Dynamically reconfigurable intelligent video surveillance system

• US 8,922,659 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Leny, Marc, Nicholson, Didier, Le Barz, Cdric
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sath V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown, Jr., Howard D
• Application Number:
  US13/218,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20120218416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 348/159
• US Class Current: 348/159
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

A dynamically reconfigurable video surveillance system includes at least one video camera, a remote server, at least one viewing terminal, means making it possible to record the video sequences captured by the camera or cameras, said system being characterized in that: the video camera or cameras and the remote server include means for communicating with one another across a telecommunications network; the video camera or cameras include means for compressing the video sequences captured, the compression rate being adapted dynamically by taking account of the control messages originating from the remote server; the video camera or cameras include means for analyzing said video sequences in the compressed domain, to characterize the activity detected in their field of vision and to forward the result of this characterization to the remote server; the remote server include means for computing for each of the compressed video streams originating from the video camera or cameras a command making it possible to parametrize each of them by taking account of the signaling data received.

Claims

1. A dynamically reconfigurable video surveillance system, comprising:

at least one video camera, a remote server, at least one viewing terminal, means for recording video sequences captured by the at least one video camera, wherein;

the at least one video camera and the remote server comprise means for communicating with one another across a telecommunications network;

the at least one video camera further comprises means for compressing the captured video sequences, a compression rate for compression being adapted dynamically based on control commands originating from the remote server;

the at least one video camera further comprises means for analyzing said compressed video sequences to characterize activity detected in a field of view of the at least one video camera and to transmit a result of the characterization to the remote server in the form of signaling data; and

the remote server further comprises means for computing, for each of the compressed video streams originating from the at least one video camera, a control command configured to parametrize each of the compressed video streams based on the signaling data received from the at least one video camera.

2. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a priority level is associated, by the remote server, with each of the video streams received from the at least one video camera of the system, said priority level being determined based on the signaling data representative of the activity characterized and transmitted by the at least one video camera.

3. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the remote server is configured to control the transmission of the signaling data from the at least one video camera of the system by dispatching requests configured to adapt a frequency, a type and content of messages carrying the signaling data.

4. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the compression of the video sequences captured by the at least one video camera is parametrized by a bitrate directive specific to the at least one video camera, said bitrate directive being computed by the remote server based on the priority level associated with each of the video streams and being transmitted by the remote server to the at least one video camera of the system.

5. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a priority level associated with the video streams is computed by the at least one video camera, said priority level being determined based on activity detected by the at least one video camera.

6. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the priority level associated with the video streams is transmitted to the remote server by the at least one video camera of the system, said remote server uses the priority level to compute a bitrate constraint transmitted to the at least one video camera, and the at least one video camera adapts the compression rate to satisfy the bitrate constraint.

7. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the priority level associated with the video stream is used by the at least one video camera to compute a bitrate directive, said bitrate directive being used to adapt the video stream compression rate.

8. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the at least one viewing terminal comprises a display, and wherein automatic switching of the display is based on a duration determined by the priority level.

9. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the display is configured to present a priority video stream accompanied by an augmented-reality mechanism to bring to the fore a portion or portions of the priority video stream containing unusual activity identified by the at least one video camera.

10. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the portion or portions of the priority video stream containing the unusual activity are brought to the fore by a color highlighting.

11. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the portion or portions of the priority video stream containing the unusual activity are accompanied by a message displayed on the display.

12. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the portion or portions of the priority video stream containing the unusual activity identified are accompanied by an alarm telltale.

13. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a memory configured to store priority levels of the video streams and metadata originating from the at least one video camera.

14. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a supervised mode of the system is configured to allow an operator to select a particular video stream, and, in response, the remote server decreases a global bitrate by ordering a maximum bitrate for the at least one video camera.

15. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the augmented-reality mechanism is controlled by the remote server and said remote server is configured to transmit a request to the the at least one video camera to acquire the signaling data.

16. The video surveillance system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the portion or portions of the priority video stream containing the unusual activity are brought to the fore by one or more flashing or fixed rectangles.