Multi-sensor panoramic network camera

• US 20050141607A1
• Filed: 07/14/2004
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arecont Vision Costar, LLC (Costar Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Arecont Vision LLC (Costar Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaplinsky, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

The subject of this invention is a multi-sensor network camera providing up to 360 degrees angle of view. The camera disclosed in the present invention comprises multiple image sensors with individual optics, one or more image processors, compression units and network interfaces mounted in the single housing. In the preferred embodiment image sensors are positioned in non-parallel planes, cumulatively providing panoramic field of view. In the preferred embodiment image streams originating from all sensors share the same image compression and network interface hardware, providing for low cost implementation. In the preferred embodiment the images from all sensors are transmitted over the network simultaneously via packet interleaving, with appropriate bandwidth reduction achieved by image decimation. In one of the embodiments of this invention, simultaneously with transmission of decimated images from all sensors, full resolution window or entire image of one or more sensors is also transmitted, where the selection of contents is based either on motion detection or user setting.

Claims

1. Multi-sensor network camera comprising two or more image sensors with focal planes of said image sensors positioned at the angle to each other, network interface for transmission off camera of image data streams originating by said image sensors and the means of multiplexing of said image data streams into said network interface.

2. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein each of said image sensors has individual optics or lens positioned in front of it.

3. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said image sensors are positioned in non-parallel planes as to cumulatively provide 360 degrees field of view along at least one circumference centered at the camera location.

4. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said image sensors are positioned as to provide cumulative field of view completely covering at least 180 degrees hemisphere centered at camera location.

5. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said network interface is Ethernet network interface.

6. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said network interface supports one or more of the following standard network protocols:

TCP, UDP, TFTP, IP.

7. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said multiplexing of said image data streams is performed on a time-interleaved basis, where transmission of some portion of data stream from one of the said image sensors is followed by the transmission of some portion of data stream from another of said image sensors.

8. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said means of multiplexing of image data streams are configured to allow the selection of the image data streams to be transmitted off camera to be controlled from external input.

9. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 1, wherein said image sensors are CMOS image sensors with resolution in excess of 1 million pixels.

10. Multi-sensor network camera comprising two or more image sensors with focal planes of said image sensors positioned at the angle to each other, network interface for transmission off camera of image data streams originating by said image sensors, the means of multiplexing of said image data streams into said network interface and one or more image processors equipped to decimate and compress images from said image sensors.

11. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image data streams from said image sensors are ultimately multiplexed into a single image processor equipped to perform image compression.

12. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image processors also comprise image pre-processors, wherein said image pre-processors are equipped to perform image sensor control and color processing.

13. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein image data stream from each of the said image sensors is first processed by an individual image pre-processor and then multiplexed to common to all said image sensors image post-processor.

14. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image processors comprise dedicated logic that implements image processing pipeline, where said image processing pipeline performs operations on different parts of the image in parallel passing image information from one image processing operation to the next.

15. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said means of multiplexing of said data streams and said image processors are configured as to transmit over said network interface decimated images from some of the said image sensors and full resolution images or portions of the images from some of the remaining image sensors.

16. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image compression makes use of the algorithms based on discrete cosine transform.

17. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image compression makes use of the algorithms based on wavelet transform.

18. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image compression is MPEG.

19. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image processors are equipped to detect motion of the objects in the field of view of the said image sensors.

20. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image processors and said means of multiplexing of data streams from said image sensors are configured to deliver to said network interface full resolution images if moving objects have been detected in the field of view of the imager and decimated images if moving objects have not been detected in the field of view of the imager.

21. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein each of said image sensors has individual optics or lens positioned in front of it.

22. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image sensors are positioned in non-parallel planes as to cumulatively provide 360 degrees field of view along at least one circumference centered at the camera location.

23. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said image sensors are positioned as to provide cumulative field of view completely covering at least 180 degrees hemisphere centered at camera location.

24. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said network interface is Ethernet network interface.

25. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said network interface supports one or more of the following standard network protocols:

TCP, UDP, TFTP, IP.

26. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said multiplexing of said image data streams is performed on a time-interleaved basis, where transmission of some portion of data stream from one of the said image sensors is followed by the transmission of some portion of data stream from another of said image sensors.

27. Multi-sensor network camera of claim 10, wherein said means of multiplexing of image data streams are configured to allow the selection of the image data streams to be transmitted off camera to be controlled from external input.

28. Camera system comprising:

multi-sensor network camera comprising two or more image sensors with focal planes of said image sensors positioned at the angle to each other, network interface for transmission off camera of image data streams originating by said image sensors and the means of multiplexing of said image data streams into said network interface; and

computer system receiving the images and software running on said computer system, wherein said software is configured to perform concatenation of images received from said multiple image sensors of said camera into one composite image.

29. Camera system of claim 28, wherein said image concatenation removes common to different images overlaps and assembles composite panoramic image from multiple images received from said multi-sensor network camera.