Network surveillance unit

• US 6,747,554 B1
• Filed: 01/20/2000
• Issued: 06/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Security Video Camera Systems Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hamada, Junichi, Nakamura, Manabu, Higashimura, Mamoru, Misawa, Motohiro
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US09/487,800
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 340/506, 340/531, 340/534, 340/571, 340/573.1, 340/516, 340/517, 340/540, 340/541, 348/143, 348/153, 348/154, 348/156, 382/100, 382/115, 345/418, 345/719
• US Class Current: 340/506
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19656 Network used to communicate with a camera, e.g. WAN, LAN, Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19676 Temporary storage, e.g. cyclic memory, buffer storage on pre-alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

In a network surveillance unit, a video input unit inputs image information output from a video output device such as a camera or a switcher. A coded image storage unit codes and accumulates the image information. An alarm management unit detects the presence or absence of alarm generation from an alarm generating device, and stores the alarm information. A communication unit receives a request from a display terminal through a network, and transmits the coded image accumulated in the coded image storage unit or the alarm information accumulated in the alarm management unit according to the request.

Claims

1. A network surveillance unit comprising:

an image input unit for being supplied with image information output from a video output device;

a coded image storage unit for coding and accumulating the image information;

an alarm management unit for detecting presence or absence of alarm generation from an alarm generating device, for storing alarm information, and for instructing the coded image storage unit to store an alarm image upon generation;

a communication unit for receiving a request from a display terminal through a network, and for transmitting a coded image accumulated in the coded image storage unit or the alarm information accumulated in the alarm management unit according to the request.

2. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, characterized by comprising an image input switching unit connected to a plurality of video output devices and capable of switching to an arbitrary channel.

3. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 2, comprising:

another communication unit for receiving a control instruction for a camera or a video output device from a terminal through the network;

a camera control unit for interpreting the other communication unit, and for converting the other communication unit to a control instruction specific to the camera or the video output device;

a coaxial multiplexing unit for multiplexing a control instruction output from the camera control unit on a coaxial cable and a video input from the camera or the video output device on the coaxial cable to perform input/output operation on the same coaxial cable; and

a coaxial input/output switching unit for switching the control instruction output from the camera control unit and the video input by switching the connection of the coaxial cable for a plurality of channels.

4. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 2, comprising:

a coaxial multiplexing unit for demultiplexing an alarm input and an image input which are multiplexed and transmitted from a camera or a video output device through a coaxial cable, a video signal being sent to the image input unit, and an alarm signal being sent to the alarm management unit; and

a coaxial input/output switching unit for switching both the alarm input and the image input by switching a connection of a plurality of coaxial channels.

5. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 2, comprising:

a coded image storage unit including an image storage unit corresponding to each of a plurality of image input channels;

a period interlocked switching unit for instructing the corresponding channel to be switched periodically and sequentially each time a frame of image is input to the image input unit and the coded image storage unit; and

a communication unit for acquiring an image of a channel designated by the display terminal from the image storage unit in the coded image storage unit, and for transmitting it to the network.

6. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 2, comprising:

an environment information storage unit for setting an operating environment of the network surveillance unit;

an HTML file storage unit for storing an HTML environment information for constructing a display terminal screen;

an environment information HTML conversion unit for converting a specific character string in the HTML file into a setting of the operating environment; and

an HTTP server unit for interpreting a request for the HTML file, and for transmitting the converted HTML file.

7. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising a terminal-wise display format conversion unit for shaping the image information and the alarm information into a display format for browsing means (browser) on a personal computer.

8. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising a terminal-wis display format conversion unit for shaping the image information and the alarm information into a display format for a world wide web browser adapted to be built in a television or a portable terminal connectable to an internet.

9. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, comprising:

a plurality of image input units; and

a multi-screen image synthesis unit for synthesizing the image information from the plurality of image input units into single image information.

10. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising:

an alarm management unit for instructing the coded image storage unit to store the alarm image upon alarm generation; and

an alarm image storage unit for storing one image stored in the coded image storage unit as an alarm image in compliance with an instruction from the alarm management unit.

11. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising:

an alarm management unit for instructing the coded image storage unit to store the alarm image upon alarm generation; and

an alarm image storage unit for storing a plurality of images stored in the coded image storage unit as a series of alarm images after receipt of an instruction from the alarm management unit.

12. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 11, comprising:

an alarm number management and storage unit for storing two or more of information including a number, a storage time and a frame rate of the alarm images stored in the alarm image storage unit, wherein the coded image storage unit stores the alarm image in accordance with the information in the alarm number management and storage unit upon alarm generation.

13. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 10 or 11, wherein the coded image storage unit uses image storage means for always storing a past to the latest images to store, upon alarm generation, the past image as the alarm image before the alarm generation.

14. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 13, wherein the coded image storage unit uses image storage means for always storing past to latest images and to store, upon alarm generation, the past image as the alarm image before the alarm generation, and the coded image storage unit includes an alarm number management and storage unit for storing two or more of information including a number, a storage time and a frame rate of alarm images before alarm generation stored in the alarm image storage unit, and the coded image storage unit stores the alarm image in accordance with the information in the alarm number management and storage unit upon alarm generation.

15. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 11, wherein in a case where a second alarm is generated while an image of a first alarm is stored, the alarm management unit instructs the coded image unit to suspend an accumulation of the image of the first alarm and to store an image of the second alarm.

16. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 11, wherein in a case where a second alarm is generated while an image of a first alarm is stored, the alarm management unit instructs the coded image unit to store only generation information of the second alarm but not to store an image of the second alarm.

17. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 12 or 14, comprising:

an apparatus environment information storage unit for storing a list of an image data occupancy rate due to a storage capacity of the alarm image storage unit and a size and quality of the image information; and

an alarm number management and storage unit for calculating a maximum number of alarm images stored in the alarm image storage unit in setting a current environment of the network surveillance unit based on information of the apparatus environment information storage unit, and for limiting the number of the stored alarm images to the maximum number of stored alarm images.

18. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 10, further comprising an alarm image reproduction control unit for controlling a reproduction of the alarm image by extracting an image transmitted from a series of alarm images accumulated in the alarm image storage unit in accordance with a receiving interval of the requests for the latest image transmitted from the display terminal, wherein the alarm image is displayed in real time on the display terminal.

19. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 10, further comprising an alarm image reproduction control unit for controlling a special reproduction of an alarm image by extracting an image transmitted from a series of alarm images accumulated in the alarm image storage unit in accordance with a request command received by communication with the display terminal and a receiving interval of the request command, wherein the special reproduction such as a rapid feed, a rewind, a frame skip and slow reproduction are effected on the display terminal.

20. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, 2 or 10, comprising:

a communication unit for receiving a request for an alarm list from the display terminal;

an alarm hypertext mark up language conversion unit for producing an alarm information list of hypertext mark up language format based on the alarm information and the alarm images and log information of the alarm management unit; and

a hypertext transfer protocol server unit for interpreting the request for the alarm image list and transmitting the alarm list.

21. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 20, wherein the alarm HTML conversion unit converts a specific character string in an HTML file into an alarm number and an alarm image number designated by a terminal.

22. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 21, wherein the alarm HTML conversion unit converts a specific character string in the HTML file into the number of an image immediately following the alarm image number designated by the terminal, the number of an image immediately preceding to the alarm image number designated by the terminal, the first image number and the last image number of the alarm designated by the terminal, and the image number immediately after alarm generation.

23. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, 2 or 10, comprising:

an alarm management unit for instructing the communication unit to transmit the alarm information upon alarm generation;

an alarm message production unit for producing an alarm message of a format in which the alarm information conforms with the browsing means of the terminal; and

a communication unit for transmitting the alarm message according to a request of the alarm management unit.

24. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, 2 or 10, comprising:

an alarm management unit for instructing the communication unit to transmit the alarm information upon alarm generation;

an alarm mail production unit for producing an internet mail including the alarm information; and

another communication unit for transmitting the mail according to a request of the alarm management unit.

25. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising:

an image input unit for adding a different identifier for each image frame at the time of image input; and

an image identifier generating unit for generating the identifier, wherein the image input unit adds a different identifier for each image frame at a time of image input.

26. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 25, comprising another communication unit for transmitting a latest image stored in the coded image storage unit to the network in a case where the identifier of the latest image at a time of image transmission is different from the identifier of the image at a previous time of transmission, and for storing in the coded image storage unit the latest image whose identifier is different from a previously transmitted image and then transmitting the same latest image to the network in the case where the two identifiers are the same.

27. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 25, comprising another communication unit for transmitting to the network a latest image stored in the coded image storage unit in a case where the identifier of the latest image at a time of image transmission is different from the identifier of the image at a previous time of transmission, and for transmitting to the network information that the latest image is not existent in a case where the two identifiers are the same.

28. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, comprising:

another communication unit for receiving a control instruction for a camera or a video output device from a terminal through the network;

a camera control unit for interpreting the other communication unit, and for converting the other communication unit to a control instruction specific to the camera or the video output device; and

a coaxial multiplexing unit for multiplexing a control instruction output from the camera control unit on a coaxial cable and a video input from the camera or the video output device on the coaxial cable to perform input/output operation on the same coaxial cable.

29. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 28 or 3, wherein the alarm management unit sends a switching instruction of a coaxial channel to the coaxial input/output switching unit and a camera controlling instruction to the camera control unit in accordance with a setting registered in advance upon alarm generation.

30. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1, comprising a coaxial multiplexing unit for demultiplexing an alarm input and an image input which are multiplexed and transmitted from a camera or a video output device through a coaxial cable, a video signal being sent to the image input unit, and an alarm signal being sent to the alarm management unit.

31. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 30 or 4, comprising a coaxial multiplexing unit for multiplexing or demultiplexing the alarm input and the image input which are multiplexed and transmitted from the camera or the video output device through the coaxial cable, and wherein a control signal applied to the camera or the video output device is also multiplexed on the coaxial cable.

32. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 31 wherein the alarm management unit sends a switching instruction of the coaxial channels to the coaxial input/output switching unit and sends a camera controlling instruction to a camera control unit in accordance with a setting registered in advance upon alarm generation from the camera or the video output device.

33. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising a coaxial multiplexing unit for multiplexing a video input from a camera or a video output device on a coaxial cable with a power supplied from a power supply in the network surveillance unit to the camera or the video output device to perform input/output operation on the coaxial cable.

34. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, wherein said alarm management unit sends an external control instruction to an external equipment control unit in accordance with a setting registered in advance upon alarm generation;

and said network surveillance unit further comprises an external equipment control unit for converting the external control instruction to an instruction specific to external equipment to be controlled, and for sending the instruction to the external equipment.

35. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising a display lamp for displaying a connection state to the network, a transmission state, a reception state and an operation mode on a front surface of a housing.

36. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, comprising a first interface with a personal computer for setting an operating environment on front and back surfaces of a housing or updating a software in the surveillance unit.

37. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 36, comprising:

second interface for a personal computer, the first and second interfaces on the front and back surfaces of the housing, respectively; and

a switch for switching the first and second interfaces on the front and back surfaces of the housing.

38. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 1 or 2, further comprising a housing including means for inputting an image from a camera or a video output device and loop-through output means for directly outputting the image.

39. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 28 or 34, comprising:

a camera control unit for transmitting a control instruction to a camera or a video output device;

a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) server unit for decomposing a composite operating instruction from the display terminal into a chain of basic control instructions for the camera control unit, and for sending the instructions to the camera control unit, wherein the camera control unit transmits the basic control instructions to the camera or the video output device sequentially.

40. A network surveillance unit in accordance with claim 39, comprising:

a camera control unit for transmitting a control instruction to a camera or a video output device; and

a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) server unit for decomposing a composite operating instruction from the display terminal into a chain of basic control instructions and inter-instruction time intervals for the camera control unit, and for sending the chain of basic control instructions to the camera control unit, wherein;

the camera control unit transmits the basic control instructions to the camera or the video output device sequentially in accordance with the inter-instruction time intervals.