Multi-sensor panoramic network camera
First Claim
1. A multi-sensor network camera comprising:
- a plurality of image sensors, wherein focal planes of said image sensors are positioned at an angle to each other;
a plurality of image pre-processors each electrically coupled to a respective one of the plurality of sensors, wherein a number of images pre-processors is the same as a number of sensors, wherein each image pre-processor comprises a plurality of first pipelined hardware stages each including a Bayer interpolation hardware module, a color correction matrix transform hardware module, a white balancing color measurement hardware module, an automatic exposure luminance measurement hardware module and a plurality of hardware buffers, wherein flow of video stream pixels is operated on sequentially by said first pipeline hardware stages;
a multiplexor and decimation module for decimating high resolution video streams of a scene from the image sensors to generate low resolution video streams of said scene, and multiplexing said high resolution and said decimated low resolution video streams of said scene;
an image post-processor comprising a plurality of second pipelined hardware stages including a compression hardware module for compressing the high resolution video streams generated by the image sensors and the low resolution video streams from the multiplexor and decimation module, wherein flow of multiplexed video stream pixels is operated on sequentially by said second pipeline hardware stages;
a microprocessor coupled to the plurality of sensors, the plurality of image pre-processors and the image post-processor, wherein said microprocessor is configured to control the operation of the pipeline hardware stages, and to perform white balancing and auto exposure using data from said white balancing color measurement hardware module and said automatic exposure luminance measurement hardware module; and
a network interface for transmitting said compressed high resolution and said compressed low resolution video streams compressed by said compression hardware module via a computer network.
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Abstract
A multi-sensor network camera providing up to 360 degrees angle of view. The includes multiple image sensors with individual optics, one or more image processors, compression units and network interfaces mounted in the single housing. The image sensors are positioned in non-parallel planes, cumulatively providing panoramic field of view and image streams originating from all sensors share the same image compression and network interface hardware, providing for low cost implementation. The images from all sensors are transmitted over the network simultaneously via packet interleaving, with appropriate bandwidth reduction achieved by image decimation. Simultaneously with transmission of decimated images from all sensors, full resolution window or entire image of one or more sensors may also transmitted, where the selection of contents is based on motion detection or user setting.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A multi-sensor network camera comprising:
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a plurality of image sensors, wherein focal planes of said image sensors are positioned at an angle to each other; a plurality of image pre-processors each electrically coupled to a respective one of the plurality of sensors, wherein a number of images pre-processors is the same as a number of sensors, wherein each image pre-processor comprises a plurality of first pipelined hardware stages each including a Bayer interpolation hardware module, a color correction matrix transform hardware module, a white balancing color measurement hardware module, an automatic exposure luminance measurement hardware module and a plurality of hardware buffers, wherein flow of video stream pixels is operated on sequentially by said first pipeline hardware stages; a multiplexor and decimation module for decimating high resolution video streams of a scene from the image sensors to generate low resolution video streams of said scene, and multiplexing said high resolution and said decimated low resolution video streams of said scene; an image post-processor comprising a plurality of second pipelined hardware stages including a compression hardware module for compressing the high resolution video streams generated by the image sensors and the low resolution video streams from the multiplexor and decimation module, wherein flow of multiplexed video stream pixels is operated on sequentially by said second pipeline hardware stages; a microprocessor coupled to the plurality of sensors, the plurality of image pre-processors and the image post-processor, wherein said microprocessor is configured to control the operation of the pipeline hardware stages, and to perform white balancing and auto exposure using data from said white balancing color measurement hardware module and said automatic exposure luminance measurement hardware module; and a network interface for transmitting said compressed high resolution and said compressed low resolution video streams compressed by said compression hardware module via a computer network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification