MONITORING SYSTEMS AND CONTROL METHODS THEREOF

• US 20090295919A1
• Filed: 11/05/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Asia Optical Company Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Asia Optical Company Incorporated
• Inventors: Chen, Yen-Chao, Wang, Jung-Ching, Lee, Shish-Ming, Yang, Hsih-Hsien
• Application Number:
  US12/264,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20090295919A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A monitoring system with two detectors arranged on left and right sides of a camera thereof. The two detectors divide the area around the monitoring system into a non-detectable region, an overlapped detecting region, and first and second non-overlapped detecting regions. According to the detection result of the detectors, the control unit wakes up from a sleep mode when an object leaves the non-detectable region and enters the first or second non-overlapped detecting region. Meanwhile, the control unit turns on the camera to start shooting when the object has further entered the overlapped detecting region.

Claims

1. A monitoring system, comprising

a camera;

first and second detectors, arranged on left and right sides of the camera to demarcate a non-detectable region, an overlapped detecting region, a first non-overlapped detecting region and a second non-overlapped detecting region, wherein the overlapped detecting region is detected by both the first and second detectors, the first non-overlapped detecting region is detected by the first detector, and the second non-overlapped detecting region is detected by the second detector; and

a control unit, coupled to the first and second detectors and the camera, waking up from a sleep mode when the first or second detector detects that an object has entered the first or second non-overlapped detecting region from the non-detectable region, and controlling the camera to start shooting when the first and second detectors detect that an object has entered the overlapped detecting region.

2. The monitoring system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit further rotates the first and second detectors according to a user command.

3. The monitoring system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a sound sensor and a sound recorder that are coupled to the control unit.

4. The monitoring system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the control unit controls the sound recorder to start recording sound when the sound sensor detects a sound louder than a volume threshold.

5. The monitoring system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the control unit controls the sound recorder to start recording sound when the sound sensor detects a sound louder than a volume threshold and the camera is not shooting.

6. The monitoring system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and second detectors are passive infrared detectors.

7. A method controlling a monitoring system, comprising:

arranging first and second detectors on two sides of a camera of the monitoring system, wherein the first and second detectors are coupled to a control unit controlling the camera, the first detector is operable to output a first signal to the control unit when detecting an specific object, and the second detector is operable to output a second signal to the control unit when detecting the specific object;

waking up the control unit from a sleep mode to an active mode when the control unit receives the first or second signal; and

switching the control unit from the active mode to a shooting mode to control the camera to start shooting when the control unit receives both the first and second signals.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, further providing a sound detector and a sound recorder

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, further starting recording of sound of the sound recorder when the sound detector detects a sound louder than a volume threshold.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, further starting recording of sound of the sound recorder when the sound detector detects a sound louder than a volume threshold and the camera is not shooting.

11. A method controlling a monitoring system, comprising:

arranging first and second detectors on left and right sides of a camera of the monitoring system, and initializing first and second flags at a disabled state;

waking up a control unit of the camera from a sleep mode to an active mode and switching the first flag to an enabled state when the first detector detects a specific object;

waking up the control unit from the sleep mode to the active mode and switching the second flag to the enabled state when the second detector detects the specific object;

switching the control unit from the active mode to a shooting mode to control the camera to start shooting when the first detector detects the specific object and the second flag is in the enabled state; and

switching the control unit from the active mode to the shooting mode to control the camera to start shooting when the second detector detects the specific object and the first flag is in the enabled state.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further resetting the first and second flags to the disabled state after the camera starting shooting.