SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ASSOCIATING VIDEO CAMERAS WITH RESPECTIVE VIDEO SERVERS

• US 20110149080A1
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Jain, Abhishek, Sharma, Ravi
• Application Number:
  US12/643,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20110149080A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/159
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A regional video monitoring system includes a plurality of video surveillance cameras as well as a plurality of video servers. The cameras and servers are linked by an interface which can automatically allocate one or more cameras among one or more servers. The interface can respond to a server failure and reallocate the cameras among remaining operable servers.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of view cameras;

a plurality of video servers; and

an interface coupled to the cameras and the servers, the interface maintaining a records of cameras that need service, and a record of available servers, the interface including circuitry automatically associates a camera with an available server.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 which includes circuitry to determine if yet another camera needs service.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2 which includes a plurality of switches to selectively couple video camera output signals to a selected video server.

4. An apparatus as in claim 3 where the plurality of switches is configured as an m×

n matrix switch where m corresponds to the number of cameras and n the number of servers.

5. An apparatus as in claim 4 where the interface includes a programmable processor coupled to the video cameras and the video servers.

6. An apparatus as in claim 5 which includes a computer readable storage medium, coupled to the processor, which carries a plurality of executable instructions to automatically carry out a camera allocation process.

7. An apparatus as in claim 5 where the processor maintains a list of cameras in need of service on the storage medium and a list of available video servers.

8. An apparatus as in claim 7 where the processor, responsive to sensing a failed server, automatically reallocates cameras among the remaining available servers.

9. An apparatus as in claim 8 wherein indicia of additional cameras can be added to the list of cameras, and responsive thereto, the processor will automatically allocated the additional cameras among the available servers.

10. A method comprising:

establishing at least one list of available cameras;

establishing at least one list of available video servers;

selecting a camera from the list;

selecting a server from the list and determining if the server is available to services the selected camera, and, responsive to determining, and

switching the camera'"'"'s output to the selected server.

11. A method as in claim 10, where if the server can not service the selected camera, selecting another server.

12. A method as in claim 10 where switching includes establishing a transmission path between the selected camera and the selected server.

13. A method as in claim 10 which includes providing an m×

n switch having m inputs and n outputs.

14. A method as in claim 10 which includes continually associated cameras with servers until all cameras are being serviced.

15. A method as in claim 10 which includes assigning a selected number of cameras to a common server.

16. A method as in claim 10 which includes detecting a server failure and responsive thereto, automatically switching the associated cameras to at least one other server.

17. A method as in claim 10 where the cameras are associated with a different server by establishing a different transmission path.

18. An interface comprising:

a plurality of camera signal input ports;

a plurality of video server output ports; and

control circuits, responsive to at least camera related signals, to automatically allocate input ports to output ports.

19. An interface as in claim 18 which includes a multi-port switch coupling input ports to output ports.

20. An interface as in claim 19 where the switch comprises a multi-input, multi-output matrix switch and where the control circuits include a graphical user interface with a display device, and a manually operable user input device, along with executable control software, to enable a user to add an additional camera as well as to remove a camera from the system.