Monitoring system, monitoring method and camera terminal

• US 20090262195A1
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Atsushi, Araki, Shoichi, Aoki, Katsuji
• Granted Patent: US 7,929,016 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/159
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/695 Control of camera direction for changing a field of view, e.g. pan, tilt or based on tracking of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

A monitoring system is provided that allows shooting which thoroughly covers an area subject to monitoring, through shooting areas of plural camera terminals, while shooting with resolution according to distribution of importance for monitoring.

The monitoring system that monitors the area subject to monitoring with plural camera terminals (101, 101a), includes a camera (106) having a shooting area adjustment function, a camera controlling unit (107) that controls adjustment of the shooting area of the camera (106), a communication IF (103) that communicates with an other camera terminal (101a), and a processing unit (04) that adjusts resolution of the shooting area of the self camera terminal (101) by controlling the camera (106) via the camera controlling unit (107) to reduce a difference between weighted resolution of the shooting area of the self camera terminal (101) and weighted resolution of shooting area of the other camera terminal (101a) based on information regarding the shooting area of the other camera terminal (101a) obtained through the communication IF (103).

Claims

1. A monitoring system that monitors an area subject to monitoring comprising plural camera terminals having:

a camera having a function for adjusting a shooting area;

a camera controlling unit operable to control adjustment of the shooting area of said camera;

a communication interface for communicating with an other camera terminal; and

a processing unit operable, in the case where weighted resolution is defined as a degree in which resolution of a highly important shooting area becomes high and resolution of a less important shooting area becomes low, to adjust resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by controlling said camera via said camera controlling unit to reduce a difference between the weighted resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the weighted resolution of the shooting area of the other camera terminal, based on information related to a shooting area of the other camera terminal obtained through said communication interface.

2. The monitoring system according to claim 1,

wherein said processing unit is further operable to adjust a location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal in relation to the shooting area of the other camera, which is adjacent to the shooting area of said self camera terminal, so as to thoroughly cover the area subject to monitoring, while making the shooting area of said self camera terminal be adjacent to the shooting area of the other camera terminal by controlling said camera via said camera controlling unit.

3. The monitoring system according to claim 2,

wherein said processing unit is operable to adjust the location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal so that the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the shooting area of the other camera terminal come to be adjacent with a certain amount of an overlapping area.

4. The monitoring system according to claim 1,

wherein the weighted resolution is obtained by multiplying the resolution of the shooting area by resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area in advance.

5. The monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising

a first storage unit that holds a resolution weight map which is information corresponding to resolution weight equivalent to importance per small area obtained by dividing the area subject to monitoring, and

wherein said processing unit is operable to decide the weighted resolution by specifying the resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal with reference to the resolution weight map held in said first storage unit, and to adjust the resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal.

6. The monitoring system according to claim 5,

wherein said first storage unit is further operable to memorize a plurality of the resolution weight maps and a resolution weight selection list, in which a rule is defined for selecting one of the plurality of the resolution weight maps depending on monitoring situation, and

wherein said processing unit is further operable to specify monitoring situation, to select a resolution weight map corresponding to the monitoring situation from the plurality of the resolution weight maps based on the specified monitoring situation and the rule defined in the resolution weight selection list, and to specify the resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal by referring to the selected resolution weight map.

7. The monitoring system according to claim 6,

wherein a rule is defined in the resolution weight selection list for selecting one of the plurality of the resolution weight maps according to a date and time of shooting by said camera terminal, and

said processing unit is operable to specify a date and time of shooting by said self camera terminal, and to select the resolution weight map corresponding to the specified date and time based on the rule defined in the resolution weight selection list.

8. The monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising

a second storage unit that holds a template image which is an image defining a characteristic of a specific target object, and a template image list in which resolution weight equivalent to importance is associated with the template image,

wherein said processing unit is further operable to decide existence of a target object similar to the template image held in said second storage unit for an image shot by said camera, to specify resolution weight corresponding to the template image by referring to the template image list in the case the target object is decided to exist, to decide the weighted resolution by specifying the specified resolution weight as the resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal, and to adjust resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal.

