Video surveillance system

• US 6,757,008 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2000
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tek84 Engineering Group, LLC (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tek84 Engineering Group, LLC (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Steven W.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHILIPPE, GIMS S
• Application Number:
  US09/669,692
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143, 348/144, 348/145, 348/146, 348/153, 348/157, 348/169, 348/166, 348/201, 348/202, 382/103, 280/236, 356/612
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/00 Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• 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

A linescan camera is used in conjunction with a mechanical scanning mechanism to acquire high-resolution images of an area under video surveillance. The video signal from the linescan camera is converted into a digital data stream, compressed, and stored in a digital memory. Under control of an operator, full-field images are selectively recalled from the digital memory and converted to a lower resolution for display on a monitor. The operator selects a region-of-interest from the full-field display through the use of a computer pointing device, such as a mouse. The selected area is then displayed on the monitor in its full acquired resolution, thereby allowing the operator to view high-resolution images of a large area under surveillance.

Claims

1. A high-resolution video surveillance system, comprising:

a linescan camera, said linescan camera comprising an linear array sensor producing an analog video signal representative of a viewed line in a monitored region;

a scanner for sweeping said viewed line across said monitored region in a direction substantially perpendicular to said viewed line, said scanner operating with a mechanical motion;

an analog-to-digital converter for converting said analog video signal into a first digital video signal;

a digital data compressor for converting said first digital video signal into a compressed digital video signal;

a digital memory for holding said compressed digital video signal;

a digital data uncompressor for converting said compressed digital video signal into an uncompressed digital video signal, wherein said uncompressed digital video signal is substantially similar to said first digital video signal;

a video display for presenting images to a human operator, said video display having a spatial resolution substantially lower than said uncompressed digital video signal;

an operator interface whereby said human operator can select a subset of said uncompressed digital video signal; and

a video display control for routing said subset of said uncompressed digital video signal to said video display.

2. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the linescan camera and the analog-to-digital converter are a digital linescan camera.

3. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the linescan camera operates in a time delay integration mode.

4. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the linescan camera operates in a time delay integration mode.

5. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the scanner comprises a movable mirror.

6. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the scanner comprises a movable mirror.

7. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the scanner comprises a mirror mounted on a galvanometer servo.

8. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the scanner comprises a mirror mounted on a galvanometer servo.

9. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the scanner comprises a mirror mounted on a galvanometer servo.

10. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the scanner comprises a mirror moved in a back-and-forth motion by a rotating cam.

11. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the scanner comprises a rotating polygon mirror.

12. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the linescan camera further comprises a camera lens, and the scanner provides a relative linear motion between the linear array sensor and said camera lens.

13. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the scanner comprises a rotational servo, said rotational servo rotating the linescan camera.

14. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital data compressor reduces the correlation from image-to-image.

15. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital data compressor comprises an MPEG algorithm.

16. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital memory is a computer hard drive.

17. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital memory comprises a removable digital storage media.

18. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the video display, the operator interface and the video display control are a personal computer.

19. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operator interface comprises a computer mouse.

20. A high-resolution video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spatial scaling between the first digital video signal and the monitored region is greater than 40 pixels per foot.

21. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording, comprising the steps of:

operating a linescan camera to view a vertical line in an area under surveillance;

horizontally scanning said vertical line over said area under surveillance to produce a video signal, said video signal comprising a temporal sequence of full-field images, said horizontally scanning comprising a mechanical motion;

converting said video signal into a digital data stream;

compressing said digital data stream to a substantially lower data rate;

storing said digital data stream in a digital memory;

recalling from said digital memory one of the full-field images;

converting the recalled full-field image to a lower spatial resolution;

displaying the lower resolution full-field image;

selecting a region of the displayed full-field image;

displaying the selected region in a zoom display wherein the full information contained in the selected region is presented to a human operator.

22. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the video signal is converted into the digital data stream synchronously with the readout of the linescan camera.

23. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the linescan camera operates in a time delay integration mode.

24. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the step of horizontally scanning further comprises rotating a mirror.

25. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the step of horizontally scanning further comprises rotating the linescan camera.

26. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, comprising the further step of adjusting the horizontal scanning to substantially match the width of the monitored region.

27. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the compression of the digital data stream comprises reducing the redundancy of information between the full-field images.

28. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the compression of the digital data stream comprises an MPEG algorithm.

29. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the steps of displaying the lower resolution full-field image, selecting a region of the displayed full-field image, and displaying the selected region are carried out on a personal computer.

30. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the step of selecting a region comprises using a computer pointing device to position a cursor on the displayed lower resolution full-field image.

31. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the selected region represents the face of a person.

32. A method for inspecting subregions in a surveillance video recording as claimed in claim 21, wherein the full-field images have a large aspect ratio.

33. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance, comprising:

linescan camera means for producing an analog video signal of a viewed line in a monitored region;

scanning means for sweeping said viewed line across said monitored region in a direction substantially perpendicular to said viewed line, said scanning means operating with a mechanical motion;

analog-to-digital conversion means for converting said analog video signal into a digital video signal, said digital video signal having a data rate, said digital video signal having an image size that is expressible as a number of pixels along the horizontal dimension;

compression means for reducing said data rate;

digital memory means for storing said digital video signal;

uncompression means for substantially restoring said digital video signal to its precompression form;

display means for presenting images to a human operator, said display means having a display size that is expressible as a number of pixels along the horizontal dimension, said display size being substantially smaller than said image size;

operator interface means whereby said human operator can select a region of said digital video signal, said region having a region size that is expressible as a number of pixels along the horizontal dimension, said region size being substantially equal to said display size;

display control means for routing said region to said display means.

34. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the linescan camera means and the analog-to-digital conversion means are a digital linescan camera.

35. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the linescan camera means operates in a time delay integration mode.

36. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 34, wherein the linescan camera means operates in a time delay integration mode.

37. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the scanning means comprises a movable mirror.

38. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the scanning means comprises a movable mirror mounted on a galvanometer servo.

39. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the display means, the operator interface means, and the display control means are a personal computer.

40. An apparatus for displaying a subregion of an area being monitored by video surveillance as claimed in claim 33, wherein the linescan camera means operates in the visible portion of the optical spectrum.