Moving picture recording and sending device

• US 20040105653A1
• Filed: 04/14/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Komi, Hironori, Yamamoto, Naoki, Nishimura, Ryuji, Horiuchi, Tadasu
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

A subject of the invention is to mix video signals of plural channels in time division and record these video signals to a recording medium, and select and transmit the video signal of a specific channel to a terminal device of a remote place. Therefore, the invention has a video signal switching unit for mixing the video signals of the plural channels in time division; a first video signal compressing unit for compressing the mixed video signals from the video signal switching unit; a unit for recording the video signal compressed by the first video signal compressing unit to the recording medium; second video signal compressing units for selecting a channel from the mixed video signals and compressing the video signals in a compressibility higher than that of the first video signal compressing unit; and a unit for transmitting the video signal compressed by the second video signal compressing unit. The video signal of a specific channel among the mixed video signals of the plural channels can be transmitted to a remote place by the above construction.

Claims

1. A video signal recording transmitter comprising:

an input unit for inputting video signals of plural channels;

a video signal input switching unit for switching and outputting the video signal inputs of said plural channels in time division;

a first video signal compressing unit for compressing an output from the video signal input switching unit;

a recording unit for recording an output signal from the first video signal compressing unit to a recording medium;

a second video signal compressing unit for compressing the output from said video signal input switching unit in a high compressibility in comparison with said first video signal compressing unit;

a communication unit for transmitting an output signal from the second video signal compressing unit to another device; and

a channel selecting control unit for controlling the operation of said second video signal compressing unit so as to selectively compress a specific channel included in the output from said video signal input switching unit.

2. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, further comprising:

a regenerating unit for regenerating the compressing signal recorded to the recording medium;

a video signal extending unit for extending the compressing signal regenerated from the regenerating unit; and

a transmitting signal selecting unit for switching the extended video signal from the video signal extending unit and the video signal from said video signal input switching unit, and outputting these video signals to said second video signal compressing unit.

3. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 2, further comprising:

a unit for recording a channel discriminating signal showing which channel of the video signal inputs of said plural channels said video signal input switching unit outputs to the recording medium together with the video signal compressed by said first video signal compressing unit; and

a channel discriminating unit for discriminating which channel said regenerating unit regenerates from said channel discriminating signal recorded to the recording medium;

wherein

said channel selecting control unit is constructed so as to selectively compress the specific channel on the basis of the output from said channel discriminating unit when said transmitting signal selecting unit selects the output from said video signal extending unit.

4. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, wherein

the second video signal is compressed by using information required to compress the first video signal.

5. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, wherein

the video signal recording transmitter has a communication unit for receiving a channel assigning signal from another device, and

said channel selecting control unit controls the operation of said second video signal compressing unit so as to selectively compress the specific channel assigned by said channel assigning signal received by said communication unit.

6. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, wherein

the video signal recording transmitter has a communication unit for receiving a channel assigning signal from another device, a channel assigning unit for assigning the channel by a user of this device, and an automatic channel switching unit for sequentially switching the channel at a time interval determined in advance, and

said channel selecting control unit selects whether it is said channel assigning signal received by said communication unit, an output from said channel assigning unit, or an output of said automatic channel switching unit, and controls the operation of said second video signal compressing unit so as to selectively compress the specific channel assigned by someone.

7. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, wherein

the video signal recording transmitter has a unit for receiving a zoom processing assigning signal from a monitoring device, and

a zoom processing circuit for enlarging and processing a predetermined portion of an image in accordance with the zoom processing assigning signal, and

the second video signal compressing processing is performed after the predetermined portion of the image is enlarged and processed on the basis of the zoom processing assigning signal.

8. The video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1, wherein

said first video signal compressing unit performs the compression-encoding processing of an MPEG2 format, and

said second video signal compressing unit performs the compression-encoding processing of an MPEG4 format.

9. A monitoring system for connecting the video signal recording transmitter according to claim 1 and a monitoring device to each other by a communication unit, and characterized in that

said video signal input is an output from a photographing device.

10. The monitoring device constituting the monitoring system according to claim 9, wherein

the monitoring device has a unit for outputting a channel assigning signal for assigning the selection of a channel in the video signal recording transmitter.

11. The monitoring device according to claim 10, wherein

the monitoring device has a function for transmitting the channel assigning signal, and

a function for receiving an image signal of the selected channel.

12. A monitoring system for connecting plural camera devices and a video signal recording transmitter through a LAN, and connecting this video signal recording transmitter and a monitoring device arranged in a remote place through a communication unit, and characterized in that

said camera device has a first video signal compressing unit for compressing an image pickup signal and a LAN interface, and

said video signal recording transmitter has:

an assigning channel extracting circuit for switching and outputting video signal inputs from said plural camera devices in time division, and extracting a channel assigned on the basis of a channel assigning signal from said monitoring device,

a video signal decoding unit for decoding a compression video signal of the assigning channel from the assigning channel extracting circuit,

a recording unit for recording the video signal switched and outputted from said assigning channel extracting circuit in time division to a recording medium,

a second video signal compressing unit for compressing an output from said video signal decoding unit in a high compressibility in comparison with said first video signal compressing unit, and

a communication unit for transmitting an output signal from the second video signal compressing unit to another device.

13. The monitoring system according to claim 12, wherein

the video signal recording transmitter has a unit for receiving a zoom processing assigning signal from the monitoring device, and a zoom processing circuit for enlarging and processing a predetermined portion of an image in accordance with the zoom processing assigning signal, and

the second video signal compression processing is performed after the predetermined portion of an output image from the video signal decoding unit is enlarged and processed on the basis of the zoom processing assigning signal.

14. A monitoring system for connecting plural camera devices and a video signal recording transmitter through a LAN, and connecting this video signal recording transmitter and a monitoring device arranged in a remote place through a communication unit, and characterized in that

said camera device has a first video signal compressing unit for compressing an image pickup signal, a second video signal compressing unit for compressing said image pickup signal in a high compressibility in comparison with said first video signal compressing unit, and a LAN interface, and

said video signal recording transmitter has:

an assigning channel extracting circuit for switching and outputting video signal inputs from said plural camera devices in time division, and extracting a channel assigned on the basis of a channel assigning signal from said monitoring device, a recording unit for recording the video signal switched and outputted from said assigning channel extracting circuit in time division to a recording medium, and

a communication unit for transmitting the second video signal compressed in the high compressibility in comparison with said first video signal compressing unit from said camera device to another device.

15. The monitoring system according to claim 14, wherein

said camera device has a unit for receiving a zoom processing assigning signal from the monitoring device, and a zoom processing circuit for enlarging and processing a predetermined portion of an image in accordance with the zoom processing assigning signal, and

the second video signal compression processing is performed after the predetermined portion of an output image from the video signal decoding unit is enlarged and processed on the basis of the zoom processing assigning signal.