Networked surveillance and control system

• US 6,646,676 B1
• Filed: 07/10/2000
• Issued: 11/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: DaGraca, Paul, Vetro, Anthony, Sun, Huifang, Divakaran, Ajay
• Primary Examiner(s): BRITTON, HOWARD W
• Application Number:
  US09/612,876
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.718, 348/143, 348/154, 348/155, 340/541
• US Class Current: 348/155
• 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 16/7854 using shape G06F16/7837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/786 using motion, e.g. object motion or camera motion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7864 using domain-transform features, e.g. DCT or wavelet transform coefficients
• 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: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/48 using compressed domain processing techniques other than decoding, e.g. modification of transform coefficients, variable length coding [VLC] data or run-length data motion estimation in a transform domain H04N19/547; processing of decoded motion vectors H04N19/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/51 Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• 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 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A surveillance and control system includes a feature extraction unit to dynamically extract low-level features from a compressed digital video signal, a description encoder, coupled to the feature extraction unit, to encode the low-level features as content descriptors. An event detector is coupled to the description encoder to detect security events from the content descriptors, and a control signal processor, coupled to the event detector, to generate control signals in response to detecting the security events.

Claims

1. A surveillance and control system, comprising:

a feature extraction unit to extract low-level features from a compressed digital video signal;

a description encoder, coupled to the feature extraction unit, to encode the low-level features as content descriptors;

an event detector, coupled to the description encoder, to detect security events from the content descriptors; and

a control signal processor, coupled to the event detector, to generate control signals in response to detecting the security events.

2. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 further comprising a telephone, a personal computer, and a video recorder coupled to each other by a network.

3. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the network includes a low-bandwidth network for carrying the control signals and a high-bandwidth network for carrying the compressed digital video signal and the content descriptors.

4. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 further comprising:

a memory unit to store the compressed digital video signal, the content descriptors, the control signals, user input, and user configuration preferences.

5. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 further comprising:

a symbol processor, coupled to the feature extraction unit, to extract motion vectors and macroblocks and DCT coefficients from the compressed digital video signal.

6. The surveillance and control system of claim 4 further comprising:

a bitstream processor, connected to the memory unit, to produce an output compressed digital video signal including the compressed digital video signal and the content descriptors.

7. The surveillance and control system of claim 6 herein the output compressed digital video signal is transmitted to a remote video receiver via a network.

8. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the content descriptors are encoded according to a video encoding standard.

9. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the encoder generate a summary of the compressed digital video signal according to the content descriptors.

10. The surveillance and control system of claim 9 wherein the summary of the compressed digital video signal is stored in a memory unit.

11. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the content descriptors are based on motion activity in the compressed digital video signal.

12. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 further comprising at least one camera, a monitor, a video recorder, a telephone, a storage device, a personal computer, a digital versatile disk, and a remote PC all connected to each other by a network and operated by the control signals.

13. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the control signals include security contact information, device control parameters, and routing information.

14. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein a normal non-zero state is distinguished from an abnormal non-zero state in the compressed digital video signal to detect the security events.

15. The surveillance and control system of claim 1 wherein the control signals have associated priorities.

16. A method for responding to security events, comprising:

dynamically extracting low-level features from a compressed digital video signal;

encoding low-level features as content descriptors;

detect security events from the content descriptors; and

generating control signals in response to detecting the security events.