CUSTOM VIDEO COMPOSITES FOR SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS

• US 20090021583A1
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Jayappa, Mahesh N., Drive, Marine, Subbian, Deepakumar, Salgar, Mayur
• Granted Patent: US 8,675,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/159
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A video surveillance system includes a plurality of video sources, where each video source is arranged to monitor and acquire video surveillance data within a field of view (FOV), a video manager connected to each of the plurality of video sources to control the video sources and to process video surveillance data acquired therefrom and a user interface connected to the video manager that allows an end-user to observe the FOVs from each of the plurality of video sources, and identify a region of interest (ROI) within particular FOVs to dynamically render a composite FOV comprising the ROIs from the particular FOVs. Where a video source includes enhanced abilities, such as a mega-pixel camera or video source, the enhanced video source may forward, instead of video data for the entire FOV, only that video dated from the selected ROI to realize reduced network traffic for more optimal video surveillance applications.

Claims

1. A video surveillance system, comprising:

a plurality of video sources, where each video source is arranged to monitor and acquire video surveillance data within a separate source field of view (FOV);

a video manager connected to each of the plurality of video sources to control the video sources and to process video surveillance data acquired therefrom; and

a user interface connected to the video manager for observing each of the separate source FOVs from each of the plurality of respective video sources;

a composite view formatter for that allows for end-user to define a composite FOV by identifying one or more regions of interest (ROIs) within one or more of the observed separate source FOVs; and

a renderer for rendering the composite FOV.

2. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the composite view formatter includes a composite view palette, wherein the one or more identified ROIs are arranged on the composite view palette.

3. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the one or more ROIs may be arranged in any shape.

5. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 1, further including a memory for storing a composite view definition.

6. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the composite FOV is responsive to control signals from said video manager for controlling said video sources.

7. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 6, wherein each ROI within the composite FOV is separately controlled.

8. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the plurality of video sources includes at least one enhanced video source that responds to the composite view formatter by forwarding only video data comprising the selected ROI within the FOV supplied by the enhanced video source.

9. The video surveillance system as set forth in claim 8, wherein the at least one enhanced video source is a mega-pixel camera.

10. A method for video monitoring a plurality of fields of view (FOVs) derived from each of a plurality of video sources to render a single composite FOV, comprising the steps of:

selecting FOVs from the plurality of FOVs;

identifying regions of interest (ROIs) within in each selected FOV; and

rendering the single composite FOV to include the identified ROIs.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10, further comprising a step of monitoring the composite FOV in a single viewing video port.

12. The method as set forth in claim 10, further including a step of controlling the video source from which each ROI derives using a single end-user input command.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the step of controlling includes that each ROI from each video source is controlled using conventional video source control commands.

14. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the step of controlling includes that each video source may be controlled with a separate end-user input command to separately control each ROI in the rendered composite FOV.

15. The method as set forth in claim 10, wherein the step of identifying includes capturing the identified ROIs and moving the captured ROIs into a composite view palette.

16. The method as set forth in claim 15, wherein the step of identifying includes capturing a composite view definition from the composite view palette.

17. The method as set forth in claim 16, further including that the composite view definition is memory stored for subsequent recall.

18. The method as set forth in claim 10, further including that at least one of the plurality of video sources is an enhanced video source that responds to the step of selecting by forwarding only that video data comprising the selected ROI within the FOV supplied by the enhanced video source for use in the step of rendering.

19. A computer program product, comprising:

a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method for video monitoring a plurality of fields of view (FOVs), derived from each of a plurality of video sources monitoring the FOVs, as a single composite FOV, the method comprising the steps of;

selecting FOVs from the plurality of FOVs;

identifying regions of interest (ROIs) within in each selected FOV to create a composite FOV definition; and

rendering the single composite FOV from the FOV definition to include the identified ROIs.

20. The computer program product as set forth in claim 19, further including a step of monitoring the composite FOV in a single viewing video port.

21. The computer program product as set forth in claim 19, farther including that at least one of the plurality of video sources is an enhanced video source that responds to the step of selecting by forwarding only that video data comprising the selected ROI within the FOV supplied by the enhanced video source for use in the step of rendering.