Video monitoring apparatus

• US 9,083,891 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2011
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Watanabe, Yuki, Kurihara, Tsuneya, Akira, Naoto, Matsubara, Daisuke, Hiroike, Atsushi
• Primary Examiner(s): HSIA, SHERRIE Y
• Application Number:
  US13/882,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20130250111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• Field of Search: 348/148, 348/143, 348/151, 348/158, 348/46, 348/49, 348/50, 348/180, 348/187, 348/552, 348/240.99, 348/211.9, 348/222.1, 348/231.3, 348/239, 348/207.99
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/633 for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A video monitoring apparatus capable of efficiently superimposing additional information on a monitoring camera image is provided. The video monitoring apparatus holds image specifying information for specifying an image picked up by a camera and additional information in correspondence with each other. In superimposing additional information on an image, additional information corresponding to images having a distance therebetween falling within a prescribed range is searched for, and out of the thus found additional information, one that may be fit within an image currently picked up by the camera is superimposed on the camera image.

Claims

1. A video monitoring apparatus comprising:

a camera picking up an image;

a video control unit generating an image in which additional information is superimposed on an image picked up by the camera;

an image output unit outputting the image generated by the video control unit; and

a database for storing a record for associating image specifying information for specifying an image picked up by the camera with the additional information,

wherein the database stores a plurality of records in which a distance between images specified by image specifying information is smaller than a size of an image picked up by the camera, and

the video control unit conducts;

searching of the image specifying information in the database for one or more image specifying information each of which specifies an image having a distance from an image currently picked up by the camera falling within a prescribed range;

extraction, from the one or more image specifying information obtained as a result of the searching, of image specifying information each specifying an image fit within the image currently picked up by the camera; and

superimposing additional information corresponding to the extracted image specifying information on the image picked up by the camera.

2. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the video control unit calculates a degree of priority of the additional information corresponding to the extracted image specifying information, and superimposes merely additional information having a degree of priority not less than a prescribed threshold value on the image picked up by the camera.

3. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the video control unit provides a higher degree of priority to image specifying information, out of the extracted image specifying information, that specifies an image having a smaller distance from the image currently picked up by the camera.

4. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the video control unit provides a higher degree of priority to additional information that is stored in the database later in time and date.

5. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the database stores images picked up by the camera in association with the image specifying information, and

the video control unit searches for images similar to an image picked up by the camera in the database and provides a higher degree of priority to additional information corresponding to an image having a higher degree of similarity.

6. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the video control unit changes a parameter to be used for calculating a degree of similarity in accordance with an imaging visual field of the image currently picked up by the camera.

7. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the database stores images picked up by the camera in association with the image specifying information, and

the video control unit searches for an image similar to partial images each generated by taking out a part of an image picked up by the camera from the images stored in the database, and provides a higher degree of priority to additional information corresponding to an image having a higher degree of similarity.

8. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a database control unit storing the record in the database,

wherein the database control unit stores, in the database, parameters characterizing an imaging visual field of the camera as the image specifying information, and performs clustering processing for the parameters for obtaining a cluster of images disposed within a prescribed range out of the images specified by the parameters, and

the video control unit subjects, out of the partial images, merely a partial image the closest to a center of the cluster to determination for a degree of similarity to the images stored in the database.

9. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a database control unit storing the record in the database,

wherein the database control unit stores, in the database, parameters characterizing an imaging visual field of the camera as the image specifying information, and performs clustering processing for the parameters for obtaining a cluster of images disposed within a prescribed range out of the images specified by the parameters.

10. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a database control unit storing the record in the database; and

an operation input unit accepting an operation for the image output by the image output unit,

wherein the database control unit stores parameters characterizing an imaging visual field of the camera as the image specifying information, and

when the operation input unit receives an instruction operation for positioning the additional information superimposed on the image output by the image output unit in a screen center region, the video control unit specifies an imaging visual field of the camera for positioning the additional information in the screen center region by using a parameter corresponding to the additional information, and controls the camera to pick up the specified imaging visual field.

11. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein the database control unit performs clustering processing for the parameters for obtaining a cluster of images disposed within a prescribed range out of the images specified by the parameters, and

when the operation input unit receives an instruction operation for positioning the additional information superimposed on the image output by the image output unit in a screen center region, the video control unit controls the camera so that a center of the cluster to which the additional information belongs may accord with a screen center.

12. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein the video control unit sorts the additional information belonging to the cluster in accordance with values of the parameters, and outputs a list of the sorted additional information together with the image from the image output unit.

13. The video monitoring apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the database stores images picked up by the camera in association with the image specifying information, and

the video control unit instructs the camera to pick up an image specified by the image specifying information, obtains a difference between an image currently picked up by the camera and an image correspondingly stored in the database by comparing the images, and corrects a display position by using the difference in superimposing the additional information.