9. The monitoring system according to claim 1,

wherein said camera terminal further includes a third storage unit that holds a resolution weight map creation rule that defining a rule for creating a resolution weight map, which is information having resolution weight equivalent to importance per small area obtained by dividing the area subject to monitoring based on an image shot by said camera, and

said processing unit is operable to create the resolution weight map from the shooting image of said camera according to the resolution weight map creation rule held in said third storage unit, to decide the weighted resolution by specifying resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal with reference to the created resolution weight map, and to adjust resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal.

10. The monitoring system according to claim 9,

wherein said third storage unit is further operable to memorize a template image, which is an image defining a characteristic of a specific target object,

said resolution weight map creation rule defines, according to a ratio of time for a specific target object to exist at a discretional location, a rule for deciding resolution weight at the location, and

said processing unit is operable to decide existence of a target object similar to the template image memorized in said third storage unit for the image shot by said camera, to specify the ratio of time decided for the specific target object to exist at the discretional location, and to create the resolution weight map that regards the resolution weight corresponding to a specific ratio as the resolution weight at the location.

11. The monitoring system according to claim 1,

wherein said processing unit includes:

a shooting area deciding unit operable to specify a location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal;

a resolution weight deciding unit operable to specify resolution weight equivalent to importance corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said shooting area deciding unit;

a communication unit operable to transmit the location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said shooting area deciding unit and the resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said resolution weight deciding unit to the other camera terminal via said communication interface, and control said communication interface to receive locations of the shooting area of the other camera terminal from the other camera terminal and the resolution weight equivalent to importance corresponding to the shooting area via said communication interface;

an adjacent area deciding unit operable to specify an shooting area, which is adjacent to the shooting area of said self camera terminal, based on the location of the shooting area of the other camera terminal received by said communication interface and the location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said shooting area deciding unit;

a resolution adjusting unit operable, in the case where weighted resolution is defined as a degree in which resolution of a highly important shooting area becomes high and resolution of a less important shooting area becomes low, to adjust resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by controlling size of the shooting area of said camera via said camera controlling unit to reduce a difference between the weighted resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the weighted resolution of the shooting area of the other camera terminal specified by said adjacent area deciding unit, based on the location of the shooting area of the other camera terminal received via the said communication interface, the resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area, and resolution weight corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said resolution weight deciding unit; and

a shooting area adjusting unit operable to adjust the location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by adjusting the location of the shooting area of said camera via said camera controlling unit to have the specified location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the specified shooting location be adjacent, based on the location of the shooting area of said self camera terminal specified by said shooting area deciding unit and the shooting area specified by said adjacent area deciding unit.

12. A monitoring method of monitoring an area subject to monitoring using plural camera terminals, comprising

at a step of, in the case where weighted resolution is defined as a degree in which resolution of a highly important shooting area becomes high and resolution of a less important shooting area becomes low, adjusting resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by controlling said camera via said camera controlling unit to reduce a difference between the weighted resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the weighted resolution of the shooting area of the other camera terminal in each of the plurality of camera terminals, based on information related to a shooting area of the other camera terminal obtained through communication with the other camera terminal.

14. A program causing a computer to execute steps included in the monitoring method according to claim 12,

wherein the program is for a camera terminal in a monitoring system that monitors an area subject to monitoring using the plurality of said camera terminals.

13. A camera terminal having a shooting area adjustment function, said camera terminal comprising:

a camera controlling unit operable to control adjustment for the shooting area;

a communication interface for communicating with an other camera terminal; and

a processing unit operable, in the case weighted resolution is set for a degree that resolution of a highly important shooting area becomes high and resolution of a less important shooting area becomes low based on information related to a shooting area of the other camera terminal obtained through said communication interface, to adjust resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by controlling said camera via said camera controlling unit to reduce a difference between the weighted resolution of the shooting area of a self camera terminal the weighted resolution of the shooting area of the other camera terminal.