JP4383909B2 - Image collecting apparatus, method thereof, program for executing the method, and storage medium storing the program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for displaying, for example, an image captured and accumulated by a surveillance camera, for example.

  In recent years, as represented by a digital camera or a digital video camera, products capable of electronically recording and reproducing still images and moving images have been released.

  Also, as an advantage of electronic handling, it is possible to have, for example, time and imaging information as attributes together with images. Video editing systems that can express the intention of the photographer by editing still images and videos using these pieces of information have come out.

  For example, an image or video collected from an imaging device and edited (editing software photo retouching software or video editing software) has been commercialized.

  On the other hand, with the recent spread of the Internet, it has become possible to receive and transmit various information worldwide via a network. In addition, network cameras with network connection functions have appeared.

With these developments, it is possible to receive a remote image as a stream and view it on the terminal side. It is also possible to view videos from different regions at the same time. The received live video can be stored by being captured on the terminal side.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-200855

  However, when the amount of image data collected via the network becomes enormous, it is not easy to search for and view a desired stored image.

  One feature of the present invention is to provide a system capable of searching for a huge, diverse, and discontinuous stored image group using a time axis.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the image collecting apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration, for example. That is, the display control means for displaying on the display means a first window for displaying the accumulated moving image imaged by the camera and a second window for displaying a time axis indicating the imaging time of the camera, and the imaging time. The imaging time corresponding to the position on the time axis of the indicator for indicating is determined as the imaging time for starting the reproduction of the accumulated moving image, and the accumulated moving image at the imaging time for starting the determined reproduction is searched. Search means. Further, the display control means displays the distribution state of the imaging period of the accumulated moving image of the camera on the time axis.

  Images from each camera can be easily searched in a short time.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

  A block diagram of the image collecting apparatus is shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 1, an image collecting apparatus 100 stores information such as a memory 101 that stores programs and data necessary for starting up the system, a central processing unit 102 that controls operations and processes, characters, symbols, images, and the like. Display device 103 for displaying, auxiliary storage device (HDD) 104 for storing data and information, keyboard device 105 for inputting characters and the like, pointing device 106 for pointing displayed characters and the like with a cursor, replacement for storing data and information A removable secondary storage device (FDD) 107 and a network interface card NIC 108 connected to a network 200 such as the Internet are connected via a bus 109.

  The memory 101 also stores an information collection program 110, an image reproduction program 120, an attribute display program 130, an instruction program 140, a multi display program 150, and a display control program 160.

  The FDD 107 stores stored images 170 to 17n. Further, it is assumed that the accumulated image groups 180 to 18n are stored in the HDD 104.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a connection relationship between the network camera 300 and the image collection device 100.

  The network camera 300 includes an imaging device 301 that captures an image and an image storage device 302 that stores the captured image, and is connected to the network 200 in the same manner as the image collection device 100. In FIG. 2, only one network camera 300 is depicted on the network 200, but it is assumed that similar network cameras are connected to the plurality of networks 200. Note that the image storage device 302 is not essential, and the image may be directly stored in the image collection device by image collection described later. Further, instead of the network 200, an image stored in the image storage device 302 may be transferred from the secondary storage device 107 as a detachable recording medium to the image collection device.

  Note that the stored images 170 to 17n stored in the image storage device 302 and the secondary storage device 107 include the image and imaging time as supplementary information of each image.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described in detail.

  The collection operation of the image collection program 110 will be described with reference to the operation processing flowchart of FIG.

  First, an image is read in step s301. Images acquired from the secondary storage device 107, the image storage device 302, and the imaging device 301 are read. Specifically, the image file stored in the secondary storage device 107 is read. Further, as image collection, the stored image is read by a network program such as ftp transfer from the image storage device 302 of the network camera 300. In addition, the image captured by the image capturing apparatus 301 stream-distributed via the network is collected.

  In step s302, the network images 300 are stored in the HDD 104 as accumulated images 180 to 18n.

  The stored images 180 to 18n are classified by storing an image file group in one folder for each network camera.

  In step s303, it is confirmed whether all the stored images have been read. Steps s301 to s303 are repeated until all the stored images have been read. Note that the image collection program 110 may repeat steps s301 and s302 without ending when an image is always distributed to the image collection apparatus 100, such as image collection via a network.

  Note that the operation of the image collection program may be activated every hour, or may be activated by specifying a time. Alternatively, the multi-display program 150 may be activated at the same time each time it is activated.

