Relevant image detection in a camera, recorder, or video streaming device

• US 10,127,452 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2015
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Brodsky, Tomas, Lee, Mi-Suen, Ramsey, Carolyn Christine, Lin, Yun-Ting
• Primary Examiner(s): Holder, Anner N
• Application Number:
  US14/723,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20150332095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1961 Movement detection not involving frame subtraction, e.g. motion detection on the basis of luminance changes in the image
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19663 Surveillance related processing done local to the camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/463 by compressing encoding parameters before transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules

Abstract

The filtering tasks that are conventionally applied in a video monitoring application, to distinguish images that may be relevant to the application, are distributed to the image source, or near-source devices. Source devices, such as cameras and playback devices, and near-source devices, such as video concentrators and streaming devices, are configured to include video processing tools that can be used to pre-filter the image data to identify frames or segments of frames that include image information that is likely to be relevant to the receiving video monitoring application. In this manner, the receiving processor need not spend time and resources processing images that are pre-determined to be irrelevant to the receiving application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a video capture element that provides a plurality of video images; and

a relevant image detector,

wherein the relevant image detector receives the plurality of video images and determines a respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images by filtering each of the plurality of images based on one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the plurality of images.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an image encoder that communicates an encoding of the plurality of video images to a receiving system that includes a video monitoring application.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the image encoder includes a digital video encoder that provides differential image encoding.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the image encoder includes at least one of an NTSC encoder and a PAL encoder.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector controls one or more aspects of the image encoder.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector provides an indication of the respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images, and wherein the image encoder communicates the indication to the receiving system.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector communicates an indication of the respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images to the receiving system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the plurality of images include at least one of size, shape, color, height, and altitude.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the plurality of images include at least one of texture, velocity, orientation, rigidity, and length.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector receives parameter values corresponding to the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the plurality of images that facilitate determining the respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images, and wherein the relevant image detector transmits other parameter values to other relevant image detectors to facilitate determining subsequent relevancies in other images.

11. A video streaming system comprising:

a receiver that receives video images from one or more video sources;

an encoder that transmits the video images to a receiving system that includes a remote video monitoring application; and

a relevant image detector that receives the video images and determines a respective relevancy of each of the video images by filtering each of the video images based on one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the video images.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that facilitates modification of the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the video images.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that facilitates modification of a program used to determine the respective relevancy of each of the video images.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the programmable processor includes a digital signal processor.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the video images include at least one of size, shape, color, height, and altitude.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more respective image characteristics associated with each of the video images include at least one of texture, velocity, orientation, rigidity, and length.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the encoder includes a digital video encoder that provides differential image encoding.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the encoder includes at least one of an NTSC encoder and a PAL encoder.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevant image detector controls one or more aspects of the encoder.

20. A method comprising:

processing a plurality of images to determine a respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images by filtering each of the plurality of images based on respective image characteristics associated with each of the plurality of images;

communicating the plurality of images and the respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images to a remote video processing system; and

the remote video processing system processing each of the plurality of images based on the respective relevancy of each of the plurality of images,

wherein communicating the plurality of images includes encoding the plurality of images based on the respective relevancy of one or more of the plurality of images.