JP4640191B2 - Surveillance camera system and surveillance camera direction control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a surveillance camera system and a direction control method for a surveillance camera, and more particularly to a direction control technique for a surveillance camera that can be rotationally driven in a pan direction and a tilt direction.

  In the so-called dome-type surveillance camera device in which the cover of the device body is formed in a dome shape and installed on the ceiling of the room, the omnidirectional monitoring is performed by rotating the built-in camera in the pan and tilt directions. There is something that can do. In such a monitoring camera device, various methods are known as a method for controlling the rotational drive in the pan direction and the tilt direction of the camera. For example, an operation button for executing direction control in each of the pan direction and the tilt direction is provided, and a method of operating in a desired direction by pressing these operation buttons or a slide bar is provided. A method of sliding and operating, and a method of performing direction control in the pan direction and the tilt direction using a pointing device such as a mouse or a joystick are known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  By the way, the case where the dome type surveillance camera apparatus is installed in the indoor ceiling substantially parallel to the ground to monitor the room is assumed. Then, the movable range of rotation in the tilt direction of the camera with respect to the direction parallel to the installation surface (ceiling) is set to approximately 180 degrees, and the view field of the camera is adjusted to the monitoring subject passing under the monitoring camera device, For example, by operating the joystick on the console, the operator rotates the camera from a direction in which the tilt angle is close to 0 degree to a direction that is directly below the tilt direction, and further adjusts the field of view to the monitoring subject who passes through as it is. Suppose you continue to rotate. In this case, if the monitoring subject passes just below the monitoring camera device, the up and down direction of the monitoring image captured by the camera is reversed, making it difficult for the monitoring person (operator) to see.

In view of this, the fact that the up-and-down direction of the monitoring image is reversed due to the rotation angle in the tilt direction is corrected by a 180-degree rotation in the pan direction. Therefore, there is known a technique related to a monitoring camera device that can perform good monitoring without causing frequent rotation of 180 degrees in the pan direction (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP-A-8-181891 JP 2004-56239 A

  By the way, in the dome-type surveillance camera device, when the imaging direction of the camera approaches the rotation axis of the pan due to the rotation in the tilt direction, the center of rotation of the pan enters the field of view of the camera. As described above, when the pan rotation center exists in the field of view of the camera, when the camera is rotated in the pan direction, the motion of the captured image becomes a curved motion. More specifically, for example, if rotation in the pan direction is performed with the rotation angle in the tilt direction of the camera relative to the direction parallel to the installation surface such as the ceiling being set to about 90 degrees, The motion of the captured image is a substantially circular motion. For this reason, the movement of the hand for the pan operation by the operator and the rotation direction of the surveillance video may be reversed, causing a sense of incongruity in operation and hindering the operation of the sensory camera direction. become.

  Even if the surveillance camera device described in Patent Document 2 is used, although the problem of frequent pan rotation operation for correction near the camera is improved, the pan rotation center is the camera's field of view as described above. There is no change in the above problem that the pan operation direction and the pan movement direction on the monitoring screen are reversed when the panning rotation operation is performed with the tilt angle within the panning direction.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the purpose of the present invention is on the monitoring screen even when the pan rotation is performed in a state where the pan rotation center exists in the field of view of the camera. Surveillance camera system and direction of the surveillance camera that can eliminate the inconsistency between the movement of the image of the user and the pan operation of the operator, greatly reduce the sense of incongruity in operation, and improve the usability of the camera direction operation It is to provide a control method.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention described in claim 1
The surveillance camera (11) that can be driven to rotate in the pan direction and the tilt direction respectively, and the pointing device (38) control the rotation of the surveillance camera at a desired angle in each direction and transmit from the surveillance camera. Camera system (1) including a camera control device (12) that receives received video data and a display device (14) that receives the video data transmitted from the camera control device and displays it as a monitoring video In
The camera control device includes:
Pan / tilt angle determination for determining each rotation angle in the pan direction and tilt direction based on a two-dimensional direction specified by the first and second cursor positions by the pointing device on the monitoring video displayed on the display device Means (32, 33);
Pan rotation center presence / absence determining means (32, 33) for determining the presence / absence of the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction on the monitoring video,
When it is determined that the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction exists on the monitoring video, the position coordinate by the first cursor position designation is below the horizontal line passing through the rotation center coordinate on the monitoring video. Only in this case, the surveillance camera system (1) is configured to control the rotation angle in the pan direction determined by the pan / tilt angle determination means to be changed in the reverse direction.
Is to provide.