  Next, an image reproduction operation of the image reproduction program 120 will be described with reference to an operation processing flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step s401, a desired one of the stored images stored in the HDD 104 is selected.

  In step s402, the designated position displayed on the screen of the display device 103 is detected.

  In step s403, the image capturing time corresponding to the designated position is determined as the reproduction start time. When there is no designation, it designates from the oldest thing in order of time, for example.

  In step s404, as shown in FIG. 5, an image display window 501 for displaying an image is displayed on the display 103. If it is a still image, an image at the corresponding time is displayed. In the case of a moving image, a video from the reproduction start time to the end is reproduced.

  Next, in step s405, if there remains an image group to be reproduced, the next time is newly designated in s406, and s403 to s405 are repeated. Then, if all are displayed, the process waits in step s401 until a new instruction is generated.

  Note that the image reproduction program 120 can execute image reproduction operations in parallel.

  Next, the operation processing of the attribute display program 130 will be described using the operation processing flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S601, it is detected that an accumulated image captured by a certain network camera has been selected. In step s602, attribute information (information related to time) attached to the selected image is read. In step s603, the read attribute information is displayed.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the period in which the accumulated image exists for a certain period (2002/1/1 to 2002/11/29 in FIG. 7) is displayed on the window 701 in a strip shape. . Specifically, for example, the accumulated image period is identified by painting a period corresponding to the accumulation time of the read attribute value in a band 702 indicating the time axis. Proceeding to step s604, if more image groups remain, the process returns to step s602, and s602 to s604 are repeated again. When the storage period information of all the selected images is displayed, a new instruction is waited in s601.

  Next, the instruction operation of the instruction program 140 will be described using the operation processing flowchart of FIG.

  First, in s801, the position of the cursor 111 shown in FIG. 7 when the pointing device 106 in FIG. 7 is clicked is detected. In step s802, a corresponding time zone is determined from the detected position of the cursor 111. Further, in step s803, the corresponding imaging time is determined from the corresponding band-like time display position.

  In the present embodiment, the time zone by the band display covers the period from 2:00 on 2002/1/1 to 12:00 on 2002/11/29. In the case of FIG. 7, for example, 2002/10/29 8:00 is selected by the pointing device 106.

  In step s804, information related to the stored image and the designated time is transferred to the display control program 160.

  Next, the operation of the image collection apparatus 100 by the multi-display program 150 will be described using the operation processing flowchart of FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the multi-display indicates that a plurality of image windows 501 are reproduced and displayed.

  First, in step s901, for example, six network cameras corresponding to accumulated images to be displayed are designated. In step s902, the attribute display program 130 displays attribute (imaging period) information corresponding to each designated accumulated image. For example, as in the attribute information display window 1001 shown in FIG. 10, information (presence / absence of accumulated image) regarding the imaging period of the accumulated image corresponding to each accumulated image is identified and displayed as band displays 702a to 702f. In the window 1001, the vertical axis indicates the name of each Internet camera, and the horizontal axis indicates the time when the accumulated image is captured.

  In step s903, the display position of the selected accumulated image on the image window is determined. For example, the network cameras are arranged from the upper left in the order specified in step s901.

  Next, in step s904, an initialization event for processing the stored image is thrown to the display control program 160. Thereby, the reproduction start time is designated.

  If occurrence of an event is detected in step s905, the process proceeds to step s906. If it is determined in step s906 that the event that has occurred is from the display control program 160, the process advances to step s907. In step s907, information related to the stored image to be played back, the display position, and the imaging time of the stored image to be played back are passed to the image playback program 120.

  As a result of this processing, as shown in FIG. 10, a plurality of display reproduction programs 120 are operated, and accumulated images captured by each network camera are displayed in a multi-image on the image window 501.

  If it is determined in step s908 that the event is an end event, the multi-display program is ended.

  Next, the display control operation by the display control program 160 will be described using the production process flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step s1101, when occurrence of an event is detected, it progresses to step s1102. If it is determined in step s1102 that the event that has occurred is an event in which information related to the specified stored image and time in s804 of the instruction program 140 is acquired, the process advances to step s1103. In step s1103, the acquired stored image and information related to the specified time are set as a set, and in step s1104, an event is thrown to the multi-display program 150 using this set as an argument (s1104).

  If it is determined in step s1105 that the event is an initialization event for the multi-display program 150, the process advances to step s1106 to determine a default including the stored image and the specified time, and returns it to the multi-display program 150 as an event ( s1104). For example, the playback position specifying the oldest image is returned.

  If it is determined in s1107 that the event is a termination event, the display control program 160 is terminated.

