Monitoring camera system, monitoring camera, and monitoring camera control apparatus

• US 8,811,661 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2010
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hattori, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Bitar, Nancy
• Application Number:
  US12/789,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20100303296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/15 by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

A system includes a plurality of image capturing units configured to capture an object image to generate video data, a video coding unit configured to code each of the generated video data, a measurement unit configured to measure a recognition degree representing a feature of the object from each of the generated video data, and a control unit configured to control the video coding unit to code each of the video data based on the measured recognition degree.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of capturing units configured to capture an object image to generate video data;

a coding unit configured to code each of the generated video data;

a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a recognition degree of a feature of the object from each of the generated video data;

a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a quality of the video data being coded by the coding unit;

a control unit configured to control the coding unit to code video data by adjusting a bit rate based on the information relating to the quality of the video data acquired by the second acquisition unit, wherein the bit rate for the video data is determined by comparing the recognition degree acquired by the first acquisition unit from among a plurality of video data pieces generated by the capturing units.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a calculation unit configured to calculate an image quality evaluation value representing the image quality of each of the coded video data,

wherein the control unit controls the coding unit so that the video data having a highest recognition degree out of the generated video data has a bit rate corresponding to the calculated image quality evaluation value, while the other video data has a bit rate corresponding to the measured recognition degree.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recognition degree includes a face recognition degree.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the face recognition degree based on the degree of a face facing a front and a size of a face area.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the recognition degree based on a size of an area where the object moves.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the recognition degree by calculating the size of the area where the object moves using information relating to motion detection.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a bit rate by the coding unit by determining a quantization parameter in the coding unit.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a storage unit configured to record the multiplexed video data.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the multiplexed video data.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to record each of the generated video data;

a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the coded video data; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the multiplexed video data onto a network,

wherein the video coding unit codes each of the recorded video data, and

wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the recognition degree from each of the recorded video data.

15. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a measurement unit configure to measure the recognition degree.

11. A monitoring camera for capturing an object image together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter to adjust a bit rate from the control apparatus, the monitoring camera comprising:

a capturing unit configured to capture the object image to generate the video data,

a coding unit configured to code the generated video data;

a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a recognition degree of a feature of the object from the generated video data

a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a quality of the video data being coded by the coding unit; and

a sending unit configured to send information relating to the acquired recognition degree and the acquired information relating to a quality of the video data to the control apparatus,

wherein the coding unit performs coding using the parameter, from video data captured by the other, the parameter is determined by adjusting a bit rate based on the information relating to the quality of the video data acquired by the second acquisition unit and the bit rate is determined by comparing the recognition degree acquired by the first acquisition unit from among a plurality of video data pieces generated by the another monitoring camera.

12. A method comprising:

capturing an object image to generate video data by a capturing unit;

coding each of the generated video data;

acquiring a recognition degree of the feature of the object from each of the generated video data;

acquiring information relating to a quality of the video data being coded by the coding; and

performing control to code video data by adjusting a bit rate based on the information relating to the quality of the video data acquired by the second acquisition unit,

wherein the bit rate is determined by comparing the acquired recognition degree from among a plurality of video data pieces generated by the capturing unit and other capturing unit.

13. A method for controlling a monitoring camera for capturing an object image together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter to adjust a bit rate from the control apparatus, the method comprising:

capturing the object image to generate the video data;

coding the generated video data;

acquiring a recognition degree of a feature of the object from the generated video data;

acquiring information relating to a quality of the video data being coded by the coding unit; and

sending information relating to the acquired recognition degree and the acquired information relating to a quality of the video data to the control apparatus,

wherein the coding of the generated video data is performed using the parameter, the parameter is determined by adjusting a bit rate based on the information relating to the quality of the video data acquired by the second acquisition unit and the bit rate is determined by comparing the recognition degree acquired by the first acquisition unit from among a plurality of video data pieces generated by the another monitoring camera.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a computer-executable program to implement a method for controlling a monitoring camera for capturing an object together with another monitoring camera to send video data to a control apparatus while receiving a parameter to adjust a bit rate from the control apparatus, the method comprising:

capturing the object image to generate the video data;

coding the generated video data;

acquiring a recognition degree of a feature of the object from the generated video data; and

sending information relating to the acquired recognition degree and the acquired information relating to a quality of the video data to the control apparatus,

wherein the coding of the generated video data is performed using the parameter, the parameter is determined by adjusting a bit rate based on the information relating to the acquired quality of the video data and the bit rate for the video data is determined by comparing the acquired recognition degree from among a plurality of video data pieces generated by the another monitoring camera.