Monitoring system, monitoring method and program therefor

• US 20070222858A1
• Filed: 03/21/2007
• Published: 09/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sugimoto, Masahiko
• Application Number:
  US11/723,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20070222858A1
• 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: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A monitoring system being capable of monitoring the important monitoring region at a low cost is provided. The monitoring system according to the present invention includes: a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region; a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section; an image-capturing control section that matches an image-capturing condition of the first image capturing section with an image-capturing condition of the second capturing section, a composite image generating section that generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image capturing control section based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing section; and a moving image storing section that stores therein the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a frame image constituting a moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

Claims

1. A monitoring system comprising:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region;

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section,

an image-capturing control section that matches an image-capturing condition of the first image capturing section with an image-capturing condition of the second capturing section;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image capturing control section based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing section, and

a moving image storing section that stores therein the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a frame image constituting a moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

2. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 1 further comp sing:

a characteristic region specifying section that specifies the characteristic region in the whole monitoring region including the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section;

an image-capturing condition determining section that determines an image capturing condition for each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the image in the characteristic region specified by the characteristic region specifying section,

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image under the image-capturing condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

3. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 2, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies a movement region which is moving based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section,

the image-capturing condition determining section determines an exposure condition for each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the first frame image of the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section 210a, which includes the movement region specified by the characteristic region specifying section, and

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image tinder the exposure condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

4. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 3, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies the movement region which is most widely moving when there are a plurality of movement regions in the whole monitoring region,

the image-capturing condition determining section determines the exposure condition of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the first frame image of the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section 210a, which includes the movement region specified by the characteristic region specifying section, and

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image under the exposure condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

5. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 2, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies a person region where there is any person as the characteristic region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section,

the image-capturing condition determining section determines the exposure condition of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the first frame image of the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section 210a, which includes the person region specified by the characteristic region specifying section, and

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image under the exposure condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

6. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 5, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies the person region of which area ratio of the person to the whole monitoring region is largest when there are a plurality of person regions in the whole monitoring region,

the image-capturing condition determining section determines the exposure condition of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the first frame image of the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section 210a, which includes the person region specified by the characteristic region specifying section, and

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image under the exposure condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

7. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 5 further comprising:

a facial region extracting section that extracts a facial region which is a region of the face of the person in the whole monitoring region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section; and

a facial region brightness determining section that determines a brightness of the facial region extracted by the facial region extracting section;

the characteristic region specifying section specifies the person region of which brightness determined by the facial region brightness determining section is within a predetermined value when there are a plurality of person regions in the whole monitoring region,

the image-capturing condition determining section determines the exposure condition of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section based on the first frame image of the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section 210a, which includes the person region specified by the characteristic region specifying section, and

the image-capturing control section causes the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section to capture the moving image under the exposure condition determined by the image-capturing condition determining section.

8. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

a trimming section that trims the composite image generated by the composite image generating section with an aspect ratio the same as that of the first frame image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract a partial monitoring region image,

the moving image storage section stores the partial monitoring region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

9. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

a trimming section that trims the composite image generated by the composite image generating section with an aspect ratio the same as that of a frame image constituting a moving image reproduced by an external image reproducing apparatus,

the moving image storage section stores the partial monitoring region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

10. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 8 further comprising a moving image compression section that compresses a plurality of partial monitoring region images extracted by the trimming section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of monitoring region images compressed by the moving image compression section as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

11. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 9 further comprising:

a moving image compression section that compresses a plurality of partial monitoring region images extracted by the trimming section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of monitoring region images compressed by the moving image compression section as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

12. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising an image processing section that alternately performs an image processing on the first frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section and stores the same in a memory.

13. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 12, wherein

the image processing section includes an AD converting section that alternately converts a first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included the second image-capturing section to digital data, and

the composite image generating section generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which the first frame image converted to the digital data by the AD converting section and the second frame image converted to the digital data by the AD converting section are combined

14. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 12, wherein

the image processing section includes an image data converting section that alternately converts image data of the first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and image data of the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section to display image data, and

the composite image generating section generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which the first frame image converted to the display image data by the image data converting section and the second frame image converted to the display image data by the image data converting section are combined.