  As described above, a plurality of image groups accumulated discontinuously over a long period of time, that is, display / reproduction of an image at a desired time of accumulated information desired by an instruction in the instruction program 140 from accumulated information. Can be done.

(Second Embodiment)
In the present embodiment, a process will be described in which accumulated information accumulated asynchronously is unified by performing a plurality of controls simultaneously. The configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of FIG. 1 except that the instruction program 140 and the multi-display program are changed to processing as described later.

  The instruction operation by the instruction program 141 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step s1201, an indicator 1301 is displayed on the attribute information display window 1001, as shown in FIG. This bar-shaped indicator 1301 is superimposed in the direction perpendicular to the time axis and can be moved using the pointing device 106.

  In step s1202, for example, when the “OK” button 1302 in FIG. 13 is selected, the display position of the indicator 1301 on the screen is acquired. In s1203, it is determined which time in the time zone the acquired position corresponds to. Then, the process proceeds to step s1204, and information regarding the designated time is transferred to the display control program 160.

  The display control program sends a playback instruction to all the specified stored images to be multi-displayed to the image playback program based on information about the specified time. That is, the image reproduction program 120 searches for images captured at a designated time by all designated network cameras, and reproduces and displays them simultaneously.

  That is, by moving the indicator 1301 on the time axis (horizontal axis) in the direction perpendicular to the time axis, it is possible to reproduce a plurality of accumulated images at the same time at a time, which is efficient.

  It should be noted that by displaying a check box, it is possible to switch whether the image data transfer to the image reproduction program 120 is a specific one or all displayed images.

  In addition, when there is no image accumulated at the designated time, the image accumulated at the nearest time after the designated time may be reproduced. At this time, a red frame may be provided around the image display window 501 or the image may be blinked as shown in FIG. Further, a specific image may be displayed on the image display window 501 as shown in FIG. 15 in order to indicate that no accumulated image exists at the designated time.

  Further, even when a discontinuous image including a period in which no accumulated image exists is reproduced as a multi-image, synchronization can be achieved as follows. FIG. 17 shows a flowchart of the image reproduction operation process of the image reproduction program at this time.

  First, in step s1701, a desired one of the stored images stored in the HDD 104 is selected. In step s1702, the display position of the image displayed on the screen of the display device 103 is designated. In step s1703, the time corresponding to the designated position is determined as the reproduction start time. If there is no image corresponding to the specified time, the time after the determined time and the closest accumulated image exists is determined as the reproduction start time.

  In step s1704, a synchronization signal is generated, and if occurrence of an event is detected, the process proceeds to step s1705. In step s1705, it is determined whether the image capturing time of the stored image of each Internet camera is different from the designated playback start time. If there is no accumulated image at the reproduction start time, the accumulated image at the time when the closest accumulated image exists is reproduced and displayed. On the other hand, if it is determined that the timing event (synchronization signal) is the timing of the reproduction start time specified in s1703, the process proceeds to s1707, and the stored image corresponding to the determined reproduction start time is reproduced and displayed.

  Specifically, the signal for synchronously displaying the multi-display is 12: 00: 00.00, 12 if the designated time point is 12: 00: 00.00 and the moving image is 30 fps. : 10: 00: 00.01, ... 12: 00: 0.29, 12: 00: 01.00. Even if there is an accumulation image of missing teeth from a specified point in time by such processing, it can be reproduced in a unified manner in synchronization with the entire multi-display.

  Note that instead of the stored image displayed in the window 501, an image currently captured by the Internet camera may be switched and displayed.

(Third embodiment)
In the present embodiment, the display state of the storage time period of the stored image is changed according to the number of stored images per unit time of the stored image. The configuration of the image collecting apparatus 100 is the same except for the operation processing of the attribute display program.

  FIG. 17 is an operational process flowchart of the attribute display program in the present embodiment.

  First, in step s1701, it is detected which stored image of which Internet camera has been selected. Next, in step s1702, attribute information (information relating to the imaging time) of the stored image captured by the selected internet camera is extracted. In step s1703, it is determined whether there is an accumulated image from which attribute information has not yet been extracted. If there is an accumulated image from which attribute information has not been extracted, the process returns to step s1702. If it is determined that the extraction of the attribute information of all the stored images has been completed, the process proceeds to step s1704, and a band 1802 indicating the distribution state of the image capturing times of the stored images captured by the Internet camera is displayed on the window 1801 as shown in FIG. Is displayed.