The invention described in claim 2
A surveillance camera (11) that can be driven to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction, and a pointing device (38) to control rotation of the desired angle in each direction with respect to the desired surveillance camera. In a surveillance camera system (1) comprising a camera control device (12) that receives video data transmitted from the camera and a display device that receives the video data transmitted from the camera control device and displays it as a surveillance video In the surveillance camera direction control method,
Based on the two-dimensional directions by the first and second cursor position designations (S701, S801) by the pointing device on the monitoring video displayed on the display device, the rotation angles in the pan direction and the tilt direction are determined. Pan / tilt angle determination step (S803);
A pan rotation center presence / absence determination step (S804) for determining the presence or absence of the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction on the monitoring video;
When it is determined that the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction exists on the monitoring video, the position coordinate by the first cursor position designation is below the horizontal line passing through the rotation center coordinate on the monitoring video. Only in the case, the rotation angle in the pan direction determined in the pan / tilt angle determination step is changed to the reverse direction (S805).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a direction control method for a surveillance camera, characterized in that the control is performed as described above.

  According to the present invention, when the operator operates the pointing device to pan the surveillance video in a desired direction in a state where the panning rotation center exists in the surveillance video of the surveillance camera displayed on the display device. Since the two-dimensional direction specified by the first and second cursor positions and the moving direction of the monitoring video on the screen can be substantially matched, the sense of discomfort in the operation of the pointing device can be dramatically improved. Good usability of the direction operation can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the entire surveillance camera system in the embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a monitoring camera system 1 includes a monitoring camera 11 installed on a ceiling or the like of a room substantially parallel to the ground, and a camera control device 12 for controlling the entire monitoring camera system via a network 13. In addition to being connected to each other, a display device 14 for displaying a monitoring video imaged by the monitoring camera 11 is connected to the camera control device 12.

  In the monitoring camera system 1, the monitoring camera 11 may be connected not only to one but also to a plurality of networks 13. However, in this embodiment, for convenience of explanation, one monitoring camera 11 is connected to the network 13. It shall be connected. In this embodiment, the surveillance camera system 1 is configured as a network camera system. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the surveillance camera 11 and the camera control device 12 are connected via a dedicated signal line without going through the network 13. Form may be sufficient.

  Next, a schematic internal block diagram of the monitoring camera 11 is shown in FIG. In the figure, the surveillance camera 11 includes a network interface unit (network I / F unit) 21, a camera control unit 22, a video camera unit 23, and a pan / tilt drive unit 24.

  The monitoring camera 11 receives a command and command parameters (details will be described later) converted into packet data transmitted from the camera control device 12 at the network I / F unit 21, and receives commands and command parameters from the received packet data. Extracted and supplied to the camera control unit 22. Then, the camera control unit 22 controls the pan / tilt drive unit 24 based on the supplied command and command parameters to rotate the video camera unit 23 in the pan direction and the tilt direction.

  The video data captured by the video camera unit 23 is encoded by the camera control unit 22 by, for example, the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) method and supplied to the network I / F unit 21 together with the identifier given to the monitoring camera 11. Then, it is converted into packet data by the network I / F unit 21 and transmitted to the network 13. Of course, other encoding methods may be employed, and the video data may be transmitted without being compressed.

  The pan / tilt drive unit 24 has a function of rotationally driving the video camera unit 23 in the pan direction and the tilt direction. In the present embodiment, the video camera unit is based on a direction parallel to the installation surface of the surveillance camera 11. The tilt movable range of 23 in the tilt direction is approximately 180 degrees, and the pan movable range in the pan direction is approximately 360 degrees with a reference line perpendicular to the reference direction as a central axis.

  Next, a schematic functional block diagram of the camera control device 12 is shown in FIG. In the figure, the camera control device 12 includes a system control unit 31, an operation control unit 32, a mouse event processing unit 33, a command conversion unit 34, a network I / F unit 35, a drawing processing unit 36, and a display. And a control unit 37.

  A mouse 38 is connected to the operation control unit 32. The mouse 38 is not limited to a general mouse, and a pointing device capable of displaying a cursor on the display device 14 may be used.

  The system control unit 31 has a function of controlling the entire camera control device 12, and includes an operation control unit 32, a mouse event processing unit 33, a command conversion unit 34, a network I / F unit 35, and a drawing processing unit 36. And the display control unit 37 are functionally connected to each other. The system control unit 31 also has a function of expanding JPEG data supplied from the monitoring camera 11.

  The operation control unit 32 receives an operation signal based on the operation of the mouse 38 by the operator as an input signal, detects the state in which the mouse 38 is moved and the state in which the button provided is operated, and the system control unit 31. Has a function of outputting an interrupt signal and mouse cursor position coordinate data.

