Event image recording system and event image recording method

• US 20030044168A1
• Filed: 08/26/2002
• Published: 03/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Security Video Camera Systems Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsukawa, Takayuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,236,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19641 Multiple cameras having overlapping views on a single scene
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19652 Systems using zones in a single scene defined for different treatment, e.g. outer zone gives pre-alarm, inner zone gives alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19676 Temporary storage, e.g. cyclic memory, buffer storage on pre-alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19695 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors start video recording or forwarding but do not generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

Cameras that are related to an alarm and the time period of the image that each camera records are defined in advance, and at the time of alarm occurrence, management data is made with reference to the definition contents. Surveillance object 231'"'"'s transfer path 232 is presumed, and on the basis of this presumption, with each of cameras 203 to 205 installed along the pathway, the time periods of the images that are to be associated with an event are each delayed and defined. By this means, it is possible to record the suspicious behavior that surveillance object demonstrates at the time of alarm occurrence and the suspicious behavior that surveillance object 231 demonstrates on his transfer path to surveillance area 221 as an event image. Furthermore, it is possible to narrow down the time periods of images in which surveillance object 231 may be caught.

Claims

1. An event image recording system, comprising:

a plurality of cameras, each covering a unique recording area;

a recorder section that records image data from said plurality of cameras continuously with each camera;

a making section that with each camera extracts image data from a unique time period and makes a plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period;

a management section that manages an event in such a way that said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period are associated and managed as one event; and

,

a player section that plays image data of a plurality of local events that relate to a specified event.

2. The event image recording system according to claim 1, wherein said making section makes said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period based on a table in which an event is set with a plurality of local events associated to said event, and in which each of said plurality of local events is defined with identification information of a unique camera, a unique local event start hour, and a unique local event end hour, both hours based on an event occurrence hour.

3. The event image recording system according to claim 1, wherein said making section makes said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period based on a table in which an event is set with a plurality of local events associated to said event, and in which each of said plurality of local events is defined with identification information of a unique camera, a unique local event start hour based on an event occurrence hour, and a unique local event end hour based on an event end hour.

4. The event image recording system according to claim 1, wherein said management section manages an event in such a way that a plurality of unique events are associated on a per sensor basis depending on the hour of event occurrence.

5. The event image recording system according to claim 1, wherein, with each of said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period, said management section sets significance that corresponds to significance of each of said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period.

6. An event image recording system, comprising:

recording image data from a plurality of cameras continuously with each camera, said plurality of cameras each covering a unique recording area;

extracting image data from a unique time period with each camera from the recorded image data, and making a plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period;

managing an event in such a way that said plurality of local events each of which pertains to a unique time period are associated and managed as one event; and

,

playing image data of a plurality of local events that relate to a specified event.