The horizontal direction of the band 1802 indicates the imaging time, and the more black the image is displayed, the more images are captured per unit time. For example, if there is variation in accumulation from 0 to 500 sheets per unit time, if the density that can be expressed on the display is 0 to 100, the density to be displayed is changed every time 500/100 = 5 sheets are accumulated. Good. For example, if the number of sheets per unit time is 0, the density is 0, the density is 200, the density is 40, and the density is 100. Displaying the distribution state of such an accumulated image has been proposed, for example, for a system that detects an abnormality and starts accumulation of an image, and is useful for such a system.

  By designating a position corresponding to a desired time in the band 1802, a stored image at that time can be searched, and reproduction display can be performed on the window 501. Note that the number of captured images per unit time of the accumulated image may be indicated by changing the hue instead of the shade.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 19, the height direction of the band can be assigned to information relating to the size of the accumulated image. Specifically, for example, the image size 640 × 320 is converted into a “height” such as 100 dots of pixels, 320 × 160 is converted to 50 dots of pixels, and 160 × 80 is converted to “heights” of 25 dots of pixels.

  In order to execute the display as shown in FIG. 19, it is necessary to hold not only the imaging time but also the image size of the accumulated image as the attribute information of the accumulated image. The information shown in FIG. 19 can be displayed by reading out the information regarding the imaging time and the image size as necessary.

  As described above, it is possible to easily specify an accumulated image at a desired time by clearly indicating a change in the distribution of the number of image frames in a shade for an image group that is randomly accumulated over a long period of time.

  In the above-described embodiment, information accumulated over a long period of time in multiple areas may be handled in a unified manner at each local time instead of being searched by the unified international standard time GMT. For example, when the reproduction of one day of a certain day is designated, synchronized display such as the morning sun rising from the darkness in the middle of the night to the daytime and the nighttime can be performed on the accumulated images in all regions.

Configuration diagram of image acquisition device Overall system diagram. The operation processing flowchart of the image collection of an image collection device. The operation processing flowchart of the image reproduction of an image collection device. The figure which shows an example of an image display window. The operation processing flowchart which displays the attribute (imaging time) of an image collection device. The figure which shows an example which displays the time when the accumulation image was imaged. The operation processing flowchart of the reproduction | regeneration instruction | indication of an image collection device. The multi-image display process flowchart of an image collection device. The figure which shows an example of a multi-image display. The display control processing flowchart of an image collection device. The operation processing flowchart of the reproduction instruction of the image collecting apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the window for performing a reproduction | regeneration instruction | indication. The figure which shows an example of an image display window. The figure which shows an example of an image display window. The multi-image display process flowchart of an image collection device. The operation processing flowchart which displays distribution of the accumulation image of an image collection device. The figure which shows an example of the window which displayed distribution of the accumulation image of an image collection device. The figure which shows an example of the window which displayed distribution of the accumulation image of an image collection device.

Explanation of symbols

100 Image collection device 101 Memory 102 CPU
103 Display device 300 Network camera

Claims (5)

Display control means for causing the display means to display a first window for displaying the accumulated moving image captured by the camera and a second window for displaying a time axis indicating the imaging time of the camera;
Determine the imaging time corresponding to the position in the time axis of the indicator for indicating the imaging time as an imaging time to start playback of the accumulated video image, storing moving image imaging time to start playing the determined And a search means for searching for
The display control means displays the distribution state of the imaging period of the accumulated moving image of the camera on the time axis.   The image collection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit further performs display control so that information regarding the number of pixels of the accumulated moving image is indicated in a direction perpendicular to the time axis. An indicator for instructing the imaging time by displaying on the display means a first window for displaying the accumulated moving image captured by the camera and a second window for displaying a time axis indicating the imaging time of the camera. wherein determining the imaging time corresponding to the position on the time axis as an imaging time to start playback of the accumulated video image to display the accumulated moving image imaging time to start playing the determined in the first window A display method in an image collecting apparatus,
A display method of displaying a distribution state of an imaging period of an accumulated moving image of the camera on a time axis of the second window. On the computer,
A display control procedure for causing the display means to display a first window for displaying the accumulated moving image captured by the camera and a second window for displaying a time axis indicating the imaging time of the camera;
Determine the imaging time corresponding to the position in the time axis of the indicator for indicating the imaging time as an imaging time to start playback of the accumulated video image, storing moving image imaging time to start playing the determined And perform a search procedure to search for
The display control procedure displays a distribution state of an imaging period of the accumulated moving image of the camera on the time axis.   A storage medium readable by an image collecting apparatus storing the program according to claim 4.

Images