  The mouse event processing unit 33 executes an interrupt process to be described later when the system control unit 31 instructs the start of the interrupt process. The command conversion unit 34 converts pan coordinate values and tilt coordinate values set as destination points in the pan direction and the tilt direction, zoom setting values of the monitoring camera 11, and the like into command parameters, and sends them to the network I / F unit 35 together with the commands. It has a function to supply.

  Here, an example of the format of commands and command parameters is shown in FIG. As a specific example with reference to the figure, when the pan angle of the monitoring camera 11 is set to 60 degrees, the camera control device 12 transmits “SET PAN = 60” to the setting destination monitoring camera 11, The monitoring camera 11 that has received the command and the command parameter sets the pan angle of the video camera 23 to 60 degrees by the camera control unit 22 controlling the pan / tilt driving unit 24, and then sets “OK PAN = 60” to the camera. It transmits to the control apparatus 12. When the camera control device 12 acquires the currently set tilt angle of the monitoring camera 11, the camera control device 12 transmits “GET TILT” to the acquisition monitoring camera 11, and this command and command parameters are transmitted. The received surveillance camera 11 transmits the currently set tilt angle (for example, 120 degrees) to the camera control device 12 as a command “OK TILT = 120” and a command parameter.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 3, the network I / F unit 35 converts the command and command parameters supplied from the command conversion unit 34 into packet data, sends the packet data to the network 13, and supplies it from the camera control device 12 via the network 13. It has a function of extracting a command and command parameters or encoded video data from the packet data and supplying it to the system control unit 31.

  The drawing processing unit 36 generates drawing data for drawing the mouse cursor based on the position coordinates of the cursor of the mouse 38 supplied from the operation control unit 32 via the system control unit 31 and supplies the drawing data to the display control unit 37. Have The display control unit 37 generates a window to be displayed on the display device 14 under the control of the system control unit 31, maps the monitoring video displayed in the window, and outputs the video signal to the display device 14. It has the function to do.

  Next, a control screen displayed on the display device 14 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to an example of the control screen in FIG. In FIG. 9A, the display device 14 displays window data supplied from the camera control device 12, and a pan / tilt operation area 51 and a zoom operation area 52 are displayed on the monitoring video in the window. Is set.

  In order to control the direction of the surveillance camera 11, the mouse cursor of the mouse 38 is placed at a desired position in the pan / tilt operation area 51, and the movement start position is designated by pressing the button of the mouse 38 (first cursor). Specify the position (hereinafter, mouse down). Here, the position a shown in FIG. Next, the mouse cursor is moved in the desired direction from the position a while keeping the button pressed down by a desired distance (hereinafter referred to as mouse drag), the button is stopped and the movement end position is designated (second cursor position designation. , Mouse up). Here, the position b shown in FIG.

  The mouse event processing unit 33 determines the panning direction and the panning direction of the monitoring camera 11 so that the screen corresponding to the position a appears to move to the position b based on the distance and direction of the mouse drag from the mouse down position to the mouse up position. The angle setting value in the tilt direction is calculated and converted into a command parameter by the command conversion unit 34, and the command and the command parameter are transmitted from the network I / F unit 35 to the monitoring camera 11.

  Once the mouse is down, the movement information on the screen is continuously reflected in the pan and tilt operations of the monitoring camera 11 until the mouse is up, so that the operator can freely slide the monitoring video itself with the mouse 38. Can be operated with a sense. FIG. 5B shows a display example in which the video displayed on the display device 14 is slid by manipulating the pan and tilt angles of the surveillance camera 11 in this way.

  Also, with regard to the zoom operation of the surveillance camera 11, the zoom operation of the video camera unit 23 is performed in accordance with the distance and direction of the mouse drag by the same method as in the case of the pan / tilt operation in the zoom operation area 52, and shooting is performed. The angle of view of the video can be changed. For example, by dragging the mouse cursor from the lower position c in the zoom operation area 52 to the upper position d in the screen of FIG. 7B, the image from the monitoring camera 11 is displayed as shown in FIG. You can zoom in on the data.

  As described above, by controlling pan / tilt / zoom of the surveillance camera 11 by operating the mouse 38, the direction control and zoom control of the surveillance camera 11 can be easily and intuitively performed, and the usability is improved. can do.

