Recording and reproducing system for image data with recording position information and a recording and reproducing method therefor

• US 8,064,735 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Kokusai Electric Incorporated (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Kokusai Electric Incorporated (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ueda, Hirotada, Nagaya, Shigeki, Hirai, Seiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Brian Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel; Jayesh A
• Application Number:
  US12/081,876
• Publication Number:
  US 20080240686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,308 Days
• Field of Search: 382/305
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

An image data recording and reproducing system comprises an image data input unit, an ID generator generating an ID inserted to image data from the image data input unit, a plurality of image data recorders for recording the image data, and an output unit for outputting the image data recorded into the plurality of image data recorders, wherein each of the plurality of image data recorders has an ID table and an image data storage area, and an ID of the ID table is matched with image data of the image data storage area on the bases of recording position information of the image data.

Claims

1. An image data recording and reproducing system comprising:

an image data input unit for inputting an image data;

an ID generator coupled with said image data input unit, for generating an ID inserted into each of video frames of said image data from said image data input unit,

wherein said ID is inserted to distinguish each of said video frames, and each ID inserted into each of said video frames, is different from each other;

a transmission network coupled with said image data input unit, for transmitting each of said video frames with said each ID;

a plurality of image data recorders coupled with said transmission network, to each of which each of said video frames with said ID is applied,

wherein each of said video frames with said each ID is commonly recorded into the plurality of said image data recorders, respectively, and

wherein each of said plurality of image data recorders has an ID table and an image data storage area, each of said video frames is recorded in said image data storage area, and position information of each of said video frames recorded in said image data storage area is stored in relation to said ID in said ID table; and

a plurality of terminal units coupled to said transmission network, each of which output each of said video frames recorded into said plurality of image data recorders, wherein when said ID is input in a terminal unit of said terminal units, one of a plurality of said image data recorders is selected and the video frame relating to said ID is output from the selected one of said plurality of image data recorders to said terminal unit in response to said ID,

wherein said terminal unit is able to output said video frame relating to said ID based on the ID in said ID table from any one of said plurality of said image data recorders whenever a command relating to said ID for a video replay is input into said terminal unit;

a load balancer which detects a state of load of said image data recorders, said load balancer having a load factor table, coupled with said plurality of image data recorders, for selecting one of said plurality of image data recorders to output one of said video frames,

wherein said one of said plurality of image data recorders selected is based on a load factor of said load factor table, and

wherein said load factor relates to a number of command applied from said terminal units.

2. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sensor information input unit, and a data recording unit for recording sensor information from said sensor information input unit,

wherein the ID from said ID generator is inserted to sensor information from said sensor information input unit so that said sensor information with the ID inserted is recorded into said data recording unit.

3. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein based on a retrieval from each of said terminal units, said ID table of said image data recorders is referred to reproduce predetermined one of said video frames corresponding to an ID of said ID table.

4. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein an integer of 40 bits or more is used for the ID output from said ID generator.

5. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 2, wherein an integer of 40 bits or more is used for the ID outputted from said ID generator.

6. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 1,

wherein said image data input unit includes an image data generation unit, and

wherein said ID generator generating the ID inserted to each of said video frames from said image data generation unit is integrated with said image data generation unit.

7. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 2, wherein the ID inserted to each of said video frames from said image data input unit and the ID inserted to sensor information from said sensor information input unit are an ID from a shared ID generator.

8. The image recording and reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein, said ID generator comprises:

an ID generation unit for generating a succession of IDs of a successive integers.

9. The image data recording and reproducing system according to claim 6, wherein said image data generation unit is a camera, and said ID generator is integrated with said camera.

10. A method for recording and reproducing image data, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of video frames of said image data;

generating an ID inserted into each of said video frames;

adding said ID to each of said video frames,

wherein said ID is added to distinguish each of said video frames and each ID added to each of said video frames is different from each other;

transmitting each of said video frames with said each ID;

recording each of said video frames with said each ID added into a plurality of image data recorders,

wherein each of said video frames with said each ID is commonly recorded into the plurality of said image data recorders, respectively, and

wherein each of said plurality of image data recorders has an ID table and an image data storage area, each of said video frames is recorded in said image data storage area, and position information of each of said video frames recorded in said image data storage area is stored in relation to said ID in said ID table;

selecting one of a plurality of said image data recorders when said ID is applied to a terminal unit of a plurality of terminal units;

reproducing the video frame relating to said ID from the selected one of said plurality of image data recorders in response to said ID, wherein said terminal unit is able to output said video frame relating to said ID based on the ID in said ID table from any one of said plurality of said image data recorders whenever a command relating to said ID for a video replay is input into said terminal unit;

when said command for a video replay is input into said terminal unit, detecting, by a load balancer, a state of load of each of said plurality of image data recorders, said load balancer having a load factor table including said state of load; and

transferring said command for a video replay to any one of said plurality of image data recorders based on said state of load of said plurality of image data recorders,

wherein said state of load relates to a number of said command.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

obtaining sensor information related to each of said video frames;

inserting said ID to said detected sensor information; and

recording sensor information with said ID into said image data recorders.