KR102144512B1 - Storage apparatus of multi-channel video data - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-channel image storage device capable of quickly storing images acquired from a plurality of cameras in a storage medium or quickly reading image files stored in the storage medium. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the multi-channel image storage device comprises: a memory for storing images acquired by the plurality of cameras in a group of pictures for each channel; a storage medium for storing the group of pictures for each channel received from the memory as one image file; and a control unit for controlling driving of at least one of the memory and the storage medium, wherein an index file containing information on each group of pictures included in the image file is generated together in the storage medium, when the image file is generated in the storage medium.

Description

Multi-channel video storage device {STORAGE APPARATUS OF MULTI-CHANNEL VIDEO DATA}

The present invention relates to a multi-channel image storage device, and more particularly, to a multi-channel image storage device that acquires and stores images captured by a plurality of cameras.

A remote monitoring device is a device that unmannedly monitors a specific area located in a remote location or a surrounding situation of a building through an image, and is typically a closed circuit television (hereinafter referred to as “CCTV”).

The CCTV system is transmitted to the central control center through a separate private network (coaxial cable, optical cable, telephone line, etc.), where video information captured by CCTV cameras is output through a monitoring monitor or stored in a storage device.

Recently, as the field of application of the CCTV system has been diversified, the demand for efficient monitoring is increasing, and accordingly, cameras that provide high-definition image information are installed and operated for clear identification of subjects.

In particular, a technology for installing a plurality of cameras and storing video streams acquired from a plurality of cameras in one storage medium at once has been proposed, thereby reducing maintenance costs and ensuring convenience in management.

However, as described above, the required image resolution gradually increases, and the size of the data increases exponentially in the process of storing images acquired from a plurality of cameras at once through multiple channels such as 128 channels. Accordingly, there is a problem that the speed of writing the image to the storage medium or reading the image stored in the storage medium is slowing.

On the other hand, the following prior technical literature discloses the technical contents of a CCTV housing, a CCTV camera, a CCTV image processing device, and a CCTV system that can use a variety of transmission cables and long distance multiplex transmission of high-definition image data, but the technical gist of the present invention is disclosed. Not doing.

Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2016-0128282

A multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention aims at the following solutions in order to solve the above-described problems.

It is to provide a multi-channel image storage device that can quickly and quickly store images acquired from a plurality of cameras in a storage medium or read image files stored in the storage medium quickly and quickly.

In addition, by minimizing the fragmentation of the storage medium, it is to provide a multi-channel image storage device capable of improving the storage efficiency of the storage medium and increasing the writing/reading speed.

The problem of the present invention is not limited to those mentioned above, and other problems that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art from the following description.

A multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention relates to a multi-channel image storage device that stores images acquired from a plurality of cameras, wherein the images acquired by the plurality of cameras are grouped into picture groups for each channel. of pictures); A storage medium for storing the picture group for each channel received from the memory as one image file; And a control unit that controls driving of at least one of the memory and the storage medium; and, when the image file is generated in the storage medium, an index file containing information on each picture group included in the image file. This is produced together in the storage medium.

Preferably, the index file includes channel information, generation time information, and position information of the picture group in the image file.

The size of the image file is limited to a preset size, and when the size of the image file reaches a preset size, a new image file and a new index file corresponding to the new image file are preferably created in the storage medium. Do.

It is preferable that the file name of the index file is set the same as the file name of the video file.

When the video file is deleted, it is preferable that an index file corresponding to the video file is deleted together.

It is preferable that the index file stores information on the generation time of the video file corresponding to the index file.

When there is a request to output an image of a specific time acquired by any one of the plurality of cameras, the control unit selects an index file adjacent to the specific time based on the generation time information of the image file stored in the plurality of index files. A picture related to the requested image among image files corresponding to the index file determined and determined based on channel information, generation time information, and location information of the picture group in the image file stored in the determined index file It is desirable to extract and combine groups to output the requested image.

A multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention improves storage efficiency of a storage medium by minimizing IO of a storage medium by simultaneously acquiring a plurality of image streams acquired from a plurality of cameras and storing them in a minimum file. Furthermore, there is an effect of improving the writing/reading speed of the storage medium.

The effects of the present invention are not limited to those mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned may be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional multi-channel image storage device.
2 is a conceptual diagram schematically illustrating a multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the same or similar components are assigned the same reference numerals regardless of the reference numerals, and redundant descriptions thereof will be omitted.

In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may obscure the subject matter of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings are only intended to facilitate understanding of the spirit of the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the spirit of the present invention by the accompanying drawings.

