KR101711510B1

KR101711510B1 - Control system and method for displaying image data from IP cameras

Info

Publication number: KR101711510B1
Application number: KR1020150028115A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 이준택; 김진태; 정준래
Original assignee: 주식회사 토브스
Priority date: 2015-02-27
Filing date: 2015-02-27
Publication date: 2017-03-02
Also published as: KR20160105010A

Abstract

A socket pool for managing sockets for communication with a plurality of IP cameras; a first fixed number of receiving threads for receiving video data through sockets of socket pools; and a second fixed A video control system comprising a number of rendering threads is disclosed.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a system and a method for displaying a plurality of IP camera images,

The present invention relates to a video surveillance system for displaying images received from a plurality of IP (Internet Protocol) cameras, and more particularly, to a video surveillance system for efficiently receiving and rendering a plurality of camera images without being restricted by the hardware performance of the video surveillance system And a method for processing image data.

The CCTV (Closed Circuit TeleVision) camera is expensive because the coaxial cable must be wired to the recording device and the surveillance screen, and installation work is also affected by the installation site and the environment.

The IP camera developed to solve these technical problems is a surveillance camera that operates on an IP network and connects only the router to the camera without any other equipment. It can easily monitor a certain place without a separate recorder, Personal computer) or smart phone.

Also, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of places can be monitored at a time by displaying images photographed by a plurality of IP cameras 110 on one screen of the video monitoring system 100.

2 is a diagram for explaining a method of processing images received from a plurality of IP cameras in a video monitoring system according to the related art.

Referring to FIG. 2, a first thread 221, a second thread 221, a second thread 223, and a third thread 234 are disposed in the video monitoring system 200 to process requests of the first IP camera 211, the second IP camera 212, A second thread 222 and a third thread 223 are generated, and each thread receives, decodes and renders the image data through the corresponding socket.

A thread is a unit of flow within a program, especially within a process.

Referring to FIG. 2, as many threads as the number of connected IP cameras are generated, and each thread receives image data from a corresponding IP camera and performs decoding and rendering of the received image data.

Therefore, when a large number of IP cameras are connected, a large number of threads are simultaneously operated and a load is applied to the processor, which may cause deterioration of the performance of the system.

Also, it may be difficult to display a plurality of IP camera images according to the performance of a computer used as a video monitoring system, and performance of displaying a plurality of IP camera images depends on the performance of the computer.

In addition, since one thread per IP camera is used and one thread performs reception, decoding, and rendering of images, a single thread must perform many processes and complexity, so that a high-end computer should be used as a video control system do.

Document 1: Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0984288 "System and Method for IP-Camera Control and Monitoring in Private Internet Protocol Environment" Document 2: Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0109748 "IP Monitoring Based Large Control System" Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2004-0055920 "Multithreaded Socket Polling Server System"

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the prior art and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for efficiently displaying a plurality of images received from a plurality of IP cameras regardless of the performance of a computer used as a video monitoring system will be.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video surveillance system for displaying images received from a plurality of IP cameras connected through a network, A socket pool for managing the socket, a first fixed number of receiving threads for receiving image data through the socket of the socket pool, and a second fixed number of rendering threads for rendering the received image data .

The video surveillance system may further include a queue for transferring image data between the first fixed number of reception threads and the second fixed number of rendering threads.

When the video data is received from the IP camera, the socket connected to the IP camera is switched from the socket pool to the running state, and the waiting thread of the first fixed number of receiving threads is activated, , The image data received through the socket in the execution state is loaded in the queue, and when the reception of the image data is completed, the socket in the execution state is switched to the standby state and returned to the socket pool, .

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an IP camera system including a socket pool for managing a socket for communication with a plurality of IP cameras, a first fixed number of reception threads for receiving image data through a socket of the socket pool, A second fixed number of rendering threads for rendering the received video data; and a queue for video data delivery between the first fixed number of reception threads and the second fixed number of rendering threads In the processing method,

Switching the socket connected to the IP camera from the socket pool to a running state when image data is received from the IP camera and activating a waiting thread in the first fixed number of receiving threads; Wherein the thread loads image data received through the socket in the execution state into the queue, and when the reception of the image data is completed, switching the socket in the execution state into a standby state and returning the socket to the socket pool; Activating a rendering thread that is in a standby state among the second fixed number of rendering threads when the received video data is loaded into the queue; Rendering the activated rendering thread to render and output the image data loaded in the queue; And converting the rendering thread processing the rendering of the image data into a standby state.

