Camera equipment

• US 20040105019A1
• Filed: 07/14/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Odawa, Hisao, Nakano, Tetsuo, Imanishi, Shinya
• Application Number:
  US10/617,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20040105019A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.99
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7921 for more than one processing mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A camera equipment includes a first coder for compression-coding a picked-up image for transmission to a network and a second coder for compression-coding the image to store it in a recorder. Even when data cannot be transmitted due to the conditions of a transmission path, the compressed image data can be acquired without fail. The compressed image data before and after an abnormality can be recorded and transmitted in high image quality, and a compression scheme suitable for the expansion decoding scheme at the transmission destination can be selected. The image data generated in a camera unit is compression-coded in according to the expansion decoding scheme at the transmission destination, and transmitted to a network. The same image data thus generated is compression-coded by the second coder using a compression coding scheme in a more finely detailed fashion than that by the first coder.

Claims

1. A camera equipment comprising:

camera means for outputting a picked-up image as an image data;

first coding means for compression-coding the image data output from said camera means;

second coding means for compression-coding the image data output from said camera means;

communication means for receiving and transmitting the compressed image data compression-coded in said first coding means through a transmission path; and

recording means for storing the compressed image data compression-coded by said first coding means and said second coding means;

wherein said first coding means compression-codes said image data by a compression coding scheme designated externally through said communication means, said compression coding scheme being different from a compression coding scheme employed by said second coding means.

2. A camera equipment according to claim 1,

wherein said first coding means selects one of a plurality of different compression coding schemes and executes a compression coding process designated externally.

3. A camera equipment according to claim 1,

wherein said second coding means compression-codes the image data by the compression coding process designated externally through said communication means.

4. A camera equipment according to claim 1,

wherein said first coding means executes the compression-coding process according to a compression-coding scheme designated externally through said communication means in such a manner as to secure a transmissible data amount satisfying the transmission capacity of the transmission path.

5. A camera equipment according to claim 2,

wherein said second coding means executes the compression-coding process according to a compression-coding scheme designated externally through said communication means in such a manner as to generate a more finely detailed compressed image data than the compressed image data compression-coded by said first coding means.

6. A camera equipment according to claim 1, further comprising means for detecting an abnormality occurring at an image pick-up position, said abnormality being notified to an external unit through said communication means upon detection thereof.

7. A camera equipment according to claim 6,

wherein information indicating the occurrence of an abnormality is added to the compressed image data recorded in said recording means during the occurrence of said abnormality.

11. A camera equipment according to claim 1,

wherein said first coder can select and set one of the compression coding schemes including MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, JPEG and JPEG2000.

12. A camera equipment according to claim 3, wherein each of said first coder and said second coder can independently select and set one of the compression coding schemes including MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, JPEG and JPEG2000.

8. A camera equipment comprising:

a camera which for outputs a picked-up image as an image data;

a first coder which compression-codes the image data output from said camera;

a second coder which compression-codes the image data output from said camera;

a first communication unit which receives and transmits the compressed image data compression-coded in said first coder through a transmission path;

a second communication unit receives and transmits the compressed image data compression-coded in said second coder through a transmission path different from the transmission path used by said first communication unit; and

a recorder which stores the compressed image data compression-coded by said first coder and said second coder.

9. A camera equipment according to claim 8,

wherein said first communication unit is a wireless communication unit which receives and transmits the image data through a wireless transmission path, and said second communication unit is a wire communication unit for receives and transmits the image data through a wire transmission path.

10. A camera equipment according to claim 8,

wherein said first coder and said second coder compression-code the image data by selectively setting a compression coding scheme designated externally through said first communication unit and said second communication unit, respectively, after connection is established for communication.