MONITORING CAMERA SYSTEM, MONITORING CAMERA, AND MONITORING CAMERACONTROL APPARATUS

• US 20100303296A1
• Filed: 05/27/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hattori, Hideaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/15 by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

A system includes a plurality of image capturing units configured to capture an object image to generate video data, a video coding unit configured to code each of the generated video data, a measurement unit configured to measure a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from each of the generated video data, and a control unit configured to control the video coding unit to code each of the video data based on the measured recognition degree.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of capturing units configured to capture an object image to generate video data;

a coding unit configured to code each of the generated video data;

a measurement unit configured to measure a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from each of the generated video data; and

a control unit configured to control the coding unit based on the measured recognition degree.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation unit configured to calculate an image quality evaluation value representing the image quality of each of the coded video data,

wherein the control unit controls the coding unit so that the video data having a highest recognition degree out of the generated video data has a bit rate corresponding to the calculated image quality evaluation value, while the other video data has a bit rate corresponding to the measured recognition degree.

3. The system according to claim 2, further comprising a determination unit configured to determine a reference image quality evaluation value representing a target image quality of the video data having the highest recognition degree,

wherein the control unit controls the coding unit so that the video data having the highest recognition degree has a bit rate corresponding to the determined reference image quality evaluation value.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recognition degree includes a face recognition degree.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the measurement unit measures the face recognition degree based on the degree of a face facing a front and a size of a face area.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the measurement unit measures the recognition degree based on a size of an area where the object moves.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the measurement unit measures the recognition degree by calculating the size of the area where the object moves using information relating to motion detection.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a bit rate by the coding unit by determining a quantization parameter in the coding unit.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a storage unit configured to record the multiplexed video data.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the multiplexed video data.

11. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to record each of the generated video data;

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the multiplexed video data onto a network,

wherein the video coding unit codes each of the recorded video data, and

wherein the measurement unit measures the recognition degree from each of the recorded video data.

12. A monitoring camera for capturing an object image together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter relating to coding from the control apparatus, the monitoring camera comprising:

a capturing unit configured to capture the object image to generate the video data,

a coding unit configured to code the generated video data;

a measurement unit configured to measure a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from the generated video data; and

a sending unit configured to send information relating to the measured recognition degree to the control apparatus,

wherein the video coding unit performs coding using the determined parameter based on the measured recognition degree and a recognition degree from video data captured by the other monitoring camera.

13. A control apparatus for receiving each of video data generated by capturing an object image by a plurality of monitoring cameras, the control apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a recognition degree representing the feature of the object in each of the video data;

a determination unit configured to determine parameters for performing coding, respectively, in the plurality of monitoring cameras based on the information relating to the acquired recognition degree; and

a sending unit configured to send the determined parameters, respectively, to the plurality of monitoring cameras.

14. A method comprising:

capturing an object image to generate video data;

coding each of the generated video data;

measuring a recognition degree representing the feature of the object from each of the generated video data; and

performing control to code each of the video data based on the measured recognition degree.

15. A method for controlling a monitoring camera for capturing an object image together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter relating to coding from the control apparatus, the method comprising:

capturing the object image to generate the video data;

coding the generated video data;

measuring a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from the generated video data; and

sending information relating to the measured recognition degree to the control apparatus,

wherein performing the coding using the determined parameter based on the measured recognition degree and a recognition degree from video data captured by the other monitoring camera.

16. A method for controlling a control apparatus for receiving each of video data generated by capturing an object image in a plurality of monitoring cameras, the method comprising:

acquiring information relating to a recognition degree representing a feature of the object in each of the video data;

determining a parameter for performing coding in each of the plurality of monitoring cameras based on the acquired information relating to the recognition degree; and

sending the determined parameter to each of the plurality of monitoring cameras.

17. A computer-readable recording medium storing a computer-executable program to implement a method for controlling a monitoring camera for capturing an object together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter relating to coding from the control apparatus, the method comprising:

capturing the object image to generate the video data;

coding the generated video data;

measuring a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from the generated video data; and

sending information relating to the measured recognition degree to the control apparatus,

wherein performing the coding using the parameter determined in the control apparatus based on the measured recognition degree and a recognition degree from video data captured by the other monitoring camera.

18. A computer-readable recording medium storing a computer-executable program to implement a method for controlling a control apparatus for receiving each of video data generated by capturing an object image in a plurality of monitoring cameras, the method comprising:

acquiring information relating to a recognition degree representing a feature of the object in each of the video data;

determining a parameter for performing coding in each of the plurality of monitoring cameras based on the acquired information relating to the recognition degree; and

sending the determined parameter to each of the plurality of monitoring cameras.