JPH08180283A - Recording area-sharing picture monitor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a recording area sharing picture monitor device which shares a picture recording area effectively using a picture memory and presents a display picture easy to see. CONSTITUTION: A shared picture memory 7a where the picture signal of each camera 2 or terminal separated from inputs corresponding to cameras 2 or lines corresponding to terminals is recorded, a monitor display means 22 which simultaneously monitors and displays plural recorded contents of the shared picture memory 7a, and a use storage memory 8 where use/disuse of each camera 2 is stored, are provided, and recording areas of the shared picture memory 7a are switched in accordance with stored use/disuse to record and display out pictures. The distinction of use/disuse is stored in every camera 2 or terminal, and identification information of the camera 2 or terminal is simultaneously displayed in the case of monitor display.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote image monitoring system for monitoring an abnormal state such as crime prevention and disaster prevention at a remote monitoring center based on image data taken by a camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a system shown in FIG. 6 as a system for monitoring an image of a remote place via a telephone line.
This type of remote image surveillance system uses a camera to prevent
An abnormal state in disaster prevention is multiplexed with data from other sensors and voice data and automatically transmitted to a remote monitoring center. In the figure, 1 is a terminal device at a remote location, 2 is a camera for taking an image of, for example, a person's entry, fire occurrence, etc., 3 is a sensor for detecting the above abnormality, and 4 is an image input unit for processing the image signal of the camera. Is. Reference numeral 5 is a sensor input unit that processes the input of the sensor 3, 6 is a control unit that multiplexes and transmits image signals, sensor data, and sound, and 7 is a unit that temporarily stores the image signals from the cameras and transmits the image data that is transmitted to the monitoring center. An image memory to store, 11 is a communication unit of the terminal device. Further, 20 is a monitoring center, 21 is a communication unit,
22 is a monitor television.

In the above structure, the image from the camera 2 is temporarily stored in the image memory 7 of the terminal device 1 sequentially for each screen. When any one of the sensors 3 detects an abnormal state, the control unit 6 extracts an image signal from the image memory 7 and transmits the data to the monitoring center 20. The image memory 7 stores screen information from a plurality of cameras 2, and all these images are sequentially transmitted to the monitoring center 20. The storage area of the image memory is determined corresponding to the camera 2, and a storage area unique to each is determined.

[0004]

Since the conventional image monitoring apparatus is configured as described above, the image recording area for each terminal or camera is determined correspondingly, so that the terminal or camera may be different depending on circumstances. When it is not used, the corresponding image recording area is not used and is not displayed, so that there is a problem that recording is wasteful and difficult to see.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object of the invention is to obtain a recording area sharing image monitoring apparatus which shares an image recording area and has a display screen which is easy to see.

[0006]

A recording area shared image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention includes a shared image memory for recording an image signal from each camera or terminal separated from an input corresponding to each camera or a line corresponding to a terminal, The shared image memory is provided with a monitor display means for simultaneously monitoring and displaying a plurality of recorded contents, and a use storage memory for storing the use / non-use state of each camera, and the shared image is stored according to the stored use / non-use type. The recording area of the memory is switched to record and output is displayed.

Furthermore, the distinction between use and non-use is stored for each camera or terminal, and in the case of monitor display, the identification information of the camera or terminal is displayed at the same time.

[0008]

According to the recording area shared image monitoring apparatus of the present invention, the image signal is separated from the voice / data / image signal sent as an input corresponding to each camera or through the line from the terminal and recorded in the shared image memory. To be done. At this time, the use / non-use of each terminal or camera is stored, and by this distinction, the recording order in the shared image memory is specified without any empty area, the image is recorded, and the image is displayed on the monitor.

Further, when the monitor is displayed, the identification information of the camera or the terminal is added to each screen and displayed.

[0010]

【Example】

Example 1. An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image monitoring security system including an image monitoring apparatus of the present invention and a monitoring center. Figure 2
FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an image memory forming a central part of the present invention and a recording and transmitting method of the image memory by a control unit. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the image memory. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of split screen display on a monitor television. In FIG. 1, 1a is a terminal device, and 7a is an image memory including a control portion according to the configuration of the present invention. 8
Is a memory for the number of cameras for storing the number of cameras and their identification numbers as required, and 9 is a setting input unit for setting use / nonuse of each camera. Other cameras 2, sensor 3, image input unit 4, sensor input unit 5, control unit 6, voice input unit 1
0, the communication unit 11 is a component equivalent to the conventional one. Also,
Communication unit 21 and monitor TV2 included in the monitoring center 20
2, the alarm device 24, and the telephone 25 are the same components as the conventional ones.

The operation of the terminal device 1a having the above-mentioned configuration, particularly the storage operation of the image memory will be described. With this configuration, it is assumed that there are four cameras. When all the plurality of cameras 2 operate normally and all the image signals thereof are recorded, the same image accumulating operation as the conventional one is performed. That is, a case where there are four cameras 2 in FIG. 3C will be described. As for the images by the cameras # 1 to # 4, the images at the time indicated by 1 in FIG. 3C are sequentially recorded from the left end to the right end in the uppermost row in FIG. 3C. Then, in the intermediate stage shown by 2, the video at the next predetermined time is recorded from the left end to the right end in the order of # 1 to # 4, and then the video signal after a further predetermined time is sequentially transferred from the lower left end to the lower right end. Will be recorded. The video signal at the subsequent time is overlaid on the area 1 again. After that, the overlay is repeated in sequence, and according to this example, four of the three times are displayed.
The images from the cameras are sequentially recorded in the image memory.

