Monitor recording device

• US 8,355,045 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sotodate, Hiromichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Swearingen, Jeffrey R
• Application Number:
  US11/814,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20090009598A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,541 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143, 348/152, 348/154, 348/155, 348/169, 348/352, 382/105
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/915 for field- or frame-skip recording or reproducing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

The monitor recording device (10) can allow an operator to identify an object with ease by comprising a frame control unit (11) for receiving a video signal of a monitor area at a specific frame rate such as for example one frame per second. A compression/expansion unit (12) compresses video data indicative of the video signal. A moving object area detecting unit (15) receives an image of a monitor area at sixty frames per second, dividing the image into a plurality of sections, and detecting one or more sections including an image of a person going in and out of the monitor area. A person extracting unit (16) extracts an image of his/her face from the sections. An optimum image judging unit (17) determines an optimum image of his/her face. A picture-in-picture synthesizing unit (20) synthesizes the optimum image and the video data.

Claims

1. A method of recording monitoring data, comprising:

detecting, from each frame of a plurality of frames of a video of a monitor area, an image of a specific moving object which is in the monitor area;

judging, as an optimum image, the image of the specific moving object detected from the video of said monitor area when the image of the specific moving object optimally complies with specific requirements;

recording the optimum image;

thinning the video of the monitor area by eliminating frames from the video and outputting a thinned video signal indicative of the video;

dividing each frame of the plurality of frames of the video of the monitor area into a plurality of sections;

classifying the plurality of sections of each frame into first and second groups, the first group including one or more sections in which the specific moving object is detected, the second group including remaining sections in which the specific moving object is not detected; and

performing a picture-in-picture synthesis of the optimum image of the specific moving object and the specific moving object recorded in the thinned video signal to ensure that both of the optimum image and the specific moving object are shown in an image of the monitor area without overlap of the optimum image and the specific moving object, the optimum image being synthesized with a nearest section selected from among the sections of the second group on the basis of distances of the sections of the second group to each section of the one or more sections of the first group.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, which further comprises recording shooting information of the optimum image, the shooting information including shooting date and time of the optimum image.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, which further comprises:

searching specific data recorded during the recording step for data indicative of said optimum image of the specific moving object;

extracting the data indicative of the optimum image of the specific moving object from the specific data; and

performing the picture-in-picture synthesis of the thinned video signal, the optimum image of the specific moving object, and shooting information including shooting date and time of the optimum image of the specific moving object.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, in which the image of the specific moving object is constituted by an image of a person which is in the monitor area, the optimum image of the specific moving object is constituted by an image of the person'"'"'s face, and the specific requirements relate to at least one of size, contrast, luminance, gamma value, and direction of the person'"'"'s face extracted from the video of the monitor area.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, in which the image of the specific moving object is constituted by an image of an automotive vehicle which is in the monitor area, the optimum image is constituted by an image of a license plate of the automotive vehicle, and the specific requirements relate to at least one of size, contrast, luminance, gamma value, and direction of the license plate extracted from the video of said monitor area.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the thinning thins the video signal at a specific frame rate by eliminating the frames from the video of the monitor area.