Security camera system

• US 7,289,563 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2003
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakamura, Taku, Yamamoto, Naoki, Imaide, Takuya, Ohtsubo, Hiroyasu
• Primary Examiner(s): DIEP, NHON THANH
• Application Number:
  US10/607,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20040145657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,586 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 375/240.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A security camera system having one or more monitoring cameras, each of which transmits a digital video signal after compressing/encoding, are connected to a controller via a network. In the controller, a media control section stores the video signal supplied from the monitoring cameras in a storage medium and reads out the video signal as needed. Image processing for privacy protection is carried out to the real-time video signal supplied from the monitoring camera and the video signal read out from the storage medium. The level of the image processing for privacy protection is switched depending on the authority of a user who views the video image. Further, even for the same user authority, the image processing level for privacy protection is switched and adjusted depending on the size of the object in the video image.

Claims

1. A security camera system comprising:

an image pickup module which picks up an image, generates a video signal, and outputs the video signal;

a record module which records the video signal on a record medium;

an image recognition module which detects a specific image from the video signal outputted by the image pickup module or the video signal read out from the record module;

a user recognition module which recognizes a plurality of different users and identifies a user who is watching an image generated from the video signal and outputs user information concerning said user who is watching said image, wherein said user can change depending on a situation;

a processing module which receives the video signal outputted by the image pickup module or the video signal read out from the record module, and processes a part of the received video signal corresponding to the image detected by the image recognition module according to the user information, and outputs the processed video signal;

a display module which displays an image generated by the processed video signal outputted by the processing module; and

a level control module which receives the user information, generates processing level information indicating level of the processing corresponding to the user information, and outputs the processing level information

wherein the processing module carries out the processing so that a level of the image processing is changed between several different levels, for privacy protection, depending on the processing level information.

2. The security camera system according to claim 1, wherein the processing module changes level of the processing depending on size of the image detected by the image recognition module.

3. A monitoring system comprising:

one or more monitoring cameras each of which picks up an image, generates a digital video signal, encodes and compresses the digital video signal, and outputs the coded video signal;

a first network which communicates the coded video signals outputted by the monitoring cameras;

a controller including;

a buffer which stores the coded video signal received via the first network;

a media control module which reads the coded video signal from the buffer and writes the signal to a storage medium, while reading the coded video signal from the storage medium and writing the signal to the buffer; and

an I/F module which directly outputs the received coded video signal stored in the buffer or outputs the coded video signal written and read out from the storage medium to a second network; and

a monitoring terminal module which receives the coded video signal via the second network, decodes and decompresses the coded video signal, and plays back the video signal, wherein;

the controller is provided with;

an image recognition module which detects an image of an object such as a person from the coded video signal; and

a stream processing module which processes the image detected by the image recognition module on the coded video signal, and

the monitoring terminal module is provided with a user recognition module which recognizes a user who uses the monitoring terminal module, and

authority of the user is confirmed by the user recognition module and the user authority is informed to the controller via the second network, and

the processing of the coded video signal is carried out depending on the user authority.

4. The monitoring system according to claim 3, wherein:

the user recognition module has a function of setting and recognizing a plurality of user authority levels, and

the stream processing module switches the way of processing depending on the user authority level.

5. The monitoring system according to claim 3, wherein:

MPEG or JPEG is employed as algorithm for encoding the digital video signal, and

quantized DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) coefficients are processed in the processing of the coded video signal.

6. The monitoring system according to claim 3, wherein:

the user authority recognized by the user recognition module is adjusted depending on size of the object detected by the image recognition module, and

the processing of the coded video signal is carried out depending on the adjusted user authority.

7. A controller comprising:

a first input module to which a video signal generated and outputted by an image pickup module is inputted;

a record module which records the inputted video signal on a record medium;

an image recognition module which detects a specific image from the inputted video signal or the video signal read out from the record module;

a user recognition module which recognizes a plurality of different users and identifies a user who is watching an image generated from the video signal, and outputs user information concerning said user who is watching said image, wherein said user can change depending on a situation;

a second input module which receives user information outputted by said user recognition module;

a processing module which receives the inputted video signal or the video signal read out from the record module, processes part of the video signal corresponding to the image detected by the image recognition module in a way varying depending on the user information;

an output module which outputs video information processed by the processing module; and

a level control module which receives the user information, generates processing level information indicating level of the processing corresponding to the user information, and outputs the processing level information

wherein the processing module carries out the processing so that a level of the image processing is changed between several different levels, for privacy protection, depending on the processing level information.

8. A monitoring terminal for a security camera system including a monitoring terminal;

a camera module which outputs a video signal; and

a controller which processes the video signal and outputs the processed video signal, the monitoring terminal receiving the processed video signal outputted by the controller and displaying an image on a monitor by the processed video signal, wherein the monitoring terminal comprises;

a user recognition module which recognizes a plurality of different users and identifies a user who is watching the image displayed on the monitor, and outputs user information concerning said user who is watching said image, wherein said user can change depending on a situation;

a transmission module which transmits the user information to the controller;

a reception module which receives the processed video signal output from the controller which processes a specific part of the video signal outputted by the camera module so that a level of that image processing is changed between several different levels, for privacy protection, depending on the user information transmitted from the transmission module; and

an output module which outputs the received processed video signal to the monitor.