Monitoring apparatus and method

• US 20070250862A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Miyamaki, Hideo, Tamura, Asako, Tsukuda, Kazuma
• Granted Patent: US 8,934,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19671 Addition of non-video data, i.e. metadata, to video stream

Abstract

A monitoring apparatus includes a video data obtaining section obtaining video data from a monitoring terminal, a metadata obtaining section obtaining metadata describing information on a monitored subject from the monitoring terminal, a filter setting storage section storing a filter setting, a metadata filter section performing filtering processing on the metadata by using a filter setting stored in the filter setting storage section, and an output section outputting a monitoring result based on the filtering processing result obtained by performing filtering processing in the metadata filter section.

Claims

1. A monitoring apparatus comprising:

a video data obtaining section obtaining video data from a monitoring terminal;

a metadata obtaining section obtaining metadata describing information on a monitored subject from the monitoring terminal;

a filter setting storage section storing a filter setting;

a metadata filter section performing filtering processing on the metadata by using a filter setting stored in the filter setting storage section; and

an output section outputting a monitoring result based on the filtering processing result obtained by performing filtering processing in the metadata filter section.

2. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output section outputs a picture showing the monitoring result by using one of a picture based on video data obtained by the video data obtaining section, a picture based on metadata obtained by the metadata obtaining section and a picture showing a filter setting used by the metadata filter section or a picture resulting from the synthesis of multiple pictures.

3. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a video data storage section storing the video data;

a metadata storage section storing the metadata;

a video data playing section playing video data stored in the video data storage section;

a metadata playing section playing metadata stored in the metadata storage section; and

a play synchronizing section causing the metadata playing section to play metadata in synchronization with the video data played by the video data playing section in order to play the video data and the metadata together,

wherein the metadata filter section performs filtering processing on the metadata played by the metadata playing section by using a filter setting stored in the filter setting storage section; and

the output section outputs a picture showing the monitoring result by using one of a picture based on the video data played by the video data playing section, a picture based on metadata played by the metadata playing section and a picture showing the filter setting used in the metadata filter section or a picture resulting from the synthesis of multiple pictures.

4. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the video data obtaining section causes the video data storage section to store the obtained video data based on the filtering processing result obtained by performing filtering processing in the metadata filter section.

5. The monitoring apparatus according to claim, 1, wherein the video data obtaining section and the metadata obtaining section obtain the video data and the metadata from the monitoring terminal over a network.

6. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information relating to a monitored subject is described in a markup language in the metadata.

7. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to a monitored subject has a moving subject detection information indicating whether a moving subject has been detected or not and/or moving subject position information indicating the position of a detected moving subject.

8. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to a monitored subject has information indicating the state of area monitored by the monitoring terminal.

9. A monitoring method comprising the steps of:

obtaining video data;

obtaining metadata;

performing filtering processing on the metadata by using a filter setting; and

outputting a monitoring result based on the filtering processing result obtained by performing filtering processing in the step of performing metadata filtering processing.