Time lapse recording/reproducing device that provides for both continuous recording and intermittent recording simultaneously

• US 6,606,448 B1
• Filed: 06/25/1999
• Issued: 08/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Terauchi, Ikuo
• Primary Examiner(s): BOCCIO, VINCENT F
• Application Number:
  US09/331,714
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.591, 386/46, 386/125, 386/124, 386/109, 386/1, 386/33, 386/45, 360/5, 348/152, 348/153, 348/154, 348/155
• US Class Current: 386/211
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/503 involving temporal prediction adaptive coding with adaptive selection between spatial and temporal predictive coding H04N19/107; adaptive coding with adaptive selection among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes H04N19/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding

Abstract

With a time lapse recording/reproducing device for applying time lapse recording/reproducing processing to a video image signal gained through a video surveillance system and the like, a recording control unit (14) performs controlling by giving directions so that a signal obtained by applying picture compression processing to an inputted video signal in a picture compression/expansion circuit (11) provided with a means for intra, frame picture compression/expansion processing is recorded on rigid platters of a hard disk driver (12) as a moving picture and at the same time the foregoing signal is recorded intermittently on an optical disk of an optical disk driver (13), and, when an alarm signal is inputted, the foregoing signal is recorded on the rigid platters for a predetermined period of time as a moving picture and then has the recording operation ended, thus realizing a time lapse recording/reproducing device, whereby recorded moving pictures of the scenes just before and after the time when an alarm signal is inputted and also intermittently recorded pictures covering a long period can be obtained.

Claims

1. A recording/reproducing device for time lapse recording/reproducing a video signal comprising:

an input/output circuit for inputting/outputting a video signal;

a picture compression/expansion unit connected to said input/output circuit and provided with a means for intra-frame picture compressing/expanding a video signal inputted through said input/output circuit;

a first recording/reproducing unit provided with a disk like record medium that is connected to said picture compression/expansion unit;

a second recording/reproducing unit connected to said picture compression/expansion unit and provided with a record medium that has the capability of recording for a longer period than the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit;

a recording control unit to give directions and perform controlling so that a signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit is recorded as a moving picture on the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit and at the same time recorded intermittently on the record medium of said second recording/reproducing unit; and

an alarm signal generating means for feeding an alarm signal to said recording control unit, wherein said recording control unit has the recording operation of the first recording/reproducing unit terminated after a signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit has been recorded on the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit from the time, when an alarm signal from said alarm signal generating means was received, till a certain predetermined time.

3. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein said picture compression/expansion unit is a picture compression/expansion unit of JPEG system.

4. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein said picture compression/expansion unit is a picture compression/expansion unit of MPEG system.

7. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or the recording device according to claim 2, wherein said first recording/reproducing unit is a hard disk drive with rigid platters serving as a record medium.

8. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or the recording device according to claim 2, wherein said second recording/reproducing unit is an optical disk drive with an optical disk serving as a record medium.

9. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or the recording device according to claim 2, wherein said second recording/reproducing unit is a video tape player with a video tape serving as a record medium.

10. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or claim 3, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that a one frame portion of the signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every periodicity or every time interval corresponding to an integral multiple of the periodicity of the frame synchronization signal fed to said recording control unit.

12. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or claim 3, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that the number of arrivals of the frame synchronization signal fed to said recording control unit is counted and a one frame portion of the signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every predetermined number of the arrival count.

14. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or claim 4, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that, according to the timing information, whereby the I frame is outputted from said picture compression/expansion unit of MPEG system to said recording control unit, the signal of I frame out of the signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit of MPEG system to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every periodicity or for every time interval corresponding to an integral multiple of the periodicity, with which the signal of I frame is arranged.

16. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1 or claim 4, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that, according to the timing information, whereby an I frame is outputted from said picture compression/expansion unit of MPEG system to said recording control unit, the number of arrivals of the I frame out of the signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit of MPEG system to said second recording/reproducing unit and the I frame signal is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every predetermined number of the arrival count.

18. The recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein said recording control unit performs controlling by giving directions so that a signal fed from said picture compression/expansion unit is recorded on the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit from the time, when said alarm signal is received, to the time, when said predetermined time reaches one half of the maximum allowable recording time of said first recording/reproducing unit and then the recording operation is ended.

2. A recording device for time lapse recording a video signal comprising:

an input circuit for inputting a video signal;

a picture compression unit connected to said input circuit and provided with a means for intra-frame picture compressing a video signal inputted through said input circuit;

a first recording/reproducing unit provided with a disk like record medium that is connected to said picture compression unit;

a second recording/reproducing unit connected to said picture compression unit and provided with a record medium that has the capability of recording for a longer period than the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit;

a recording control unit to give directions and perform controlling so that a signal fed from said picture compression unit is recorded as a moving picture on the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit and at the same time recorded Intermittently on the record medium of said second recording/reproducing unit; and

an alarm signal generating means for feeding an alarm signal to said recording control unit, wherein said recording control unit has the recording operation of the first recording/reproducing unit terminated after a signal fed from said picture compression unit has been recorded on a record medium of said first recording unit from the time, when an alarm signal from said alarm signal generating means was received, till a certain predetermined time.

5. The recording device according to claim 2, wherein said picture compression unit is a picture compression unit of JPEG system.

6. The recording device according to claim 2, wherein said picture compression unit is a picture compression unit of MPEG system .

11. The recording device according to claim 2 or claim 5, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and perform controlling so that a one frame portion of the signal fed from said picture compression unit to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every periodicity or every time interval corresponding to an integral multiple of the periodicity of the frame synchronization signal fed to said recording control unit.

13. The recording device according to claim 2 or claim 5, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that the number of arrivals of the frame synchronization signal fed to said recording control unit is counted and a one frame portion of the signal fed from said picture compression unit to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every predetermined number of the arrival count.

15. The recording device according to claim 2 or claim 6, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that, according to the timing information, whereby the I frame is outputted from said picture compression unit of MPEG system to said recording control unit, the signal of I frame out of the signal fed from said picture compression unit of MPEG system to said second recording/reproducing unit is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every periodicity or for every time interval corresponding to an integral multiple of the periodicity, with which the signal of I frame is arranged.

17. The recording device according to claim 2 or claim 6, wherein said recording control unit gives directions and performs controlling so that, according to the timing information, whereby an I frame is outputted from said picture compression unit of MPEG system to said recording control unit, the number of arrivals of the I frame out of the signal fed from said picture compression unit of MPEG system to said second recording/reproducing unit and the I frame signal is recorded on the record medium of the second recording/reproducing unit for every predetermined number of the arrival count.

19. The recording device according to claim 2, wherein said recording control unit performs controlling by giving directions so that a signal fed from said picture compression unit is recorded on the record medium of said first recording/reproducing unit from the time, when said alarm signal is received, to the time, when said predetermined time reaches one half of the maximum allowable recording time of said first recording/reproducing unit and then the recording operation is ended.