Before describing a multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, a conventional multi-channel image storage device will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

A conventional multi-channel image storage device relates to a multi-channel image storage device that stores images acquired from a plurality of cameras 10, and includes a memory 20 and a storage medium 30 as shown in FIG. Is composed.

In the case of a conventional multi-channel image processing apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, the memory 20 receives images from a plurality of cameras 10, and then each channel-specific picture group (Group of Pinctures: GOP) 21 In this case, a picture group (GOP) is an encoded image frame group and is configured to include at least one of an I-frame, a P-frame, and a B-frame.

I-frame is called a key frame, and is a frame that is stored as input signal without using prediction, and P-frame is a forward prediction frame, which predicts and stores only partial data that differs based on the I-frame located immediately before. It is a frame.

The B-frame is a bidirectional prediction frame, which is located between an I-frame and a P-frame and refers to a frame in which motion between two frames is stored as speculative data by referring to both frames.

As described above, such a picture group (GOP) is configured by listing I-frames, P-frames and B-frames, and in general, 2 to 15 frames are composed of one picture group (GOP). Therefore, there is also a picture group (GOP) consisting of only I-frames and P-frames without B-frames.

That is, the memory 20 stores the compressed image acquired from the camera 10 for each channel in each picture group unit, and specifically acquired from the first camera 10-1 to the Nth camera 10-N. One compressed image is stored in the memory 20 in the form of a first picture group 21-1 to an Nth picture group 21-N, respectively.

The storage medium 30 performs a function of storing image files created based on the picture groups 21 received from the memory 20, and is preferably a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SDD). Do.

Meanwhile, in the conventional multi-channel image storage device, as shown in FIG. 1, each image file 31 is stored in the storage medium 300 for each channel.

Specifically, each folder is created for each time zone in the storage medium 30, and a separate image file 31 is stored for each channel in the folder, for example, the first picture group 21-1 to the first picture group. The first to N-th image files 31-1 to 31-N are respectively generated for the N picture groups 21-N.

That is, in the conventional multi-channel image storage device, since each image file 31 is generated and stored in the storage medium 30 for each image stream of each camera 10, a problem of fragmentation of the storage medium occurs, and furthermore, the storage medium (30) There is a problem in that the speed of writing and reading is lowered.

A multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention was devised to overcome the problems of the conventional multi-channel image storage device described above. Hereinafter, a multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. The image storage device will be described.

A multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention relates to a multi-channel image storage device that stores images acquired from a plurality of cameras 100, and as shown in FIG. 2, a memory 200 and a storage medium It is configured to include 300 and a control unit.

The memory 200 performs a function of storing images acquired from a plurality of cameras 100 in units of a group of pictures (GOP) 210 for each channel, and specifically, the first camera 100-1 The compressed images obtained from the N-th cameras 100 -N are stored in the memory 200 in the form of a first picture group 210-1 to an Nth picture group 210 -N, respectively.

The storage medium 300 is configured to store an image file generated based on a picture group (GOP) 210 for each channel transmitted from the memory 200, and a multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention Is configured to receive a plurality of channel-specific picture groups (GOPs) 210 stored in the memory 200 to generate one image file 310.

In addition, since the video file 310 is configured so that video streams of a plurality of channels are mixed, information on the picture group (GOP) 210 for each channel included in the video file 310 is included in the storage medium 300. The index file 320 is configured to be created together in the storage medium 300.

In particular, the information stored in the index file 320 includes channel information, creation time information, and location information of the picture group (GOP 210) in the image file 310 in detail. It is desirable to be configured to.

That is, the image file 310 and the index file 320 are configured as a pair to correspond to each other, and the file name of the index file 320 may be configured to be set to be the same as the file name of the corresponding image file 310 and generated. .

In addition, when a new image file 310 is created, a corresponding index file 320 is generated, and when the image file 310 is deleted, the corresponding index file 320 may also be deleted.

Meanwhile, the image file 310 gradually increases in file size according to the number of picture groups (GOPs) 210 included therein. In the case of a multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, an HDD or In order to minimize fragmentation of the storage medium 310 such as an SSD, the size of the image file 310 may be configured to be limited to a preset size.

That is, when the size of the image file 310 reaches a preset size, for example 4 GB or 3.6 GB, in the storage medium 300, a new image file 310 and a new image file 310 A new index file 320 may be created.

In addition, unlike the image file 310 in which the size of the file is variable, the size of the index file 320 is configured to be fixed, and this is a method for minimizing fragmentation of the storage medium 310. At this time, the index file 320 The size of may be determined as "fixed memory that can be indexed by the size of the determined image file (eg, 3.6GB or 4G, etc.) * maximum number of camera image streams".