15. A monitoring method comprising:

capturing a moving image in a first monitoring region;

capturing a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

matching an image-capturing condition of the first image capturing step with an image-capturing condition of the second image-capturing step;

generating a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing step and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing step, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image-capturing control step based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region captured by the first image capturing step and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing step; and

storing therein the composite image generated by the composite image generating step as a frame image constituting a moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

16. A program for a monitoring system that captures moving images, the program operates the monitoring system to function as:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region,

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

an image-capturing control section that matches an image-capturing condition of the first image capturing section with an image-capturing condition of the second capturing section;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image capturing control section based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing section; and

a moving image storing section that stores therein the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a fame image constituting a moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

17. A monitoring system comprising:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region;

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image capturing control section based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region captured by the first image-capturing section and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing section;

a characteristic region specifying section that specifies a characteristic region in the composite image by analyzing the composite image generated by the composite image generating section;

a trimming section that trims a characteristic region image which is an image in the characteristic region specified by the characteristic region specifying section from the composite image generated by the composite image generating section to extract the same; and

a moving image storing section that stores therein the characteristic region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

18. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 17, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies a movement region which is moving in a composite image by analyzing a plurality of composite images generated by the composite image generating section,

the trimming section trims a movement region image which is an image in the movement region specified by the characteristic region specifying section from the composite image generated by the composite image generating section, and

the moving image storage section stores the movement region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

19. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 17, wherein the characteristic region specifying section specifies a person region where there is any person in a composite image by analyzing the composite image generated by the composite image generating section,

the trimming section trims a person region image which is an image in the person region specified by the characteristic region specifying section from the composite image generated by the composite image generating section, and

the moving image storage section stores the person region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the partial monitoring region

20. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 17, wherein

the trimming section trims the characteristic region image with an aspect ratio the same as that of the first frame image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image captured by the second image-capturing section from the composite image generated by the composite image generating section,

the moving image storage section stores the moving image in the characteristic region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the characteristic region.

21. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 17, wherein

the tinning section trims the characteristic region image with an aspect ratio the same as that of a frame image constituting a moving image reproduced by an external image reproducing apparatus from the composite image generated by the composite image generating section to extract the same, and

the moving image storage section stores the characteristic region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the characteristic region.

22. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 20 further comprising a moving image compressing section that compresses the plurality of characteristic region images extracted by the trimming section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of characteristic region images compressed by the moving image compression section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image in the characteristic region.

23. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 21 further comprising a moving image compressing section that compresses the plurality of characteristic region images extracted by the trimming section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of characteristic region images compressed by the moving image compression section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image in the characteristic region.

24. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 17 further comprising an image processing section that alternately perform an image processing on the first frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section and stores the same in a memory.

25. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 24, wherein

the image processing section includes an AD converting section that alternately converts the first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section to digital data,

the composite image generating section generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which the first frame image converted to the digital data by the AD converting section and the second frame image converted to the digital data by the AD converting section are combined.

26. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 24, wherein

the image processing section includes an image data converting section that alternately converts image data of the first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and image data of the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section to display image data, and

the composite image generating section generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which the first frame image converted to the display image data by the image data converting section and the second fine image converted to the display image data by the image data converting section are combined.

27. A monitoring method comprising

capturing a moving image in a first monitoring region,

capturing a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing step,

generating a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing step and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing step, respectively based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region by the first image capturing step and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing step;

specifying a characteristic region in the composite image by analyzing the composite image generated by the composite image generating step;

trimming a characteristic region image which is an image in the characteristic region specified by the characteristic region specifying step from the composite image generated by the composite image generating step to extract the same; and

storing the characteristic region image extracted by the trimming step as a frame image constituting the moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

28. A program for a monitoring system that captures moving images, the program operates the monitoring system to function as:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region;

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

an image-capturing control section that matches an image-capturing condition of the first image capturing section with an image-capturing condition of the second capturing section;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image by adjusting a position at which a first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section and a second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively under the same image-capturing condition controlled by the image capturing control section based on a relative positional relationship between the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section and the second monitoring region captured by the second image-capturing section; and

a moving image storing section that stores therein the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a frame image constituting a moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

