Monitoring system, monitoring apparatus and monitoring method

• US 20080151051A1
• Filed: 12/05/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Usami, Makoto, Konno, Georgero
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,284 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: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas

Abstract

In a monitoring system for monitoring parking of a vehicle in a specific area by a monitoring image pick-up device, and a monitoring apparatus, the monitoring image pick-up device includes an image pick-up portion. And the monitoring apparatus includes: a parking area enter/exit determining portion for determining whether or not a vehicle enters or exits from the specific area; an imaging setting change instructing portion for instructing the image pick-up portion to change an imaging setting to another one suitable for capturing a vehicle image containing specific information on the vehicle when it is determined that the vehicle enters or exits from the area; and a parking determining portion for calculating a time for which the vehicle is parked in the area from image capturing time when the vehicle enters the area, and image capturing time when the vehicle exits from the area.

Claims

1. A monitoring system for monitoring parking of a vehicle in a specific area comprising:

a monitoring image pick-up device; and

a monitoring apparatus configured to perform the monitoring based on video data obtained by capturing an image of the vehicle by said monitoring image pick-up device;

said monitoring image pick-up device including

an image pick-up portion for capturing an image of said specific area and a peripheral area thereof to generate the video data,

said monitoring apparatus including

a parking area enter/exit determining portion determining whether or not a vehicle detected based on the video data generated by said image pick-up portion of said monitoring image pick-up apparatus enters or exits from said specific area,

an imaging setting change instructing portion instructing said image pick-up portion of said monitoring image pick-up apparatus to perform changing of an image setting to another one suitable for imaging of a vehicle image containing therein specific information on said vehicle when said parking area enter/exit determining portion determines that said vehicle detected based on the video data enters or exits from said specific area, and

a parking determining portion calculating a period of time for which said vehicle is parked in said specific area based on imaging time of an image when said vehicle enters said specific area, and imaging time of an image when said vehicle exits from said specific area, both the images being captured by said image pick-up portion of said monitoring image pick-up device in accordance with the instruction issued from said imaging setting changing instructing portion.

2. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein said specific area is an area set as a no-parking area.

3. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein a virtual borderline is provided in a boundary between said specific area and a peripheral area thereof;

and said specific area enter/exit determining portion determines whether or not said vehicle enters or exits from said specific area depending on whether or not said vehicle gets across said virtual borderline.

4. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the specific information on said vehicle is information on a number plate of said vehicle.

5. The monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein said parking determining portion executes processing for comparing the vehicle which enters said specific area and the vehicle which exits from said specific area with each other based on the information on the number plate of said vehicle contained in an image captured by said image pick-up portion of said monitoring image pick-up apparatus.

6. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the imaging setting suitable for the imaging of the vehicle image containing therein the specific information on said vehicle is a setting for performing the imaging at a high resolution.

7. The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein said monitoring image pick-up apparatus includes an attribute information generating portion for generating attribute information containing therein photographing time information of the video data generated by said image pick-up portion;

and

time at which the image of the vehicle is captured in a phase of enter into said specific area, and time at which the image of the vehicle is captured in a phase of exit from said specific area constitute photographing time information generated by said attribute information generating portion.

8. A monitoring apparatus for monitoring parking of a vehicle in a specific area, comprising:

an image pick-up portion configured to capture an image of said specific area and a peripheral area thereof to generate video data;

a parking area enter/exit determining portion configured to determine whether or not a vehicle detected based on the video data enters or exits from said specific area;

an imaging setting change instructing portion configured to instruct said image pick-up portion to perform changing of an imaging setting to another one suitable for imaging of a vehicle image containing therein specific information on said vehicle when said parking area enter/exit determining portion determines that said vehicle detected based on the video data enters or exits from said specific area; and

a parking determining portion configured to calculate a period of time for which said vehicle is parked in said specific area based on imaging time of an image when said vehicle enters said specific area, and imaging time of an image when said vehicle exits from said specific area, both the images being captured by said image pick-up portion in accordance with the instruction issued from said imaging setting change instructing portion.

9. A monitoring method of monitoring parking of a vehicle in a specific area, comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of said specific area and a peripheral area thereof to generate video data;

determining whether or not a vehicle detected based on the video data enters or exits from said specific area;

performing changing of an imaging setting to another one suitable for imaging of a vehicle image containing therein specific information on said vehicle when it is determined that said vehicle detected based on the video data enters or exits from said specific area, thereby capturing an image of said vehicle containing therein the specific information on said vehicle; and

calculating a period of time for which said vehicle is parked in said specific area based on time at which an image of said vehicle in a phase of entering said specific area is captured, and time at which an image of said vehicle in a phase of exiting from said specific area is captured.