WO2013002628A1

WO2013002628A1 - Video surveillance system and method thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2013002628A1
Application number: PCT/MY2012/000124
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mohanavelu Mudaliar SENAPEN; Shamsul Anuar ABDUL WAHID; Oon Leong LIM; Saw Meng SOO
Original assignee: Mimos Berhad
Priority date: 2011-06-30
Filing date: 2012-06-15
Publication date: 2013-01-03

Abstract

The present invention discloses a video surveillance system (10) comprising a plurality of video surveillance equipment (130) includes an image device and audio device to monitor a desired location; a system framework (100) includes a hardware mediation module comprising at least one medial acquisition module (101c) to acquire data from said plurality of video surveillance equipment (130) over an IP based network (120); and a plurality of analytic components (110) interfaced with the system framework (100) for data management. Said system framework (100) further includes a direct bidirectional communication path (106) established between the hardware mediation module (101) and an adapter module (102) to expedite data transmission between the plurality of video surveillance equipment and the plurality of analytic components (1 10).

Description

Video Surveillance System and Method Thereof

Field of Invention The present invention relates to a video surveillance system. More particularly, relates to a system and a method of multiple image acquisition and display for use in a video surveillance system.

Background of the Invention

Most conventional distributed video surveillance systems for monitoring and thus protecting facilities within a wide area such as airport from intrusions or threats have generally suffered from non-scalability. This is mainly due to limitation in network resources. Low network bandwidth and service performance in the network may restrict the number of video surveillance equipment to be viewed simultaneously through the system.

Furthermore, data transmission over a long distance, especially when high-quality video transmission within these limited network resources may lead to be high-latency or a delay in such transportation, and as a result, the overall performance of such surveillance systems in real-time will be degraded. Accordingly, technologies such as video compression techniques, network and protocol techniques, distribution architectures and real-time communications are developed to improve these large distributed surveillance systems.

For instance, prior art document, US2008/0273088 discloses a surveillance system includes a plurality of analytic engines, which analyzes input data from its associated monitoring sensors, to determine whether an event has occurred based on a respective technology. The detected event is subsequently subjected to a unifying data model for providing integrated situation awareness by cross-correlating the event based on well-defined threat models. Although this surveillance system is efficient in detecting anomaly activities from the captured event data, however, the clustering of data acquisition and image processing engines may affect real-time operation of the system due to high resource consumption.

It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention is to alleviate the above mentioned limitations associated with the conventional system by providing a robust, flexible and scalable distributed surveillance video system.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system framework, which is served as a platform for interfacing various types of hardware and software components provided in a distributed video surveillance system for efficient data management.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system framework, which allows fast delivery of outputs from both data acquisition devices and analytic components with minimized resource consumption. Summary of the Invention

In one aspect of the present invention, there is disclosed a surveillance video system with enhanced performance in multiple image acquisition and display operation. Said surveillance video system comprising a system framework acts as a platform for interfacing various hardware and software components provided in the surveillance video system. Suitably, the system framework interfaces with at least one analytic components and a plurality of data acquisition devices such as video surveillance equipment. In order to accelerate data transmission between the video surveillance equipment and the analytic components, a direct bidirectional communication path is provided between respective functional modules that are interfaced with these units.

The system framework embodying the present invention preferably includes a hardware mediation module for managing and coordinating hardware units that externally connected to the system module. The hardware units include a plurality of data acquisition devices, a plurality of audio device, an I/O device, a plurality of joystick, a plurality of display devices, a plurality of video surveillance equipments, alarms and mobile devices. Furthermore, an adapter module also provided to interface at least one analytic component to the system framework and is communicated with the hardware mediation module directly for data management. The system framework further comprises a business module for managing business decision of the system framework, a data access layer module for managing access to the framework as well as handling configuration data, and a controller module acts as a main service module of the system framework.

In another aspect of the present invention, a multiple image acquisition and display method for use in a video surveillance system is also provided. Said method comprising the steps of: providing a system framework to be served as a platform for interfacing and coordinating hardware and software components provided in a video surveillance system; acquiring data captured from a plurality of video surveillance equipment to a hardware mediation module provided in the system framework, processing data acquired from the hardware mediation module by at least one analytic component, wherein said analytic component is interfaced with the system framework through an adapter module based on a standard interface definition; and displaying the processed data from said analytic component by a plurality of data outputting devices through the hardware mediation module of the system framework.. Brief Description of the Drawings

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 illustrates a video surveillance system embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is an architecture block diagram of the system framework embodying the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the relationships among the functional modules provided in the system framework.

Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating initialization of functional modules provided in the system framework.

Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating data acquisition operation embodying the present invention. Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating data processing operation embodying the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying in drawings.

Referring to Figure 1, a distributed video surveillance system (10) of the present invention comprising a plurality of video surveillance equipments (130) includes internet protocol (IP) camera, at least one analog camera associated with a video server to monitor a region of interest and thus transmits the captured data streams to a system framework (100) for data managements over a wired or wireless IP based network (120), for example LAN, WLAN or Internet. The system framework, as depicted in Figure 1, is a platform for interfacing and coordinating various hardware and software components provided in a video surveillance system.

Figure 2 shows an architecture block diagram of the system framework (100) embodying the present invention in detail. Said system framework (100) has a centralized architecture, where a number of functional modules or servers are segregated and distributed therein in accordance to their function. The functional modules embodying the present invention preferably include a hardware mediation module (101), a business module (105), a controller module (103), an adapter module (102), and a data access layer module (104). The hardware mediation module (101), in accordance to the preferred embodiment, is configured as an interface and also to coordinate hardware units adapted to the system framework (100). This hardware mediation module (101) includes a number of service interfaces that allows external hardware units to be connected to the system framework (100). Preferably, said service interfaces include an at least one general I/O (101b) for interfacing an I/O device to activate an alarm if a triggering event is detected, at least one audio manager (10 Id) for managing audio playback of resident file and received live audio, at least one joystick controller (lOle) for handling control of joystick input, at least one display module (10 If) for displaying data such as live video, at least one mobile manager (101a) for managing interaction with a mobile device, at least one PTZ module ( 101 g) for controlling PTZ camera, and at least one media acquisition module (101c) receives and decodes video and audio data into various type of decoding format!

The main function of the business module (105) implemented in the system framework (100) is to manage business decisions of the framework (100). Said business module (105) includes a scheduler module (105a) and a licensing and authentication manager (105b). The licensing and authentication manager (105), as known in the art, is provided to determine whether a user is authorized to access the system framework (100) by means of software licenses. The software licenses generally include data to be used to compare an ID number entered by a user with a program's ID number. The scheduler module (105a) contains scheduling data such as the time an event to start and stop as well as what type of video recording or operating period thereof is scheduled.

In accordance to the preferred embodiment, the controller module (103) provided in the system framework (100) acts as a main service module and includes a state machine (103a) to keep track of the status of each functional module (101, 102, 104, and 105) provided in the system framework. If there is an error detected, the controller will perform an error logging operation and an appropriate action may also be taken. The controller module is also designed to initialize functional modules (101, 102, 104 and 105) provided in the system framework (100) by establishing communication path between the functional modules (101, 102, 104 and 105) and the controller for data transmission.

The adapter module is provided to manage interaction between an analytic component (1 10) and the system framework (100). Said adapter module (102) preferably includes an interface wrapper (102a) for interfacing an analytic component thereto based on standard interface definition. Such analytic component (110) includes, but not limited to video processing component, fire detector, motion detector, theft detector, and alarm, for data processing, particularly to determine whether an alarm event has occurred in a monitored environment based on data received from the surveillance equipments (130).

It is noted that the data access layer module (104) is provided to manage excess of external components and related configuration information to the system framework (100) based on its stored configuration information. The data access layer module (104) includes a configuration manager (104a) for handling configuration information and managing configuration file of the system framework (100). Optionally, the system framework (100) embodying the present invention may include an external configuration graphic user interface interacting with the data access layer module (104) for user- friendly configuration. This utility allows configuring camera and audio device connected to the system framework (100), schedule and analytic components (110). In contrast to the conventional video surveillance systems, in which functional modules thereof will only communicate with one another through a main service module; the present invention, however, provides a direct bidirectional communication path (106) between the adapter module (102) and the hardware mediation module (101) embodying the present invention to expedite data transmission therebetween.

