Digital video recording system
First Claim
1. A digital video recording system comprising:
- a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to determine if any changes have occurred therein;
a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of video images; and
wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve said video images produced by said camera, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate a video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A digital video recording system (10) includes a video camera (12) directed at a scene of interest to continuously view the scene and generate video images (F) of the scene. An image processor (14) is configured to compare the video image (F) with a previously established reference image (Fr) of the scene to determine if changes have occurred. The image processor includes a memory (20) in which portions of video images (F) are stored, together with the time and date information as to when the image was acquired. A video playback capability (30) allows the memory to be accessed to retrieve the portions of the video images for image reconstruction. The playback system enables the memory to be accessed at any desired date and time location so an image of interest can be reconstructed without having to scan stored video images in a date/time sequence. Accessing the memory is done without interrupting the image processor'"'"'s processing of currently acquired video images.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A digital video recording system comprising:
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a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to determine if any changes have occurred therein;
a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of video images; and
wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve said video images produced by said camera, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate a video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for updating a reference image stored in the memory of a digital video recording system with a current reference image, comprising:
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establishing said stored reference image as said current reference image;
capturing a video image;
counting the number of individual segments in said captured video image;
counting the number of changed segments in said captured video image;
counting the number of stored segments from previously captured video images associated with said previous reference image;
identifying an age of said stored reference image;
if said identified age is greater than a first amount, then establishing said captured video image as said current reference image;
if said count of stored segments is greater than a first predetermined multiple of said count of individual segments, then establishing said captured video image as said current reference image;
if said identified age is greater than a second amount, but less than said first amount, and if said count of changed segments is less than six, establishing said captured video image as said current reference image;
if said count of stored segments is greater than a second predetermined multiple of said count of individual segments, and if said count of changed segments is less than six, establishing said captured video image as said current reference image;
updating said stored reference image with said current reference image. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A digital video recording system comprising:
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a plurality of cameras directed towards at least one scene of interest to view said at least one scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
an image processor configured to compare said plurality of video images generated by said cameras with a plurality of previously established reference images of said at least one scene to identify any regions of change therein;
a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of images; and
wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve at least one video image of interest produced by said cameras, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate said video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of recording video images and storing and retrieving the same comprising:
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viewing a scene of interest with a camera and generating video images thereof;
converting each frame of video imagery produced by said camera to a digital signal;
processing said digital signal, said processing including comparing the video image represented by a digital signal with a previously established reference of the scene to determine if any changes have occurred therein, and storing the contents of said digital signals in a memory with date and time data appended to each stored video image represented by a digital signal; and
,accessing said memory to retrieve the contents of said digital signals to recreate the video images produced by said camera, said memory being accessed to retrieve said video images simultaneously with digital signals being stored therein, and said memory being accessed at any desired location representing a time of interest whereby video images stored in said memory do not to be sequentially scanned to locate a video image of interest. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A digital video recording system comprising:
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a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to identify the occurrence of a change in said scene;
a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store video image data; and
wherein said image processor is further configured to select and store said previously established reference video image in said memory, and wherein said image processor is further configured to store, in said memory, video image data representative of identified changes in said scene. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification