Moving picture processing apparatus

• US 7,289,684 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2004
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakano, Norihiko, Higashi, Masayuki, Sugino, Motohiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassa; Yosef
• Application Number:
  US10/811,904
• Publication Number:
  US 20040234168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: 382/304, 382/305, 382/307, 358/403, 358/404, 358/444, 711/5, 711/100
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A moving picture processing apparatus in which a buffer residual amount of a buffer module which buffers a plurality of image data which are inputted from the outside is monitored by a storing media control module and a decimation is performed at a decimation ratio which differs every image data, in accordance with the buffer residual amount of the buffer module and in accordance with the frame rate of each of the plurality of image data, so that it can be prevented the inconvenience that a period of time during which the image data is not recorded and cannot be reproduced occurs for a long time.

Claims

1. An image recording apparatus comprising:

an input module to which a plurality of image data of different frame rates are inputted;

a temporary storing module which temporarily stores said plurality of image data which are outputted from said input module;

a recording module which records said plurality of image data which are outputted from said temporary storing module onto a recording medium; and

a control module which controls in such a manner that when a residual amount of said temporary storing module is equal to or less than a predetermined value, each of said plurality of image data which are temporarily stored by said temporary storing module is decimated at a decimation ratio according to the frame rate of said image data, and any of the frame rates of said plurality of image data which are recorded onto said recording medium becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined value.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting I/F module to which set data regarding said decimation is inputted from an outside, and

wherein said control module executes said decimating process on the basis of said set data.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the decimation ratio of each of said plurality of image data can be set by said I/F module.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an alarm input module to which an alarm signal is inputted from an outside or an alarm detecting module which detects the alarm signal included in the image data which is inputted to said input module, and

wherein said control module executes said decimating process so as to preferentially decimate data other than the image data which is designated by said alarm signal.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

information which is used for discrimination about the decimation is included in said image data, and

said control module is constructed by an upper layer by software and a lower layer by hardware and said decimation is processed in said lower layer on the basis of the information included in said image data.

2. An image recording apparatus comprising:

an input module to which a plurality of image data are inputted;

a temporary storing module which temporarily stores said plurality of image data which are outputted from said input module;

a recording module which records said plurality of image data which are outputted from said temporary storing module onto a recording medium; and

a control module which decimates said plurality of image data which are temporarily stored by said temporary storing module, in accordance with a residual amount of said temporary storing module and in accordance with a frame rate of each of said plurality of image data.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a setting I/F module to which set data regarding said decimation is inputted from an outside, and

wherein said control module executes said decimating process on the basis of said set data.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a decimation ratio of each of said plurality of image data can be set by said I/F module.

8. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an alarm input module to which an alarm signal is inputted from an outside or an alarm detecting module which detects the alarm signal included in the image data which is inputted to said input module, and

wherein said control module executes said decimating process so as to preferentially decimate data other than the image data which is designated by said alarm signal.

10. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

information which is used for discrimination about the decimation is included in said image data, and

said control module is constructed by an upper layer by software and a lower layer by hardware and said decimation is processed in said lower layer on the basis of the information included in said image data.

11. An image recording system having a plurality of image pickup apparatuses which compress image data obtained by photographing an object and output the compressed image data and an image recording apparatus which inputs said plurality of image data which are outputted from said plurality of image pickup apparatuses and records them,

wherein said image recording apparatus comprises:

a temporary storing module which temporarily stores said plurality of image data which are inputted;

a recording module which records said plurality of image data which are outputted from said temporary storing module onto a recording medium; and

a control module which decimates said plurality of image data which are temporarily stored by said temporary storing module, in accordance with a residual amount of said temporary storing module and in accordance with a frame rate of each of said plurality of image data.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein

when the residual amount of said temporary storing module is equal to or less than a predetermined value, said control module instructs all or a part of said plurality of image pickup apparatuses to decrease the frame rate and output the image data, and

when all or a part of said plurality of image pickup apparatuses receive said instruction, said image pickup apparatuses decrease the frame rate to a value smaller than that before said instruction is received and output said image data.