Relevant image detection in a camera, recorder, or video streaming device

• US 9,077,882 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2006
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Brodsky, Tomas, Lee, Mi-Suen, Ramsey, Carolyn Christine, Lin, Yun-Ting
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLDER, ANNER N
• Application Number:
  US11/397,780
• Publication Number:
  US 20070024707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,381 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240.12, 348/143
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• 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: G08B 13/1961 Movement detection not involving frame subtraction, e.g. motion detection on the basis of luminance changes in the image
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19663 Surveillance related processing done local to the camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/463 by compressing encoding parameters before transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules

Abstract

The filtering tasks that are conventionally applied in a video monitoring application, to distinguish images that may be relevant to the application, are distributed to the image source, or near-source devices. Source devices, such as cameras and playback devices, and near-source devices, such as video concentrators and streaming devices, are configured to include video processing tools that can be used to pre-filter the image data to identify frames or segments of frames that include image information that is likely to be relevant to the receiving video monitoring application. In this manner, the receiving processor need not spend time and resources processing images that are pre-determined to be irrelevant to the receiving application.

Claims

1. A video monitoring system comprising:

a video capture element that is configured to provide a plurality of video images, and

a corresponding image detector that is configured to;

receive the video images, and

determine a relevancy of each image by filtering each image based on one or more image characteristics of the image; and

a remote video processing system that receives the plurality of images and the relevancy of each image from the corresponding image detector, the remote video processing system is configured to process the plurality of images based on the determined relevancy of each image and to dynamically reprogram or reconfigure the corresponding image detector to identify a distinguishing feature by further filtering an object of interest detected by the remote video processing system.

2. The camera of claim 1, including an image encoder that is configured to communicate an encoding of the video images to a receiving system that includes the video monitoring application.

3. The camera of claim 2, wherein the image encoder includes a digital video encoder that is configured to provide differential image encoding.

4. The camera of claim 2, wherein the image encoder includes at least one of:

an NTSC encoder and a PAL encoder.

5. The camera of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to control one or more aspects of the image encoder.

6. The camera of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to provide an indication of the relevancy of each image, and the image encoder is configured to communicate the indication to the receiving system.

7. The camera of claim 2, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to communicate an indication of the relevancy to the receiving system.

8. The camera of claim 1, wherein the one or more image characteristics include at least one of:

a size, a shape, a color, a height, and an altitude.

9. The camera of claim 8, wherein the one or more image characteristics include at least one of:

a texture, a velocity, an orientation, a rigidity, a length, and a height.

10. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to receive parameter values corresponding to the one or more image characteristics that facilitate determining the relevancy.

11. The camera of claim 10, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to transmit other parameter values to other relevant image detectors to facilitate determining subsequent relevancies in other images.

12. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes at each of at least a predefined number of contiguous pixels.

13. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes at each of a predefined arrangement of contiguous pixels.

14. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes within each of a plurality of regions within each image.

15. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes within at least one region of each image that is smaller in area than the image.

16. The camera of claim 1, including a recorder that is configured to record the video images.

17. The camera of claim 16, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to control one or more parameters of the recorder based on the relevancy.

18. The camera of claim 16, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to selectively enable the recorder based on the relevancy.

19. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that is configured to facilitate modification of the one or more image characteristics.

20. The camera of claim 1, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that is configured to facilitate modification of a program used to determine the relevancy.

21. The camera of claim 20, wherein the programmable processor includes a digital signal processor.

22. A video streaming system that includes:

a receiver that is configured to receive video images from one or more video sources,

an encoder that is configured to transmit the video images to a receiving system that includes a remote video monitoring application, and

a relevant image detector that is configured to;

receive the video images, and

determine a relevancy of each image by filtering each image based on one or more image characteristics of the image, based on one or more characteristics associated with target objects of the video monitoring application; and

the remote video monitoring application that receives the plurality of images and the relevancy of each image from the relevant image detector, the remote video monitoring application is configured to process the plurality of images based on the relevancy of each image and to dynamically reprogram or reconfigure the relevant image detector to identify a distinguishing feature by further filtering of target objects detected by the remote video monitoring application.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that is configured to facilitate modification of the one or more image characteristics.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector includes a programmable processor that is configured to facilitate modification of a program used to determine the relevancy.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the programmable processor includes a digital signal processor.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the one or more image characteristics include at least one of:

a size, a shape, a color, a height, and an altitude.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the one or more image characteristics include at least one of:

a texture, a velocity, an orientation, a rigidity, a length, and a height.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the encoder includes a digital video encoder that is configured to provide differential image encoding.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein the encoder includes at least one of:

an NTSC encoder and a PAL encoder.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to control one or more aspects of the encoder.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to provide an indication of the relevancy of each image, and the encoder is configured to communicate the indication to the receiving system.

32. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to receive parameter values corresponding to the one or more image characteristics that facilitate determining the relevancy.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to transmit other parameter values to other relevant image detectors to facilitate determining subsequent relevancies in other images.

34. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes at each of at least a predefined number of contiguous pixels.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes at each of a predefined arrangement of contiguous pixels.

36. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes within each of a plurality of regions within each image.

37. The system of claim 22, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to determine the relevancy based on changes within at least one region of each image that is smaller in area than the image.

38. The system of claim 22, including a recorder that is configured to record the video images.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to control one or more parameters of the recorder based on the relevancy.

40. The system of claim 38, wherein the relevant image detector is configured to selectively enable the recorder based on the relevancy.

41. A method including:

receiving a plurality of images from a video capture element;

filtering each of the plurality of images based on one or more image characteristics of the image;

identifying irrelevant images from the plurality of images based on the filtering;

identifying a relevancy of each of the plurality of images based on the identification of irrelevant images;

processing a plurality of images to identify a relevancy of each image based on characteristics associated with target objects of a video monitoring application,

communicating the plurality of images and the relevancy of each image to a remote video processing system that is configured to process the images of the plurality of images based on the relevancy of each image; and

the remote video processing system dynamically reprogramming or reconfiguring the relevant image detector to identify a distinguishing feature by further filtering an object of interest detected by the remote video processing system.

42. The method of claim 41, including processing the images of the plurality of images based on the relevancy of each image.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein communicating the plurality of images includes encoding the plurality of images based on the relevancy of one or more of the images.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein encoding the images includes adjusting at least one of the image frame rate and the image resolution based on the relevancy of the one or more images.

45. The method of claim 41, wherein the one or more image characteristics include at least one of:

a size, a shape, a color, a height, and an altitude.

46. The method of claim 41, including receiving parameter values corresponding to the one or more image characteristics that facilitate determining the relevancy.

47. The method of claim 41, including recording the images based on the relevancy.