Remote surveillance

• US 20060179463A1
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Industrial Video & Control Company LLC
• Original Assignee: Industrial Video & Control Company LLC
• Inventors: Brown, Jonathan A., Gregory, Phillip W., Chisholm, Alpin C., Vanslette, Paul J.
• Application Number:
  US11/052,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20060179463A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/90
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19656 Network used to communicate with a camera, e.g. WAN, LAN, Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19667 Details realated to data compression, encryption or encoding, e.g. resolution modes for reducing data volume to lower transmission bandwidth or memory requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19673 Addition of time stamp, i.e. time metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1968 Interfaces for setting up or customising the system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19682 Graphic User Interface [GUI] presenting system data to the user, e.g. information on a screen helping a user interacting with an alarm system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

At a remote location, audio-visual data is received and processed to produce processed audio-visual data. The processed audio-visual data is communicated to a central location using a programmable logic controller communication protocol.

Claims

1. A method comprising

at a remote location, receiving audio-visual data and processing the audio-visual data to produce processed audio-visual data, and

communicating the processed audio-visual data to a central location using a programmable logic controller communication protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the audio-visual data comprises video data.

3. The method of claim 1 in which communicating the processed audio-visual data comprises communicating non-protocol-compliant data encapsulated in protocol-compliant communications.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the processed audio-visual data is communicated as live audio-visual on demand data.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the processed audio-visual data is communicated as event-based audio-visual data.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the processed audio-visual data is communicated as continuous live audio-visual data.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the processed audio-visual data is communicated at a rate that accommodates a bandwidth of a communication channel on which the data is communicated to the central location.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the audio-visual data comprises at least one of audio data, still image data, or video data.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the communication protocol comprises a PLC protocol.

10. The method of claim 9 in which the PLC protocol comprises Modbus or DF1.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the PLC protocol comprises one or more of ROC native, BSAP, and DF1 Radio Modem Protocol, DNP, UCA, IEC-61850, IEC-60870, GESNP, TIway, and Profibus-DP.

12. The method of claim 1 also including reporting diagnostics at the central location.

13. The method of claim 1 in which the communicating is at a bit rate lower than 56K bits per second.

21. The method of claim 1 also including

communicating commands from the central location to the remote location with respect to the processed audio-visual data.

22. The method of claim 21 in which commands control the communicating of the processed audio-visual data to the central location.

23. The method of claim 21 in which the commands control an audio-visual capture device at the remote location.

24. The method of claim 23 in which the commands control a video camera to pan, tilt, or zoom.

25. The method of claim 1 also including

at the remote location, determining an event condition

26. The method of claim 25 in which the event condition is based on the audio-visual data.

27. The method of claim 25 in which the event condition is based on signals from intrusion detection devices.

28. The method of claim 25 in which the event condition is based on a command determined by software at the central location.

29. The method of claim 25 in which the event condition is based on analysis of images represented by the data.

30. The method of claim 25 in which an alarm is triggered based on the event condition.

31. The method of claim 1 also including

analyzing characteristics of at least one image of a field of view at the remote location represented by the audio-visual data, and

determining the alarm condition based on the audio-visual data and the analyzing.

32. The method of claim 31 in which the analyzing includes color information.

33. The method of claim 31 in which the analyzing includes intensity information.

34. The method of claim 21 in which the commands comprise audio-visual parameters that are communicated in conformity with a programmable logic controller communication protocol.

35. The method of claim 1 in which the processed audio-visual data can be a selected one or more of high quality video files, medium quality event clips, and low quality streaming video.

36. The method of claim 1 in which the remote location comprises a location of a water or wastewater system.

37. The method of claim 1 in which the remote location comprises a location of a natural gas SCADA network.

38. The method of claim 1 in which the remote location comprises a location of a distributed monitoring and control network.

39. The method of claim 1 also including providing the processed audio-visual data as part of a graphical user interface.

40. The method of claim 39 in which the processed audio-visual data is converted to AVI format for use in the graphical user interface.

42. The method of claim 1 also including

enabling a user to provide configuration parameters for the remote location using an online user interface.

43. The method of claim 42 in which the configuration parameters are provided to the remote location using the programmable logic controller communication protocol.

44. The method of claim 1 also including

detecting a mismatch between configuration parameters stored in a database at the central location and configuration parameters used at the remote location.

14. A method comprising

at a central location, receiving communications of processed audio-visual data generated at a remote location,

the communications being received on a low-bandwidth communication channel using a programmable logic controller communication protocol.

15. A method for use with a water supply or wastewater system, comprising

producing video data for a field of view in a vicinity of at least a portion of the water supply or wastewater system,

processing the video data to produce processed audio-visual data,

communicating the processed video data to a central location using a low-bandwidth communication channel in accordance with a programmable logic controller communication protocol, and

making at least a portion of the video data available to a user for monitoring the water supply or wastewater system.

16. A method comprising

at a remote location, receiving audio-visual data from an audio-visual capture device and using a local processor to process the audio-visual data to produce processed audio-visual data, and

communicating the processed audio-visual data to a central processor at a central location using a communication channel,

the rate at which the processed audio-visual data is communicated being selectable to accommodate characteristics of the communication channel.

17. An apparatus comprising

a local processor,

one or more input ports to receive an input audio-visual data signal to be processed by the local processor,

one or more ports to communicate processed audio-visual data and control information to a central processor located remotely from the local processor, and

stored instructions to cause the local processor to act as a programmable logic controller with respect to communication with the central processor.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 in which the processed audio-visual data is communicated on a low-bandwidth communication channel that is part of a low speed plant network.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 also including an audio-visual capture device to produce the input audio-visual data signal.

20. A method comprising

at a remote location, receiving audio-visual data,

identifying an event at the remote location,

storing a brief segment of the audio-visual data associated with the event, including audio-visual data that was received prior to the event, and

communicating the brief segment of the audio-visual data to a central processor at a central location.

41. A method comprising

at a remote location, receiving audio-visual data,

identifying an event at the remote location based on the audio-visual data, and

controlling equipment at the remote location based on the event.