Video surveillance system employing video primitives

• US 7,868,912 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObjectVideo Incorporated (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chosak, Andrew J., Myers, Gary W., Frazier, Matthew F., Haering, Niels, Zhang, Zhong, Venetianer, Peter L., Lipton, Alan J., Yin, Weihong
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, TUNG T
• Application Number:
  US11/098,385
• Publication Number:
  US 20050169367A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,107 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143, 348/148, 348/150, 348/149, 348/166, 348/169, 348/170, 382/103, 382/115, 375/240.02, 375/240.08
• US Class Current: 348/143
• 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 system comprising:

a first processor which analyzes a video to determine attributes of objects detected in the video, the first processor being in communication with a first communications link to transfer the determined attributes over the communications link; and

a second processor, separate from the first processor, in communication with the first communications link to receive the determined attributes transferred from the first processor over the first communications link, which determines a first event that is not one of the determined attributes by analyzing a combination of the received determined attributes and which provides, in response to a determination of the first event, at least one of an alert to a user, information for a report, and an instruction for taking an action,

wherein the first processor determines attributes independent of a selection of the first event by the second processor, and

wherein the second processor determines the first event without reprocessing the video analyzed by the first processor.

2. The video system of claim 1, wherein the first communications link comprises a network.

3. The video system of claim 1, wherein the second processor determines the first event by analyzing only the attributes transferred by the communications link.

4. The video system of claim 1, wherein the second processor analyzes the attributes to detect the first event in real time.

5. The video system of claim 1, further comprising:

a third processor, separate from the first processor and second processor, in communication with the first processor over a second communications link, the third processor configured to determine a second event that is not one of the determined attributes by analyzing a combination of the attributes transferred by the second communications link,

wherein the second processor determines the first event independent from the determination of the second event by the third processor and the third processor determines the second event independent from the determination of the first event by the second processor.

6. A video system, comprising:

an input in communication with a communications channel;

a processor configured to receive from the input a stream of detected attributes received over the communications channel, the attributes being attributes of one or more objects detected in a video, the processor configured to determine an event that is not one of the detected attributes by analyzing a combination of the received attributes and configured to provide, upon a determination of the event, at least one of an alert to a user, information for a report and an instruction for taking an action,

wherein the attributes received over the communications channel are independent of the event to be determined by the processor, and

wherein the processor is configured to determine the event without reprocessing the video.

7. The video system of claim 6, wherein the communications channel comprises a network.

8. The video system of claim 6, wherein the processor is operable to determine an event by analyzing only attributes of the received stream of attributes.

9. A method of detecting an event from a video, comprising:

receiving a stream of detected attributes over a communications channel, the detected attributes representing attributes of an object previously detected in the video at a remote location;

performing an analysis of a combination of the detected attributes to detect an event that is not one of the detected attributes without reprocessing the video,

upon detecting the event, providing at least one of an alert to a user, information for a report and an instruction for taking an action,

wherein the detected attributes received in the stream of attributes are independent of a selection of the event to be detected.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the communications channel comprises a network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the analysis performed to detect an event determines an event by analyzing only attributes received in the stream of detected attributes.

12. A method comprising:

analyzing a video to detect an object;

creating a stream of attributes at a first location by determining attributes of the detected object by analyzing the video;

transmitting the stream of attributes to a second location removed from the first location for subsequent analysis,

wherein the stream of attributes are transmitted to the second location over a communications channel, and

wherein the stream of attributes is sufficient to allow the subsequent analysis to detect an event of the video to provide at least one of an alert to a user, information for a report and an instruction for taking an action, the event not being one of the determined attributes,

wherein the stream of attributes is sufficient to allow detection of the event that is not one of the determined attributes without reprocessing the video of the first location.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

obtaining the video with a video capture apparatus.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the communications channel comprises a network.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes of the stream of attributes are created independently of the subsequent analysis.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the stream of attributes is sufficient to allow detection of an event that is not one of the determined attributes by analyzing a combination of the attributes.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the stream of attributes is transmitted over a communications channel without detection of an event at the first location.

18. A video device, comprising:

a processor at a first location which analyzes a video to detect an object and to determine attributes of the object detected in the video;

an output configured to transmit the attributes determined by the processor over a communications link,

wherein the output is configured to transmit the attributes to a second location removed from the processor for a subsequent analysis of a combination of the attributes at the second location,

wherein the processor determines attributes independently of a subsequent analysis of a combination of attributes to determine an event that is not one of the determined attributes, and

wherein the attributes are sufficient to allow detection of an event to provide at least one of an alert to a user, information for a report and an instruction for taking an action, the event not being one of the determined attributes and being determinable by analyzing the combination of the attributes,

wherein the attributes are sufficient to allow detection of an event without reprocessing the video of the first location.

19. The video device of claim 18, further comprising:

a video capture apparatus to provide the video to the processor.

20. The video device of claim 18, wherein the output transmits a stream of the detected attributes over the communications link.

21. The video device of claim 20, wherein the communications link comprises a network.

22. The video device of claim 18, wherein the attributes are transmitted over the communications channel without detection of an event by the processor.