29. A monitoring system comprising:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region;

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

a characteristic region specifying section that specifies a characteristic region in the whole monitoring region including the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image capturing section and the second image capturing section,

a trimming section that trims a plurality of characteristic region images including the plurality of characteristic regions specified by the characteristic region specifying section, respectively from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract the same;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image obtained by combining the plurality of characteristic region images extracted by the trimming section; and

a moving image storage section that stores the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a frame image constituting the moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

30. She monitoring system as set forth in claim 29, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies a movement region which is moving as the characteristic region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section,

the trimming section trims a movement region image which is an image including the plurality of movement regions specified by the characteristic region specifying section from the first frame image constituting the image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract the same.

31. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 29, wherein

the characteristic region specifying section specifies a person region where there is any person based on the moving image captured by each of the first image-capturing section and the second image-capturing section, and

the trimming section trims a movement region image including the plurality of movement regions specified by the characteristic region specifying section from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract the same

32. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 29, wherein

the trimming section trims the characteristic region image including the characteristic region specified by the characteristic region specifying section such that the aspect ratio of the composite image generated by the composite image generating section is the same as that of the first frame image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract the same,

the moving image storage section stores the partial monitoring region image extracted by the trimming image as a frame image constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

33. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 29, wherein

the trimming section trims the characteristic region image including the characteristic region specified by the characteristic region specifying section such that the aspect ratio of the composite image generated by the composite image generating section is the same as that of a frame image constituting a moving image reproduced by an external image reproducing apparatus to extract the same,

the moving image storage section stores the partial monitoring region image extracted by the trimming section as a frame image constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

34. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 32 further comprising a moving image compression section that compresses the plurality of composite images compressed by the moving image compression section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of composite images compressed by the moving image compression section as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

35. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 33 further comprising a moving image compression section that compresses the plurality of composite images compressed by the moving image compression section into a moving image as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region,

the moving image storage section stores the plurality of composite images compressed by the moving image compression section as frame images constituting the moving image in the partial monitoring region.

36. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 29 further comprising an image processing section that alternately performs an image processing on the first frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from a plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section and stores the same in a memory.

37. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 36 further comprising an AD converting section that alternately converts the first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section to digital data,

the characteristic region specifying section specifies the characteristic region based on the first frame image and the second frame image converted to the digital data by the AD converting section.

38. The monitoring system as set forth in claim 36 further comprising an image data converting section that alternately converts image data of the first frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the first image-capturing section and image data of the second frame image read from the plurality of light receiving elements included in the second image-capturing section to display image data,

the characteristic region specifying section specifies the characteristic region based on the first frame image and the second frame image converted to the display image data by the image data converting section.

39. A monitoring method comprising.

capturing a moving image in a first monitoring region;

capturing a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section;

specifying a characteristic region in the whole monitoring region including the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image capturing step and the second image capturing step;

trimming a plurality of characteristic region images including the plurality of characteristic regions specified by the characteristic region specifying step, respectively from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing step or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing step, respectively;

generating a composite image obtained by combining the plurality of characteristic region images extracted by the trimming step, and

storing the composite image generated by the composite image generating step as a frame image constituting the moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.

40. A program for a monitoring system that captures moving images, the program operates the monitoring system to function as:

a first image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a first monitoring region;

a second image-capturing section that captures a moving image in a second monitoring region adjacent to the first monitoring region in synchronism with capturing the image in the first monitoring region by the first image-capturing section,

a characteristic region specifying section that specifies a characteristic region in the whole monitoring region including the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region based on the moving image captured by each of the first image capturing section and the second image capturing section;

a trimming section that trims a plurality of characteristic region images including the plurality of characteristic regions specified by the characteristic region specifying section, respectively from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section, respectively from the first frame image constituting the moving image captured by the first image-capturing section or the second frame image constituting the moving image captured by the second image-capturing section to extract the same;

a composite image generating section that generates a composite image obtained by combining the plurality of characteristic region images extracted by the trimming section; and

a moving image storage section that stores the composite image generated by the composite image generating section as a frame image constituting the moving image in a partial monitoring region including at least a part of the first monitoring region and the second monitoring region.