According to the present invention, video surveillance software that is not sensitive to computer performance and specifications can be implemented, and surveillance images can be received and displayed from a plurality of IP cameras without using a high-end computer.

1 shows a network configuration in which a plurality of IP cameras and a video monitoring system are connected.
2 is a diagram for explaining a method of processing images received from a plurality of IP cameras in a video monitoring system according to the related art.
3 is a diagram for explaining a hardware configuration of a video monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram for explaining a method of processing images received from a plurality of IP cameras by software of a video monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating an image processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The terms used in this specification will be briefly described and the present invention will be described in detail.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Also, in certain cases, there may be a term selected arbitrarily by the applicant, in which case the meaning thereof will be described in detail in the description of the corresponding invention. Therefore, the term used in the present invention should be defined based on the meaning of the term, not on the name of a simple term, but on the entire contents of the present invention.

When an element is referred to as "including" an element throughout the specification, it is to be understood that the element may include other elements as well, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. The term " means ", "part "," module ", etc. in the specification means units for processing at least one function or operation, Lt; / RTI >

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

3 is a diagram for explaining a hardware configuration of a video monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the video surveillance system 300 includes a processor 310, a memory 320, a storage 330, a network adapter 340, and a display 350.

The storage device 330 loads a computer program containing instructions for executing the image processing method according to the present invention.

The memory 320 corresponds to a volatile storage space for storing the instructions of the computer program, and the processor 310 executes the instructions stored in the memory to execute the image processing method according to the present invention.

The network adapter 340 is a configuration for communicating with the IP camera via the Internet.

4 is a diagram for explaining a method of processing images received from a plurality of IP cameras by software of a video monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4, the video surveillance system 400 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention displays images received from a plurality of IP cameras 401, 402, and 403 connected through a network, A socket pool 410 for managing sockets for communication with each IP camera and a first fixed number of receiving threads 420 for receiving video data through sockets in the socket pool 410, And a second fixed number of rendering threads 430 for rendering the received video data.

The video surveillance system 400 may further include a queue 440 for transferring image data between a first fixed number of reception threads 420 and a second fixed number of rendering threads 430.

The first IP camera 401, the second IP camera 402 and the third IP camera 403 encode the photographed image data in a predetermined format and transmit the encoded image data to the video monitoring system 400 through the network.

When a plurality of IP cameras 401, 402, and 403 are connected to the video monitoring system 400 through the sockets, the sockets are switched to a wait state and stored in the socket pool 410.

When the video data is received from the first IP camera 401, the second IP camera 402 or the third IP camera 403, a socket connected to the IP camera that sends video data among the sockets of the socket pool 410 is executed one of the first fixed number of reception threads 420 is activated and operates for processing of the socket 411 that has been switched from the above to the running state.

The activated receiving thread 421 decodes the image data received through the socket 411 in the execution state and loads the decoded image data in the queue 440. When the reception of the image data is completed, And returns to the socket pool 410. The socket returned to the socket pool 410 may be switched back to the running state when the image data is received again from the connected IP camera.

The reception thread 421 that has completed the reception processing of the video data is switched to the standby state. The receiving thread 421, which has been switched to the standby state, can be activated again when image data is received from one of the IP cameras next time.

The received and decoded image data is loaded into the queue 440. If there is a plurality of image data waiting for the rendering process after being received, they are loaded into the queue 440 in the order of reception and rendered in the order of loading. When the reception of the image data is completed, one of the second fixed number of rendering threads 430, which is a standby state, is activated for processing the image data loaded in the queue 440.

The activated rendering thread 431 renders the image data loaded in the queue 440, outputs the image data, and then switches to the standby state. The rendered image data is displayed on the screen of the video monitoring system and is deleted from the queue 440.

If image data stored in the queue 440 remains, one of the rendering threads 430, which is a standby state, is selected to perform rendering processing.

As described above, the software of the video monitoring system according to the present invention separately sets a predetermined number of reception threads for receiving and decoding image data and a predetermined number of rendering threads for rendering received image data. The number of receiving threads and the number of rendering threads may be the same or different, and the number of threads of each type may be determined according to the hardware performance or specification of the video control system.

