Camera control system, camera server, camera client, control method, and storage medium

• US 20030189649A1
• Filed: 03/25/2003
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kuno, Tomoko
• Granted Patent: US 7,161,623 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/211.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/695 Control of camera direction for changing a field of view, e.g. pan, tilt or based on tracking of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9201 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the video signal

Abstract

This invention stores previously sensed image information, so that information with an angle desired by the user can be searched for and displayed. For this purpose, image data sensed by a camera device (100) is captured by an image information capture unit (101). On the other hand, the angle information of image data captured by the image information capture unit (101) is acquired by an image view point information acquisition unit (102), and a header is generated by a header generation unit (103) based on the angle information. A recording information generation unit (104) generates recording information based on the generated header and the captured image data, and stores the generated information in an external storage device (6). Upon reception of an external search instruction, a search unit (105) searches for information matching angle information included in the search condition, and an output unit (106) outputs the found image data.

Claims

1. A camera control system built by a camera server which can freely control a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and a client for displaying an image from said camera server,

said client comprising:

search condition transfer means for transferring angle information as search condition instruction information to said server; and

display control means for displaying image data transferred from said camera server on predetermined display means, and

said camera server comprising;

storage means for storing image data sensed by said camera device and angle information of that image data in predetermined storage means;

search means for searching said storage means in accordance with the angle information in the instruction information when the instruction information is received from said client; and

image data transfer means for transferring the image data found by said search means to said client.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said storage means also stores image sensing date information, and

said search condition transfer means transfers time zone information as a search condition.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said camera server senses an image within a photographable range by sequentially changing an angle of said camera device when a pre-set time is reached.

4. A camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and transfers an image sensed by said camera device to a remote client in accordance with an instruction from the client, comprising:

storage means for storing image data sensed by said camera device and angle information of that image data in predetermined storage means;

search means for searching said storage means in accordance with the angle information in the instruction information when the instruction information is received from the client; and

image data transfer means for transferring the image data found by said search means to the client.

5. The camera server according to claim 4, wherein said storage means stores image data as a part of HTML data.

6. The camera server according to claim 4, wherein said search means is a search program executed when instruction information is received from a client.

7. The camera server according to claim 4, wherein said image data transfer means transfers image data via internet.

8. The camera server according to claim 7, wherein said image data transfer means transfers the image data by HTTP protocol.

9. The camera server according to claim 4, wherein said storage means also stores image sensing date information, and

said search means makes a search using a time zone as a search condition when the instruction information includes the time zone information.

10. The camera server according to claim 4, wherein said camera server senses an image within a photographable range by sequentially changing an angle of said camera device when a pre-set time is reached.

11. A camera client connected to a camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and stores sensed image data in predetermined storage means together with image sensing angle information of that image data, comprising:

input means for inputting angle information as search information;

transfer means for transferring the input search information to said camera server; and

display means for displaying image data found by and transferred from said camera server.

12. The camera client according to claim 11, wherein said input means inputs the angle information in an address input area of a predetermined browser.

13. The camera client according to claim 11, wherein said camera server also stores image sensing date information in said storage means in association with the image data, and

said input means inputs image sensing time zone information as a search condition.

14. A method of controlling a camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled and transfers an image sensed by said camera device to a remote client in accordance with an instruction from the client, comprising:

the storage step of storing image data sensed by said camera device and angle information of that image data in predetermined storage means;

the search step of searching said storage means in accordance with the angle information in the instruction information when the instruction information is received from the client; and

the image data transfer step of transferring the image data found in the search step to the client.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the storage step includes the step of also storing image sensing date information, and

the search step includes the step of making a search using a time zone as a search condition when the time zone information is included in the instruction information.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of sensing an image within a photographable range by sequentially changing an angle of said camera device when a pre-set time is reached.

17. A method of controlling a camera client connected to a camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and stores sensed image data in predetermined storage means together with image sensing angle information of that image data, comprising:

the input step of inputting angle information as search information;

the transfer step of transferring the input search information to said camera server; and

the display step of displaying image data found by and transferred from said camera server.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein said camera server also stores image sensing date information in said storage means in association with the image data, and

the input step also includes the step of inputting image sensing time zone information as a search condition.

19. A storage medium that stores a program for implementing a camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and transfers an image sensed by said camera device to a remote client in accordance with an instruction from the client, storing program codes which respectively implement:

storage means for storing image data sensed by said camera device and angle information of that image data in predetermined storage means;

search means for searching said storage means in accordance with the angle information in the instruction information when the instruction information is received from the client; and

image data transfer means for transferring the image data found by said search means to the client.

20. A storage medium that stores a program for implementing a camera client connected to a camera server which has a camera device, an angle of which can be freely controlled, and stores sensed image data in predetermined storage means together with image sensing angle information of that image data, storing program codes which respectively implement:

input means for inputting angle information as search information;

transfer means for transferring the input search information to said camera server; and

display means for displaying image data found by and transferred from said camera server.

21. A camera server which can transmit image data in accordance with requests from a plurality of clients, comprising:

image sensing means;

storage means for storing image data sensed by said image sensing means in association with predetermined information; and

transmission means for transmitting image data which is being sensed to a predetermined client of the plurality of clients, and transmitting the image data stored in said storage means to the clients other than the predetermined client.

22. The camera server according to claim 21, further comprising:

reception means for receiving predetermined information from the client other than the predetermined client; and

search means for searching said storage means on the basis of the predetermined information received from the client other than the predetermined client, and wherein said transmission means transmits the search result to the client other than the predetermined client.

23. The camera server according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the predetermined information is angle information of said image sensing means used when image information stored in said storage means was sensed.

24. The camera server according to claim 21, further comprising:

control means for controlling an image sensing state of said image sensing means, and

wherein said control means makes control in accordance with an instruction from the predetermined client.

25. The camera server according to claim 24, wherein the control of the image sensing state includes control of pan and tilt angles and a zoom value.

26. The camera server according to claim 21, wherein said storage means stores images with a plurality of angles in units of predetermined times.

27. The camera server according to claim 21, wherein said storage means stores an image sensed by said image sensing means in accordance with an instruction from the predetermined client.