On the other hand, as described above, when the size of the image file 310 reaches a preset size, a new image file 310 is created. In this case, the image file 310 and the index file 320 may be plural. In this case, each of the index files 320 is the creation time of the video files 310 corresponding to the index files 320 so that the video files 310 of the desired time period among the plurality of video files 310 can be easily output. Information can be stored.

The control unit performs a function of controlling driving of at least one of the memory 200 and the storage medium 300, and a user requests the output of an image of a specific time acquired by any one of a plurality of cameras. In this case, first, the control unit first determines an index file 320 adjacent to the specific time based on the generation time information of the image files stored in the plurality of index files 320.

Thereafter, the control unit corresponds to the index file 320 determined based on the channel information of the picture group (GOP) stored in the determined index file 320, the generation time information, and the location information of the picture group (GOP) in the image file. Among the image files 310, a picture group (GOP) related to an image requested by the user is extracted and combined to output the image requested to the user.

Like the conventional multi-channel image storage device of the multi-channel image storage device according to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, each image file is not generated for each image stream acquired from each camera 100, but one image file ( 310) and only one index file 320 is generated, so that the writing speed of the file in the storage medium 300 can be dramatically improved.

In addition, when searching for multiple images of a specific time, since only two files of the image file 310 and the index file 320 are read, the number of IOs for reading the storage medium can be reduced in the same manner as writing.

Meanwhile, when the index file 320 is damaged in the multi-channel image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, there is a problem in that it is difficult to output an image of a specific time zone and a specific channel to a user.

In order to prevent this problem, the Nth index file among the plurality of index files is configured to store the information of the N-1th index file, which is an index file in the preceding time zone, and the N+1th index file, which is an index file in the subsequent time zone. It is desirable.

That is, when it is confirmed that the Nth index file is damaged, the Nth index file may be restored based on the Nth index file information stored in the N-1th index file or the N+1th index file information.

In addition, in order to ensure accurate recovery of the Nth index file, the information of the two Nth index files stored in the N-1th index file and the N+1th index file is compared, and the information of the two Nth index files is the same. It is also possible to configure the N-th index file to be restored using it only when it is determined that there is a problem.

In addition, when the index file is damaged, another method of recovering the index file using the image file 310 may be considered.

That is, if damage occurs to the Nth index file among a plurality of index files, the N-1th index file and the N-1th image file corresponding thereto, the Nth image file corresponding to the Nth index file, and the N+1th index The Nth index file may be restored based on the picture groups GOPs respectively stored in the N+1th image file corresponding to the file.

Specifically, first, the generation time of the Nth image file based on the generation time information of the N-1th image included in the N-1th index file and the generation time information of the N+1th image included in the N+1th index file. After estimating the information, the generation time information of the N-th image in the N-th index file is updated based on this.

After that, three video files are associated with a picture group (GOP) in the N-1 video file among the N-th video files and a picture group (GOP) in which continuity is recognized or associated with a picture group (GOP) in the N+1 video file. Each of the picture groups (GOP) in the picture groups are matched with each other.

Next, based on the contents of the N-1th index file and the N+1th index file, channel information, creation time information, and location of each picture group (GOP) in the Nth image file to be stored in the Nth index file It is possible to recover the damaged index file by updating the information, but by creating a new Nth index file by considering the contents of the Nth video file and updating the file name of the Nth index file to be the same as the Nth video file name. will be.

The embodiments described in the present specification and the accompanying drawings are merely illustrative of some of the technical ideas included in the present invention. Accordingly, it is obvious that the embodiments disclosed in the present specification are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present disclosure, but to describe the technical idea, and thus the scope of the technical idea of the present disclosure is not limited by these embodiments. Modification examples and specific embodiments that can be easily inferred by those of ordinary skill in the art within the scope of the technical idea included in the specification and drawings of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention. It will have to be interpreted.

100: camera
200: memory
300: storage medium

Claims (3)

In the multi-channel image storage device for storing images acquired from a plurality of cameras,
A memory for storing images acquired by the plurality of cameras in a group of pictures for each channel;
A storage medium for storing the picture group for each channel received from the memory as one image file; And
A control unit controlling driving of at least one of the memory and the storage medium;
Including,
When the image file is generated in the storage medium, an index file containing information on each picture group included in the image file is created together in the storage medium,
The size of the video file is limited to a preset size,
When the size of the image file reaches a preset size, a new image file and a new index file corresponding to the new image file are created in the storage medium.
The method according to claim 1,
The index file includes channel information, generation time information, and location information of the picture group in the image file.
The method according to claim 1,
A multi-channel video storage device in which the file name of the index file is set to be the same as the file name of the video file corresponding to the index file.

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