JPH09102945A - Control method of surveillance TV camera - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Problem] When operating a surveillance camera with a touch panel such as a personal computer, the control icon is placed on the surveillance camera image on the touch panel, and the control and the image monitor are integrated to facilitate the operation. To SOLUTION: An image of a surveillance TV camera is displayed on a display device, and an image corresponding to a control item for controlling the surveillance TV camera is superimposed and positioned on the image on the screen of the display device. The monitor camera is controlled by designating the icon with a hand or a mouse.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of controlling a surveillance TV camera by using a personal computer and designating an icon displayed on the display with a hand or a mouse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method of controlling a surveillance camera by using a personal computer to specify an icon displayed on the display with a hand or a mouse is a simple method of displaying only the icon and designating the icon with a hand or a mouse. By doing so, the surveillance camera is controlled. That is, when controlling the surveillance camera, control is performed while watching the video of the surveillance camera, but the display of the operating PC and the monitor that sees the screen of the camera are physically installed in different places, so the screen is not displayed. It was extremely inconvenient because I could not operate the surveillance camera while watching.

[0003]

According to the conventional method, since both the screen of the surveillance camera and the screen for control are operated separately while operating, there is a time lag between the control and the confirmation of the response status of the surveillance camera. It was difficult to obtain the desired shooting range and shooting conditions. The camera image may be displayed on a part of the display of the same computer, and the control icon may be displayed at another position on the display, but it is difficult to eliminate the time difference between the control operation and the response status confirmation of the surveillance camera. Met. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of controlling a surveillance camera which has good operability by making the control operation of the surveillance camera coincide with the actual control state, excluding the above drawbacks.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention displays an image taken by a surveillance camera on a part or all of a display, and superimposes it on the image to display the surveillance camera. By displaying a control icon and designating the icon, the surveillance camera can be controlled. Note that the icon can be hidden or displayed with only a frame so that the image of the surveillance camera can be easily viewed.

As a result, when controlling the pan and tilt of the surveillance camera and the zoom and focus of the lens by using the hand or the mouse to specify the icon displayed on the display of the personal computer, the conventional method is used. Since the display of the personal computer and the monitor of the surveillance camera are viewed separately, it is possible to eliminate operational mistakes caused by the control time difference. Further, by providing the function of the display mode and the non-display mode for the control icon, it becomes possible to perform control that is easy to use depending on the skill level of the operator.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 denotes a display screen or a screen for displaying an image of a surveillance camera,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are icons for inputting a command to a control device such as a personal computer, which is superimposed and displayed on the screen displaying the image of the surveillance camera. Explaining these icons in more detail, the icon 3 is an icon for directing the surveillance camera upward, and the icon 4 is an icon for directing downward. Reference numeral 5 is an icon for directing the surveillance camera to the left, and 6 is an icon for directing it to the right. Reference numeral 7 is an icon for enlarging the image by zooming the lens, and 8 is an icon for reducing the image by zooming the lens.

FIG. 2 is a diagram systematically comprising the display screen and the surveillance camera shown in FIG. 1, and is a diagram showing a device configuration for realizing this control. Reference numeral 11 is a control device for controlling the surveillance camera. The video signal of the surveillance camera is displayed on the display simultaneously with the icon. Then, as shown in FIG. 1, control icons for the surveillance camera are assigned to the icons.

A mouse 12 is connected to the control device 11. Reference numeral 13 is a display connected to the control device 11. A touch panel 14 is mounted to detect coordinates on the display when the display unit is touched by hand. A touch panel interface 15 connects the control device 11 and the touch panel, and transmits the coordinates of the touched display unit to the control device 11. Reference numeral 16 is a camera controller that controls the surveillance camera with a signal from the control device 11, 17 is a pan head device that performs pan and tilt operations that determine the shooting direction of the surveillance camera according to the signal from the camera controller 16, and 18 is a surveillance camera. The zoom lens 19 is mounted on the camera. The zoom lens 1
The zoom / focus control of 9 is transmitted together with the control signal from the camera controller 16 to the camera platform 17.

With this arrangement, since the control of the surveillance camera can be performed by the icon assigned to the surveillance image, it is possible to eliminate the difference between the control operation and the response monitoring. Moreover, since the control direction and the change due to the control of the monitoring image can be sensuously matched, the operability is extremely good. Normally, the video of the surveillance camera is displayed on the display screen 1 and the icon is displayed so as to be superimposed on the video, but it is also possible to set a mode in which only the frame is displayed or not displayed under the control of the control device 11.

In FIG. 1, as an example, when the image 2 of the surveillance camera is being monitored, if it is desired to monitor the leftward direction, the icon 5 "left" is designated with the hand or the mouse so that the camera shooting direction is left. Move to. The screen 2, which is the output of the surveillance camera, also moves to the left in conjunction with the movement of the camera shooting. Therefore, the movement direction can be confirmed with the same line of sight while controlling the camera photographing direction, and the operation becomes easy. Further, a high man-machine interface can be obtained such that the camera faces in the desired direction by touching the screen in the desired direction on the screen of the surveillance camera. If an icon is displayed on the screen of the camera and the screen of the surveillance camera is difficult to see, the icon is not displayed. However, even when the icon is hidden, the camera can be controlled by designating the location of the icon on the screen with a hand or a mouse.

[0011]

According to the present invention, since the operation position for controlling the surveillance camera and the display screen of the surveillance image match, the change of the surveillance camera to the control state for the purpose of control operation. The time difference can be eliminated and the operation can be facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an operation screen for explaining the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 PC screen 2 Surveillance camera screen embedded on PC screen 3-10 Surveillance camera control icon displayed on surveillance camera image 11 Control device 12 Mouse 13 Display connected to control device 14 Touch panel 15 Touch panel interface 16 Camera controller 17 Pan head 18 Surveillance camera 19 Zoom lens

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image of a surveillance television camera is displayed on a display device, and is positioned on the screen of the display device as an icon corresponding to a control item for controlling the surveillance television camera so as to be superimposed on the image. And a control device for controlling the surveillance camera by designating the icon with a hand or a mouse. 2. The method of controlling a surveillance television camera according to claim 1, wherein the control of the surveillance television camera is control of pan and tilt of the camera, and zoom and focus of the lens. 3. The method for controlling a surveillance television camera according to claim 1, wherein the icon assigned on the screen can be selected to be displayed or not displayed on the screen.