Video surveillance system employing video primitives

• US 20070013776A1
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Published: 01/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haering, Niels, Zhang, Zhong, Yin, Weihong, Frazier, Matthew, Cutting, Robert, Lipton, Alan, Chosak, Andrew, Myers, Gary, Venetianer, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,892,606 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19602 Image analysis to detect motion of the intruder, e.g. by frame subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19606 Discriminating between target movement or movement in an area of interest and other non-signicative movements, e.g. target movements induced by camera shake or movements of pets, falling leaves, rotating fan
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1961 Movement detection not involving frame subtraction, e.g. motion detection on the basis of luminance changes in the image
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19615 wherein said pattern is defined by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19652 Systems using zones in a single scene defined for different treatment, e.g. outer zone gives pre-alarm, inner zone gives alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1968 Interfaces for setting up or customising the system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

A video surveillance system extracts video primitives and extracts event occurrences from the video primitives using event discriminators. The system can undertake a response, such as an alarm, based on extracted event occurrences.

Claims

1. A video processing apparatus comprising:

a video content analysis module to analyze an input video sequence and to derive at least one video primitive;

an event inference module coupled to said video content analysis module to detect at least one event based on one or more rules; and

an application programming interface (API) framework coupled to said event inference module to permit a user to define rules for said event inference module.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communications module coupled to said API framework to facilitate communication between a device external to said apparatus and said API framework.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said communications module is adapted to facilitate communications via the Internet.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said video content analysis module, said event inference module, and said API framework are hosted on a processing sub-system, and wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a main processing system coupled to said processing sub-system, the main processing system comprising;

at least one main processing application different from applications to be provided by said video content analysis module, said event inference module, and said API framework; and

a communications module coupled to facilitate communication between a device external to said apparatus and said apparatus.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said processing sub-system further comprises:

a rule software development kit (SDK), coupled to said API framework, to permit a user to create a rule for said event inference module.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said rule SDK exposes at least one fully formed predetermined rule to said user.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said rule SDK exposes a rule language and one or more predetermined primitive definitions to said user.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said main processing system further comprises:

a web service module coupled to said communications module.

9. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said at least one main processing application is adapted to receive an alert from said event inference module.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said main processing application is adapted to control at least one function of said apparatus in response to said alert.

11. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said main processing system and said processing sub-system are hosted on a common hardware platform.

12. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said main processing system and said processing sub-system are hosted on separate hardware platforms.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said separate hardware platforms are electrically coupled to each other.

14. A video analysis system comprising:

the apparatus according to claim 2;

and

a sensor coupled to said communications module to provide an interface with a communications network.

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprising:

an alert unit located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to said network to receive at least one of the group consisting of compressed video and an alert.

16. The system according to claim 14, further comprising:

a rules management tool coupled to said network to provide at least one rule to said event inference module.

17. The system according to claim 14, further comprising:

a rule user interface to permit a user to develop a rule for use by said event inference module; and

a rule SDK coupled to said rule user interface, the rule SDK including support to facilitate communication with said sensor via said network.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said rule SDK exposes at least one fully formed predetermined rule to said user.

19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said rule SDK exposes a rule language and one or more predetermined primitive definitions to said user.

20. A video analysis system comprising:

the apparatus according to claim 8;

and

a device coupled to said apparatus via the Internet to enable a user to create a rule for said event inference module.

21. A method of video processing comprising:

creating at least one rule for detecting at least one activity in a video sequence based on at least one detected video primitive; and

detecting if there is said at least one activity in said video sequence based on said at least one rule.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

generating at least one alert if said detecting detects said at least one activity.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein said creating comprises:

communicating at least one of the group consisting of a rule and an instruction for creating a rule to an apparatus for detecting said at least one activity from a device external to said apparatus for detecting said at least one activity.

24. A computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computer system cause said computer system to implement the method according to claim 21.

25. A video processing system comprising:

the computer-readable medium according to claim 24;

and

a computer coupled to said computer-readable medium to execute the instructions contained on said computer-readable medium.