Method and apparatus for controlling a video surveillance display

• US 8,934,533 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pelco (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Pelco (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Millar, Greg Max, Grigorian, Samuel Nikolay
• Primary Examiner(s): DIEP, NHON THANH
• Application Number:
  US10/988,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20060104345A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,714 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 375/240.01
• 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 13/19673 Addition of time stamp, i.e. time metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19693 using multiple video sources viewed on a single or compound screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6377 directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8453 by locking or enabling a set of features, e.g. optional functionalities in an executable program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling a video surveillance display comprising receiving an MPEG video stream comprising video data in I-frames and P-frames, storing the MPEG video stream in an input buffer, displaying the stored MPEG video stream in full-motion video, monitoring the amount of video data stored in the input buffer; and displaying only the I-frames of the stored MPEG video stream when the amount of video data stored in the input buffer is greater than a predetermined amount.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a video surveillance display Simultaneously displaying video data from a plurality of video sources, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of MPEG video streams comprising video data in I-frames and P-frames from plurality of a video sources;

receiving user input comprising a selected set of a plurality of streams selected from the plurality of MPEG video streams to be displayed simultaneously on a display;

receiving user input comprising the format in which each stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams is to be displayed simultaneously on the display with at least one of the streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams being displayed in full-motion Video;

receiving the selected set of a plurality of streams in an input buffer;

processing the selected set of the plurality of streams according to the received user input concerning the format in which the selected set of the plurality of streams are to be displayed to generate signals for display on the display;

determining if the processor is falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams; and

automatically controlling the format of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams according to available system resources by changing the format of some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams from full-motion video to a mode in which only the I-frames of the some of the plurality of streams are displayed if the processor is falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams without changing the format of a remainder of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams, such that at least one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams continues to be displayed on the display using full-motion video while the some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams are switched to being displayed on the display using only I-frames simultaneously with the at least one stream displayed on the display using full-motion video.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising automatically changing a frame rate of one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams from a first frame rate to a second frame rate with the second frame rate being slower than the first frame rate.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising automatically changing the format in a first stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams back to the previous format when the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising receiving a request to change the format of one of the selected set of the plurality of streams, determining if changing the format of the one of the selected set of the plurality of streams will cause the processor to fall behind in processing the selected set of a plurality of streams, and allowing the requested format change if the requested format change will not cause the processor to fall behind in processing the selected set of a plurality of streams.

5. A method as recited in claim 4 wherein said determining comprises referring to a lookup table to determine the amount of system resources required to display a video stream.

6. A method as recited in claim 4 wherein said determining comprises calculating in real-time the amount of system resources required to display a video stream.

7. A method as recited in claim 4 further comprising providing a signal to a source of an MPEG video stream instructing the source to provide only the I-frames of the MPEG video stream when the processor is falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 further comprising providing a signal to the source of the MPEG video stream to provide I-frames and P-frames of the MPEG video stream when the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically changing the format of the some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of a plurality of streams comprises:

automatically changing the format of the some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams from full-motion video to the mode in which only the I-frames of the some of the plurality of streams are displayed based on whether an amount of video data stored in the input buffer is greater than a predetermined level of video data and based on various determined total amounts of processor usage required to display each of the plurality of streams at various display modes available for each of the plurality of streams, such that the total amount of video data stored in the input buffer for the some of the plurality of streams with the changed format and for the remainder of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams is not more than the predetermined level of video data, and such that the total processor usage required to display the some of the plurality of streams with the changed format and the remainder of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams is not more than a predetermined level of allowed processor usage.

10. An apparatus for controlling a video surveillance display for simultaneously displaying video data from a plurality of video sources comprising:

an input for receiving a plurality of MPEG video streams comprising video data in I-frames and P-frames from a plurality of video sources;

an input for user input receiving a request identifying a selected set of a plurality of streams from the plurality of MPEG video streams to be displayed on a display;

an input for receiving user input identifying the format in which each of the selected set of the plurality of streams is to be displayed simultaneously on the display;

an input buffer for receiving the video data from said selected set of a plurality of streams, said input buffer being connected to said input for receiving a plurality of MPEG video streams; and

a processor for processing the selected set of the plurality of streams according to received user input concerning the format in which the selected set of a plurality of streams are to be displayed to generate signals for display on the display and for determining if the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams, said processor being adapted to automatically control the format of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams according to available system resources by changing the format of some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams from full-motion video to a mode in which only the I-frames of the some of the plurality of streams are displayed if the processor is falling behind in processing the selected set of a plurality of streams without changing the format of a remainder of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams, such that at least one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams continues to be displayed on the display using full-motion video while the some of the plurality of streams in the selected set of the plurality of streams are switched to being displayed on the display using only I-frames simultaneously with the at least one stream displayed on the display using full-motion video.

11. An apparatus as recited in claim 10 wherein said processor provides a signal to be sent to a source of an MPEG video stream instructing the source to provide only the I-frames of the MPEG video stream when the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

12. An apparatus as recited claim 11 wherein said processor provides a signal to be sent to a source of an MPEG video stream to provide I-frames and P-frames of the MPEG video stream when the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

13. An apparatus as recited in claim 10 wherein said processor is adapted to automatically change a frame rate of one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams from a first frame rate to a second frame rate with the second frame rate being slower than the first frame rate.

14. An apparatus as recited in claim 10 further comprising input to receive a request to change the format of one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams and wherein said processor is adapted to determine if changing the format of the one stream in the selected set of the plurality of streams will cause the processor to fall behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams and to allow the requested format change if the requested format change will not cause the processor to fall behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.

15. An apparatus as recited in claim 14 wherein said processor refers to a lookup table to determine the amount of system resources required to display a video stream.

16. An apparatus as recited in claim 10 wherein said processor is adapted to automatically change the format in a first stream in the selected set of streams back to the previous format when the processor is not falling behind in processing the selected set of the plurality of streams.