  By the way, as described above, when the shooting direction of the monitoring camera 11 approaches the rotation axis of the pan by rotating the monitoring camera 11 in the tilt direction, the rotation center of the pan enters the display image. When the rotation operation in the pan direction is performed in a state where the rotation center of the pan exists in the display image, the movement of the display image becomes a curve movement. For this reason, if all the movements of the mouse 38 in the left-right direction on the screen in the mouse drag are converted into the pan rotation operation as they are, the mouse drag direction and the moving direction of the display image may not coincide with each other. End up.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6A, when the panning rotation center p exists in the display screen and the mouse drag is performed from the position e to the position f, the display image is clockwise in the drawing. There is no sense of incongruity for the operator because the pan rotates. However, when the mouse drag is performed from the position g to the position h, the direction of the mouse drag and the direction of the pan rotation are reversed, so that the operator feels uncomfortable and the operability is remarkably deteriorated.

  In order to solve this problem, in the present embodiment, when the pan rotation center p exists in the display image, the position coordinate of the pan rotation center p is compared with the position coordinate of the mouse down, and the mouse drag is performed. A process of correcting in a direction in which a sense of incongruity in operation due to the direction and the rotation direction of the pan hardly occurs is executed. Hereinafter, a specific example of the correction process will be described.

  FIG. 6B is an example of a display screen for explaining a specific example of the correction processing in the present embodiment. In the figure, since the mouse drag from the position i to the position j at the upper part of the display screen and the mouse drag from the position k to the position l at the lower part of the display screen have the same drag directions, both display images are displayed. It will rotate in the same pan direction (clockwise in the figure). Here, when the screen area is divided vertically with the horizontal line 61 based on the rotation center p of the pan as a boundary and the mouse is dragged on the lower side of the screen area, that is, when the mouse is dragged from the position k to the position l. Controls to reverse the pan rotation direction of the monitoring camera 11. By executing the correction process in this way, it is possible to greatly reduce operational discomfort.

  Next, the flow of the operation of the camera control device 12 in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, the mouse down process of the mouse 38 will be described with reference to FIG. When the mouse is operated by operating the mouse 38, the operation control unit 32 outputs an interrupt signal and mouse-down position coordinate data to the system control unit 31 (step S701), and the mouse event processing unit 33 Then, it is determined whether or not a mouse down event is detected in the pan / tilt operation area 51 based on the mouse down position coordinate data (step S702).

  When a mouse down event is detected in the pan / tilt operation area 51, the currently set pan angle and tilt angle are acquired from the monitoring camera 11 (step S703), and the temporary storage unit ( A pan / tilt start flag is set in (not shown) (step S704).

  If no mouse down event is detected in the pan / tilt operation area 51 in step S702, or after the process in step S704, the mouse event processing unit 33 determines that the mouse down event is in the zoom operation area based on the position coordinate data of the mouse down. It is determined whether or not it has been detected within 52 (step S705).

  If a mouse down event is detected in the zoom operation area 52, the currently set zoom setting value is acquired from the monitoring camera 11 (step S706), and a zoom start flag is set in the temporary storage unit of the system control unit 31. Then, the mouse down process is terminated (step S707). On the other hand, if no mouse down event is detected in the zoom operation area 52 in step S705, the mouse down process is also terminated.

  The pan / tilt start flag and the zoom start flag are flags indicating that the panning or tilting direction is being rotated by a mouse drag and the zooming is being performed, respectively. While these flags are set in the temporary recording unit, the camera control device 12 instructs the surveillance camera 11 to perform pan / tilt / zoom operations in conjunction with mouse operations.

  Next, the mouse drag process of the mouse 38 will be described with reference to FIG. When a mouse drag is performed by the operator, the mouse event processing unit 33 calculates a relative position from the mouse down position to the current mouse cursor position to obtain a moving distance on the display screen (step S801).

  Next, the mouse event processing unit 33 determines whether or not the pan / tilt start flag is set in the temporary storage unit of the system control unit 31 (step S802), and the pan / tilt start flag is set. Is a rotation angle in the pan direction and the tilt direction to make the display image appear to slide on the screen based on the pan and tilt angle setting values of the monitoring camera 11 and the movement distance on the display screen when the mouse is down. A value is calculated (step S803).

  Next, the mouse event processing unit 33 determines whether or not the pan rotation center p exists in the display image when the mouse is down (step S804), and the pan rotation center p exists in the display image. If the first mouse-down position coordinate exists below the horizontal line 61 with the pan rotation center p as a reference, correction is performed so that the rotation in the pan direction is reversed (step S805).

  Regarding the presence / absence determination of the pan rotation center p on the display screen and the acquisition of the position coordinates of the pan rotation center p, the tilt in the image displayed from the current tilt angle setting value and zoom setting value of the monitoring camera 11 is displayed. This is done by calculating the range of angle values.

