Video surveillance system employing video primitives

• US 20050169367A1
• Filed: 04/05/2005
• Published: 08/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhan, Zhong, Chosak, Andrew J., Myers, Gary W., Frazier, Matthew F., Haering, Niels, Venetianer, Peter L., Lipton, Alan J., Yin, Weihong
• Granted Patent: US 7,868,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7343 Query language or query format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/739 in form of a video summary, e.g. the video summary being a video sequence, a composite still image or having synthesized frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7847 using low-level visual features of the video content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/786 using motion, e.g. object motion or camera motion
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/08 Detecting or categorising vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19606 Discriminating between target movement or movement in an area of interest and other non-signicative movements, e.g. target movements induced by camera shake or movements of pets, falling leaves, rotating fan
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19615 wherein said pattern is defined by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19652 Systems using zones in a single scene defined for different treatment, e.g. outer zone gives pre-alarm, inner zone gives alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19667 Details realated to data compression, encryption or encoding, e.g. resolution modes for reducing data volume to lower transmission bandwidth or memory requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19673 Addition of time stamp, i.e. time metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1968 Interfaces for setting up or customising the system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19684 Portable terminal, e.g. mobile phone, used for viewing video remotely
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19695 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors start video recording or forwarding but do not generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 : Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 : Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A video surveillance system extracts video primitives and extracts event occurrences from the video primitives using event discriminators. The system can undertake a response, such as an alarm, based on extracted event occurrences.

Claims

1. A video processing apparatus comprising:

a video content analysis module to analyze an input video sequence and to derive at least one video primitive; and

a video encoder to receive said input video sequence and to output compressed video.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage module coupled to said video content analysis module to store at least one of the group consisting of a video primitive and at least one video frame.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communications module coupled to said video content analysis module and to said video encoder to facilitate communication of at least one of the group consisting of said compressed video and at least one video primitive.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an event inference module coupled to said video content analysis module to detect at least one event.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said event inference module is further to generate at least one alert.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

a communications module coupled to said video encoder and to said event inference module to facilitate communication of at least one of the group consisting of said compressed video and at least one alert.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a communications module coupled to said video encoder and to said event inference module to facilitate communication of said compressed video.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a communications module coupled to said event inference module to receive at least one event rule and to provide the at least one event rule to said event inference module.

9. A video analysis system comprising:

the apparatus according to claim 4;

and

a rules management tool located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to said apparatus to provide at least one event rule to said event inference module.

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

an alert unit located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to receive at least one of the group consisting of compressed video and an alert.

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

a storage module located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to receive at least one of the group consisting of compressed video, a video primitive, and an alert.

12. A video analysis system comprising:

the apparatus according to claim 1;

and

an event inference unit located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to said apparatus, the event inference unit to detect at least one event based on said at least one video primitive generated by said apparatus.

13. The system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a rules management tool located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to said event inference module to provide at least one event rule to said event inference module.

14. The system according to claim 12, further comprising:

an alert unit located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to receive at least one of the group consisting of compressed video and an alert.

15. The system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a storage module located remotely from said apparatus and coupled to receive at least one of the group consisting of compressed video, a video primitive, and an alert.

16. A video analysis system comprising:

at least two of the apparatuses according to claim 1, said at least one video primitive of each of said apparatuses being combined into a single video primitive stream; and

at least two event inference units located remotely from said apparatuses, each of said event inference units coupled to said apparatuses to receive said single video primitive stream, each of the event inference units to detect at least one event based on said single video primitive stream.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein each of said at least two event inference units is adapted to detect a different type of event.

18. A method of video processing comprising:

detecting whether or not there are one or more activities in a video sequence;

encoding a video sequence to obtain encoded video; and

transmitting said encoded video;

wherein at least one of the group consisting of said encoding and said transmitting depends upon at least one result of said detecting.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein said detecting comprises:

analyzing said video sequence to obtain at least one of the group consisting of a video primitive and a detected video event.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein said transmitting is performed only if said detecting determines that at least one activity is present in said video sequence.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein said encoding is performed only if said detecting determines that at least one activity is present in said video sequence.

22. The method according to claim 18, wherein a parameter of said encoding is adjusted based upon at least one result of said detecting.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein a parameter of said transmitting is adjusted based upon at least one result of said detecting.

24. The method according to claim 18, wherein, based upon at least one result of said detecting, at least one of the group consisting of the following is adjusted:

bit-rate for said encoding;

frame-rate for said encoding;

bit-rate for said transmitting;

frame-rate for said transmitting;

resolution for said encoding; and

resolution for said transmitting.

25. A computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computer system cause said computer system to implement the method according to claim 18.

26. A video processing system comprising:

the computer-readable medium according to claim 25;

and

a computer coupled to said computer-readable medium to execute the instructions contained on said computer-readable medium.