If the number of IP cameras requesting a connection increases, a waiting socket in the socket pool is allocated in the order in which the connections are requested. Also, the receiving thread and the rendering thread in the waiting state are allocated in the order of connection request.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an image processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, one socket is connected to the IP camera for communication with the IP camera (S502), and the connected socket is switched to the standby state and stored in the socket pool (S504).

When image data is received from the IP camera to the video monitoring system (S506), the socket connected to the IP camera is switched from the socket pool to the running state, and one of the receiving threads, which is a standby state, is selected and activated S510). If the reception of the video data is not started (S506), the socket remains in the standby state, and the reception thread remains in the inactive state, that is, the standby state (S508).

Next, the activated receiving thread processes reception of the image data. That is, the image data received through the socket in the execution state is decoded and loaded into the queue (S512).

When the reception of the video data is completed (S514), the socket which has been switched to the execution state is converted into the standby state, and is returned to the socket pool to be stored. The reception thread which has processed the reception is deactivated and switched to the standby state (S516) . If the reception of the image data is not completed (S514), the reception of the image data continues until the completion of the reception.

When the received image data is loaded in the queue (S518), one of the rendering threads, which is a standby state, is selected and activated (S522). The activated rendering thread renders the image data loaded in the queue and outputs the rendered image data to be displayed on the display (S522).

When the image data loaded in the queue is output and deleted from the queue in step S518, the rendering thread selected in step S518 is rendered inactive, and the rendering thread is switched to the standby state to wait for the next use in step S520.

The method according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented in the form of a program command which can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magnetic media such as floppy disks; Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It belongs to the scope of right.

110: IP camera
100: Video control system
211, 212, 213: IP camera
221, 222, 223: thread
300: Video control system
310: Processor
320: Memory
330: Storage device
340: Network adapter
350: Display
400: Video control system
401, 402, 403: IP camera
410: socket pool
411: Socket in the running state
420: image data reception thread
421: Enabled receiving thread
430: image data rendering thread
431: Rendering thread activated
440: queue

Claims

1. A video surveillance system for displaying images received from a plurality of IP cameras connected through a network,
A socket pool for managing a socket for communication with the plurality of IP cameras,
A first fixed number of receiving threads for receiving image data through a socket of the socket pool;
A second fixed number of rendering threads for rendering the received video data,
The receiving socket and the rendering thread are activated in response to reception of the video data,
When the processing of the image data is completed, the socket is returned to the socket pool, and the reception thread and the rendering thread are switched to a standby state,
A socket in a waiting state stored in the socket pool is allocated in the order of connection requests of the IP camera, one of reception threads in a waiting state is activated to receive image data, and one of rendering threads in a standby state is activated Wherein the data processing unit performs rendering processing of the data.

The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a queue for transferring image data between the first fixed number of reception threads and the second fixed number of rendering threads.

3. The method of claim 2,
When the video data is received from the IP camera, the socket connected to the IP camera is switched from the socket pool to the running state, and the waiting thread of the first fixed number of receiving threads is activated,
The activated receiving thread loads image data received through the socket in the execution state into the queue, and when receiving the image data, switches the socket in the execution state to a standby state and returns the socket to the socket pool The video control system is switched to the standby state.

3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein when the received video data is loaded into the queue, a rendering thread that is in a standby state among the second fixed number of rendering threads is activated,
Wherein the activated rendering thread renders the image data loaded in the queue, outputs the rendered image data, and then switches to a standby state.

The receiving socket and the rendering thread are activated in response to receiving the video data from the plurality of IP cameras, the socket in the standby state is switched to the execution state, and the receiving thread and the rendering thread are activated. When the processing of the video data is completed, the socket is returned to the socket pool, A reception thread and a rendering thread are switched to a standby state, a socket in a waiting state stored in the socket pool is allocated in the order of connection requests of the IP camera, and a reception thread and a rendering thread in a standby state are allocated,
Switching the socket connected to the IP camera from the socket pool to a running state when image data is received from the IP camera and activating a waiting thread in a waiting one of the first fixed number of receiving threads;
Wherein the activated receiving thread loads image data received through the socket in the running state into a queue and returns the socket in the running state to the standby state when the reception of the image data is completed and returns the socket to the socket pool Wow,
Switching a reception thread that has processed reception of the video data to a standby state;
Activating a rendering thread that is a standby one of a second fixed number of rendering threads when the received video data is loaded into the queue;
Rendering the activated rendering thread to render and output the image data loaded in the queue,
And converting the rendering thread that has rendered the image data into a standby state.