When any of the sensors 3 detects an abnormality in this state, the video signal at the time immediately before that and the video signals at the two subsequent times corresponding to the time of the sensor input shown in FIG. Video signals are sequentially transmitted to the monitoring center. On the monitor TV 22 of the monitoring center,
In the form shown in FIG. 4A, the image signal is displayed in correspondence with the image signal of the image memory of FIG. In FIG. 4A, 1 to 4 correspond to camera numbers, and the upper to lower rows show the passage of time. In the above operation, assume that, for example, two cameras are not in use. When the cameras # 3 and # 4 are not used, in the conventional fixed area system, the image memories # 3 and # 4 are not used and the screens 3 and 4 of the monitor TV 22 are blank.

In the present system, this area is effectively used by the flow shown in FIG. 2, and accordingly, it is also effectively displayed on the monitor TV. That is, by setting input 9, the cameras # 3 and # 4
When is turned off, two image memory areas are used in conjunction with this. It should be noted that this setting input may be automatically input by detecting a sensor or turning on / off the camera, or may be set by external input from a remote monitoring center or the like. In any case, the number of effective cameras is read in step S2 of the flow shown in FIG. In the following description, as described above, the camera is an example in which two cameras are used.
The process branches to Y in step S5. Then, in step S6, the area of the image memory is switched. Step S11
As a result, the area of the image memory 7a is divided into addresses corresponding to two units and is addressed, and the images from the two cameras are alternately recorded at the next address 2. Then, when recording for 12 screens is performed in step S12, overlaying is performed in step S13. Hereinafter, this operation is repeated. When the sensor detects an abnormality in step S21, the corresponding address is detected in step S22, the transmission address is detected by the number-of-cameras memory 8, and transmission is started from the corresponding address screen in step S23. Then, send the required 1-block image.

The use situation of the image memory 7a will be further described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3B is a diagram for explaining the usage status of the 12-screen area when two cameras are used as described above. In normal operation, only the images from cameras # 1 and # 2 are recorded, and the upper row, left side, right side, and below move to the lower row with the lapse of time, and the lower left row and right side record, and then return to the upper row again. The operation is repeated. When the sensor detects an abnormality, the image signal two predetermined times before the detection time and the image signals four recording times after the sensor detection time are sent to the monitoring center. In this way, in the surveillance center, the image data sent via the telephone line is
A screen from two times before the sensor detection time and four screens after the detection time are displayed on the 12-split screen of the monitor TV. In this way, even when the number of operating cameras is reduced,
The TV display corresponding to the image memory can be effectively used, and more abundant information can be transmitted and displayed. Note that FIG.
(A) is a diagram for explaining a recording state of the image memory when the number of cameras is limited to one. In this case, for example, from the video recording four screens before the sensor detection time, the image recording after the sensor time is performed. It shows that an image signal of 8 video recording time can be recorded and transmitted. In addition, FIG.
It is a figure which shows the example at the time of dividing a display screen of TV into not four but four. In this case, in the normal state, a four-division screen corresponding to four cameras is displayed. However, in the case of two cameras described in the above embodiment, only one video screen can be displayed during normal operation. On the other hand, when the number of cameras is reduced by half, a double image screen can be displayed.

Example 2. Another embodiment of the image monitoring apparatus according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the image monitoring apparatus according to the second embodiment. In the figure, 1b is a terminal device for transmitting all image signals, 20b is a monitoring center device, 7b is an image memory, 8b is a camera number memory, and 9b is a setting input. The components other than the above are the same as those in the first embodiment.
It is equivalent to the component of. In this embodiment,
The image memory is located in the monitoring center, and the image signal is sent from each terminal to the monitoring center at a predetermined time through the voice line and the switching network. On the monitoring center 20b side, these are sequentially recorded in the image memory 7b by the same operation as described in the first embodiment. At a certain time, when an alarm input is input from a specific terminal device, the image memory is correspondingly switched to, for example, only the input corresponding to the terminal device, and the recording display state by one camera described in the first embodiment is displayed. Switch. After that, the monitoring center 20b performs the image recording shown in FIG. This corresponds to the flow in which only step S3 becomes Y in the flowchart of FIG. The subsequent operation is the same as that of the first embodiment, and thus the description is omitted.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the recording area is shared, and the image memory for recording the image signal in the unused area according to the used / unused information is provided. Is effectively used and the image monitor can be easily viewed.

Further, since the display output is added with the identification information such as the number corresponding to the camera in use and displayed, there is an effect that the monitor becomes easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a recording area shared image monitoring device and a monitoring center according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operations of the image memory and the control unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a memory area of the image memory according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a split screen display on a monitor TV.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording area shared image monitoring device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional image monitoring system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b terminal device, 7a, 7b image memory, 8,
8b Number of cameras memory, 9, 9b setting input section, 2
0,20b Monitoring center device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A shared image memory for recording an image signal from each camera or terminal separated from an input corresponding to each camera or a line corresponding to a terminal, and a monitor for simultaneously monitoring and displaying a plurality of recorded contents in the shared image memory. A display means and a use storage memory for storing the use / non-use state of each camera are provided. The recording area of the shared image memory is switched and recorded according to the stored use / non-use type, and output display is provided. Recording area shared image monitoring device. 2. The use / non-use distinction is stored for each camera or terminal, and in the case of monitor display, the identification information of the camera or terminal is displayed at the same time. Recording area shared image monitoring device.