicle number, and the like.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a container monitoring system using the present invention wide-angle camera.

2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a gate system in the present invention;

3 and 4 are diagrams showing an example of installing a camera in a gate in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image of unfolding a distorted image by a wide-angle camera and converting the image into a container image. FIG.

6 and 7 are views showing an example of a monitoring image in the present invention.

8 is a view showing an example of a gate actually installed in the container terminal in the present invention.

9 is a view showing another embodiment of the present invention associated with a freight transportation database management system.

Claims (8)

It includes a gate monitoring system installed for each gate in order to recognize containers entering and exiting through the gate, and a central monitoring system for centrally managing the image information obtained from the gate monitoring system. The gate monitoring system includes a wide-angle camera unit including one or more pieces to obtain an image of a container passing through a gate, container sensing means for recognizing a container passing through the gate, and an error in entering a container entering the gate. It comprises a container distance detecting means for detecting the distance of the container to enter to be able to identify and correct the screen conversion, The central monitoring system recognizes the container entering the gate through the container sensing means of each gate monitoring system to control the wide-angle camera unit to obtain image information, capture the image information by the wide-angle camera as a still image, and capture the captured still image. A monitoring server for converting and providing an image into a monitoring image, a manager input means for controlling an administrator's operation of the monitoring system and inputting an arbitrary variable related to the monitoring image conversion, and the image information provided from the gate monitoring system and the image converted from the monitoring server. It is configured to include a database management means for receiving, storing and managing the transmission from the monitoring server, providing a search interface for searching, and a display means for displaying the monitoring image. The monitoring server recognizes the container in the gate through the container detecting means, and accordingly controls the wide-angle camera unit to capture the image information acquisition control unit for receiving the captured image information of the container, capture the acquired image, and distort it by the wide-angle camera. Image processing unit that creates the original planar image by performing the image processing to unfold the captured image and converts the container-connected image into one container image among the generated planar images, and the converted image as the monitoring image to be provided. Container monitoring system using a wide-angle camera, characterized in that it comprises a monitoring image production unit to produce and provide. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the container distance detecting means comprises at least one distance sensor installed along the gate passage for each position, and a distance sensor concentrator for transmitting the value of the distance sensor to the central monitoring system. Container monitoring system using a wide-angle camera characterized in that. The method of claim 1, wherein the database management means is configured in a separate remote location via a central monitoring system and the network, the central monitoring system and the database management means further comprises a means for transmitting and receiving image information data via the network Container monitoring system using a wide-angle camera, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, further comprising a freight transport database management system for providing the container information of the container vehicle to the monitoring server of the networked central monitoring system when the container vehicle is connected to the central monitoring system via a network; Composed, The monitoring server transmits and stores the container information of the corresponding gate provided from the cargo transportation related database management system to the database management means by storing the image information and the converted monitoring image provided from the gate monitoring system. Container monitoring system using camera. Determining the shooting operation time of the wide-angle camera by determining whether the container is recognized in the gate; Shooting control is completed by controlling the wide-angle camera according to the shooting operation time, receiving the image information captured from the wide-angle camera, and storing the video for each wide-angle camera in database management means according to the identification information of the wide-angle camera. An image capture process for generating still images, The plane image conversion process converts the still image distorted by the wide-angle camera captured through the image capturing process into a planar image, and converts it into a single container image by connecting the side surface of the divided container and the planar image. and, A monitoring image generation process of generating a monitoring image by applying the planar image converted through the plane image conversion process to a monitoring image format to be displayed through a monitor unit; And storing any one of the planar image generated through the planar image conversion process or the monitoring image generated through the process of generating the monitoring image in a database management means. delete The method of claim 6, wherein in the storing of the information in the database management means, the container information transmitted from the cargo transportation-related database management system is stored together with the stored information as the related information in the database management means. Container monitoring system using a wide angle camera.

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