  When it is determined in step S804 that the pan rotation center p does not exist in the display screen when the mouse is down, or after the processing in step S805, commands and command parameters based on the angle setting values in the pan direction and the tilt direction are monitored. The data is sent to the camera 11 (step S806).

  If it is determined in step S802 that the pan / tilt start flag is not set, or after the processing in step S806, the mouse event processing unit 33 sets the zoom start flag in the temporary storage unit of the system control unit 31. If the zoom start flag is set, the zoom setting value is calculated based on the zoom setting value of the monitoring camera 11 when the mouse is down and the amount of movement on the display screen (step S807). Step S808). Then, a command and command parameters based on the calculated zoom setting value are sent to the monitoring camera 11 and the mouse drag process is terminated (step S809). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S807 that the zoom start flag is not set, the mouse drag process is also terminated.

  Next, the mouse up processing of the mouse 38 will be described with reference to FIG. When detecting the mouse up event, the mouse event processing unit 33 cancels the pan / tilt start flag and the zoom start flag (step S901), stops the control operation, and ends the mouse up process.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, in a state where the panning rotation center p exists in the monitoring video of the monitoring camera 11 displayed on the display device 14, the operator pans the monitoring video in a desired direction. When the mouse 38 is operated to be moved, the direction of the mouse drag and the moving direction of the monitoring video on the screen can be made substantially coincident with each other. It is possible to obtain good usability of the 11 direction operations.

  In addition, the operator can easily and intuitively operate pan / tilt / zoom of the monitoring screen using the mouse 38 while viewing the display screen of the display device 14.

  The present invention is useful in a dome type surveillance camera system installed on a ceiling or the like in a room.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an entire surveillance camera system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic internal block diagram of a surveillance camera in an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of a camera control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed the example of the format of a command and a command parameter. It is the figure which showed the example of the control screen displayed on the display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the example of the control screen displayed on the display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 shows an example of a flowchart for explaining mouse down processing of the camera control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 shows an example of a flowchart for explaining mouse drag processing of the camera control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 shows an example of a flowchart for explaining a mouse up process of the camera control apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Surveillance camera system 11 Surveillance camera 12 Camera control apparatus 13 Network 14 Display apparatus 21 Network I / F part 22 Camera control part 23 Video camera part 24 Pan / tilt drive part 31 System control part 32 Operation control part 33 Mouse event process part 34 Command conversion unit 35 Network I / F unit 36 Drawing processing unit 37 Display control unit 38 Mouse

Claims (2)

A surveillance camera that can be driven to rotate in the pan direction and the tilt direction respectively, and controls the rotation of a desired angle in each direction with respect to the surveillance camera by a pointing device, and receives video data transmitted from the surveillance camera In a surveillance camera system comprising a camera control device that performs and a display device that receives the video data transmitted from the camera control device and displays it as a surveillance video.
The camera control device includes:
Pan / tilt angle determination for determining each rotation angle in the pan direction and tilt direction based on a two-dimensional direction specified by the first and second cursor positions by the pointing device on the monitoring video displayed on the display device Means,
Pan rotation center presence / absence determining means for determining presence / absence of rotation center coordinates in the pan direction on the monitoring video,
When it is determined that the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction exists on the monitoring video, the position coordinate by the first cursor position designation is below the horizontal line passing through the rotation center coordinate on the monitoring video. Only in such a case, the surveillance camera system is configured to control to change the rotation angle in the pan direction determined by the pan / tilt angle determination means in the reverse direction. A surveillance camera that can be driven to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction, and a pointing device that controls rotation of the desired angle in each direction with respect to the desired surveillance camera, and video data transmitted from the surveillance camera In a surveillance camera direction control method in a surveillance camera system comprising: a camera control device that receives the image data; and a display device that receives the video data transmitted from the camera control device and displays the image data as a surveillance video.
Pan / tilt angle determination for determining each rotation angle in the pan direction and tilt direction based on a two-dimensional direction specified by the first and second cursor positions by the pointing device on the monitoring video displayed on the display device Steps,
A pan rotation center presence / absence determining step for determining the presence / absence of a rotation center coordinate in the pan direction on the monitoring video,
When it is determined that the rotation center coordinate in the pan direction exists on the monitoring video, the position coordinate by the first cursor position designation is below the horizontal line passing through the rotation center coordinate on the monitoring video. Only in such a case, the surveillance camera direction control method is characterized in that control is performed to change the rotation angle in the pan direction determined in the pan / tilt angle determination step to the reverse direction.

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