Video surveillance system based on high resolution network cameras capable of concurrent transmission of multiple image formats at video rates

• US 7,543,327 B1
• Filed: 11/22/2004
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arecont Vision Costar, LLC (Costar Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Arecont Vision LLC (Costar Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaplinsky, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Ometz; David L
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, LUONG TRUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/994,643
• Time in Patent Office: 1,653 Days
• Field of Search: 348/211.3, 348/211.5, 348/218.1, 348/211.12, 348/211.13, 348/211.11, 348/333.11
• US Class Current: 725/105
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19656 Network used to communicate with a camera, e.g. WAN, LAN, Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19663 Surveillance related processing done local to the camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19667 Details realated to data compression, encryption or encoding, e.g. resolution modes for reducing data volume to lower transmission bandwidth or memory requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19691 Signalling events for better perception by user, e.g. indicating alarms by making display brighter, adding text, creating a sound
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• 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 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7921 for more than one processing mode

Abstract

A video system including one or more high resolution network video cameras, a computer and a monitor. The video cameras are capable of simultaneously generating a full field of view reduced-resolution of an image and a full-resolution sub-window of the image. The computer is configured to receive images from the video cameras via a computer network and display the images on the monitor in which a full field view of the image and a sub-window of the image are displayed on the monitor simultaneously.

Claims

1. Video system comprising:

a network video camera including an image buffer memory for storing video images at a video rate, and electrically coupled to a computer network, wherein said video camera is capable of repeatedly scanning said image buffer memory at said video rate, decimating an image from said image buffer memory, and substantially simultaneously generating a full field of view reduced-resolution of said image responsive to the decimating the image, and a full-resolution sub-window of said image;

a computer electrically coupled to said computer network; and

a monitor electrically coupled to the computer, wherein said computer is configured to receive said full field of view reduced-resolution and said full-resolution sub-window of said image from said video camera via the computer network and display said full field of view reduced-resolution and said full-resolution sub-window on said monitor, wherein said full field of view reduced-resolution of said image and said full-resolution sub-window of said image are displayed on said monitor simultaneously.

2. Video system of claim 1, wherein said video camera is high resolution video camera comprising more than 1 million pixels.

3. Video system of claim 1, wherein said simultaneous display of full field of view reduced-resolution and said full-resolution sub-window of said image are displayed as a composite picture-in-picture (PIP) image.

4. Video system of claim 3, wherein said composite picture-in-picture (PIP) image is configured to comprise the full field of view reduced-resolution of said image and zoomed segment of said image.

5. Video system of claim 2, wherein said simultaneous display of full field of view reduced-resolution of said image is an image of lower resolution than the resolution of said video camera originating said image.

6. Video system of claim 2, wherein said monitor has lower resolution than the resolution of the said video camera.

7. Video system of claim 1, wherein said computer is configured to reduce the resolution of images acquired from said video camera.

8. Video system of claim 1, wherein said computer is configured to extract an image segment or image sub-window from the image acquired from said video camera.

9. Video system of claim 1, wherein said video camera are equipped to modify resolution of the images output from said video camera.

10. Video system of claim 1, wherein said full field of view reduced-resolution and said full-resolution sub-window of said image are received from said video camera by multiple logical network connections or by interleaving multiple image formats on a frame-by-frame basis.

17. Video system of claim 1, wherein said video camera is further capable of simultaneously generating a full field of view full-resolution of said video image.

11. Video system comprising:

a network video camera electrically coupled to a computer network for capturing, decimating, and transmitting a video image via the computer network; and

a computer electrically coupled to said computer network,

wherein said computer is configured to receive said video image from said video camera via the computer network and to transmit different segments of the same received video image having specific respective sizes and resolutions to different remote users, respectively, via the computer network in substantially real-time, based on respective requests from said different remote users.

12. Video system of claim 11, wherein said video camera is a high resolution video camera comprising more than 1 million pixels.

13. Video system of claim 11, wherein said computer is configured to receive and process requests from said remote users, wherein said requests comprise the description of the resolution, size and position of respective sub-windows to include a respective video image.

14. Video system of claim 11, wherein said computer is configured to extract an image segment or image sub-window from the image acquired from said video camera.

15. Video system of claim 11, wherein said video camera is equipped to modify resolution of the images output from said video camera.

16. Video system of claim 11, wherein said video camera is equipped to output full field of view images and image sub-windows simultaneously, wherein said simultaneous output is performed by multiple logical network connections or by interleaving multiple image formats on a frame-by-frame basis.

18. Video system of claim 11, wherein said video camera includes an image buffer memory and is capable of repeatedly scanning its image buffer memory to simultaneously generating a full field of view reduced-resolution of an image, a full field of view full-resolution of said image, and a full-resolution sub-window of said image.