It is preferred that said direct bidirectional communication path (106) between the adapter module (102) and the hardware mediation module (101) includes a means of accessing analytic components directly and a means for the adapter module (102) to respond events or data from at least one analytic component (110) directly. This direct bidirectional communication (106) may also include a plurality of simplified message protocols for combining events and data during data transportation. It is, therefore, apparent to one skilled in the art, by establishing such direct connection path (106) between the hardware mediation module (101) and the adapter module (106), the overall performance of a surveillance video system (10) will be enhanced, especially the data processing operation performed by analytic components (110).

In accordance to one embodiment of the present invention, there is further provided a method for multiple image acquisition and display. Said method comprising the steps of setting up a system framework (100) for multiple image acquisition and display in a distributed video surveillance system (10), wherein said system framework (100) is a platform for interfacing with external hardware and software components provided in the distributed surveillance system (10); initialization of functional modules provided in the system framework (100); acquiring data from a plurality of video surveillance equipment (130) to the system framework (100), processing data retrieved from system framework (100) by at least one analytic component (1 10) connected thereto and displaying processed data through the system framework (100) by respective data outputting devices.

In accordance to the preferred embodiment, the system framework (100) is set up when a host module initializes a main controller module of the system framework (100) to create and to start up others functional modules. Said other functional modules include a data access layer

(104) , a business module (105), a hardware mediation module (101) and an adapter (102). It is noted these functional modules are created in such a manner which can be executed in different machines. Static partnerships and dynamic partnerships, as depicted in Figure 3, are connections established among these functional modules. The static partnerships are established among these functional modules during the creation while dynamic partnerships are formed during run-time by looking a service directory. The functional modules communicate with one another via the dynamic partnership. This may due to the absence of references during creation to a respective caller.

Upon setting up of the system framework, functional modules provided therein have to be initialized. Referring to Figure 4, said initialization process is started when the main controller module (103) initializes the data access layer (104) to forward configuration data thereof includes licensing information to the business module (105). The business module

(105) , subsequently extracts information of the license file location. Upon extraction of the information, a licensing and authentication module (105b) resided in the business module (105) is activated and determines whether the extracted license file is authentic. It is noted that the hardware mediation module (101) and the adapter module (102) will only be activated, if the license file is deemed authentic. Otherwise, the initialization of the hardware mediation module (101) and the adapter module (102) will not be triggered or a respective user may not able to access said both functional modules (101,102).

Both initialized hardware mediation module (101) and adapter module (102) may acquire configuration information from hardware units connected thereto via the data excess layer module (104) to set up respective sub-functional modules under their localization, respectively. The hardware units connected to the hardware mediation module (101) include a plurality of video surveillance equipment (130), for example camera device and audio device, a joystick, a display device, a media acquisition device, an I/O device. The adapter module (102), however, is interfaced with a plurality of analytic components.

Once these sub-functional modules for the above mentioned hardware units are well- established, a plurality of media acquisition module (101c ) provided in the hardware mediation module (101) of the system framework (100), as shown in Figure 5 may connect to a plurality of video surveillance equipments (130). Said plurality of media acquisition module (101c) acquires either video data or audio data from the video surveillance equipment (130), and packages the acquired data as event data prior to being processed in the system framework (100). In the hardware mediation module (101), event data acquired from the video surveillance equipment (130) by the media acquisition module (101c) will be decoded, and the data type of such event data (either audio event data or video event data) is thus determined. It is noted that audio event data will be outputted to an audio device through an audio module (10 Id) embedded in the hardware mediation module (101). However, if there is a video data, the controller (103) of the system framework (100) will check whether there is any analytic component (110) attached to the adapter module (102) based on configuration information stored in data access layer module (104).

If there is an analytic component (110), the video data will be forwarded directly to the adapter module (102). The adapter module (102) will subsequently identify which analytic component (110) is attached thereto and thus transmits the event data to the identified analytic component (1 10) for data processing. On the contrary, the video data will be directly outputted and displayed by a display device through a display module (10 If) if there is no analytic component. As referred to Figure 5, errors that are detected from the adapter module (102) will be sent to the controller (103) for error logging. The hardware mediation module (101) will be notified about errors arisen in the adapter module (102) by the controller.

Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating data processing events, particularly video processing events or images embodying the present invention. It is noted that, upon analysis, the corresponding analytic component (110) will transmit the processed data directly to the hardware mediation module (101) for outputting by a display device. In addition to data display, the hardware mediation module (101) will also determine whether there is a triggering event detected in the processed image. Relevant alert such as audio alert, mobile alert and alarm alert will be initiated by the hardware mediation module (101) if an alarm event is configured.

As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, the present invention may easily be produced in other specific forms without departing from its essential characteristics. The present embodiments is, therefore, to be considered as merely illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes which come within therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. A video surveillance system (10), comprising:

a plurality of video surveillance equipments (130) includes an image device and audio device to monitor a desired location;

a system framework (100) includes a hardware mediation module (101) comprising at least one media acquisition module (101c ) to acquire data from said plurality of video surveillance equipment (130) over an IP based network (120); and

a plurality of analytic components (110) interfaced with said system framework for data management; wherein said system framework (100) includes a direct bidirectional communication path (106) established between the hardware mediation module (101) and an adapter module (102) to expedite data transmission between said plurality of video surveillance equipment and the plurality of analytic components (1 10).

2. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said hardware mediation module (101) is configured to manage and to coordinate hardware units that are externally connected to the system framework (100).

3. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 2, wherein said media acquisition module is also configured to decode video and audio data received from the plurality of video surveillance equipment into various types of decoding formats.

4. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said hardware mediation module (101 ) further comprises at least one general I/O (101b) for interfacing an I/O device to activate an alarm if a triggering event is detected, at least one audio manager (l Old) for managing audio playback of resident file and received live audio, at least one joystick controller (lOle) for handling control of joystick input, at least one display module (lOlf) for displaying data such as live video, at least one mobile manager (101a) for managing interaction with a mobile device, and at least one PTZ controller (l Olg) for managing PTZ camera,

5. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said adapter module (102) provided in the system framework (100) is configured to manage and interface said plurality of analytic components (1 10) with the system framework (100) using an internal wrapper ( 102a) based on a standard interface definition.

6. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said system framework (100) further comprising:

a business module (105) includes a scheduler module (105a) containing scheduling data such as the time an invent to start and stop as well as what type of recording or operating period thereof is scheduled and a licensing and authentication manager (105b) provided to determine whether a user is authorized to access the system framework (100);

a controller module (103) acts as a main functional module to coordinate and manage the system framework by establishing communication paths between the controller module (103) and the functional modules (101, 102, 104, and 105) provided therein; and

a data access layer module (104) includes a configuration manager (104a) for managing access to the system framework (100) based on the configuration data thereof.

7. A video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 1 , wherein said direct bidirectional communication path (106) further comprising: a means of accessing at least one analytic component (110) connected to the system framework (100) directly;

a means of facilitating the adapter module (102) to respond to the data received from at least one analytic component (110) connected to the system framework (100) directly;

a plurality of simplified message protocols for combining events and data during data transportation; and

a means of reporting detected error from the adapter module (102) to the hardware mediation module (101) via the controller module (103).

8. A multiple image acquisition and display method for a video surveillance system (10), comprising the steps of:

providing a system framework (100) to be served as a platform for interfacing and coordinating hardware and software components provided in a video surveillance system; acquiring data captured from a plurality of video surveillance equipments (130) to a hardware mediation module (101) provided in the system framework,

processing data acquired from the hardware mediation module (101) by at least one analytic component (1 10), wherein said analytic component (1 10) is interfaced with the system framework (100) through an adapter module (102) provided in the system framework (100); and

displaying the processed data from said analytic component (1 10) by a plurality of data outputting devices through a display manager module (lOlf) of the hardware mediation module (101).

9. A multiple image acquisition and display method for a video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 8, wherein said step of acquiring data captured from a plurality of video surveillance equipments (130) further comprising:

transmitting captured data from said plurality of video surveillance equipment (130) to at least one media acquisition module (101c) provided in the hardware mediation module (101) of the system framework (100); and said media acquisition module, packaging data, which either a video data or a audio data from the video surveillance equipment with corresponding events.

10. A multiple image acquisition and display method for use in a video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

decoding and identifying the data type of the event data received by the media acquisition module (101c);

if an audio event data is identified, transmitting said event data to an audio module provided in the hardware mediation module (101) of the system framework (100) for outputting;

if a video event data is identified, checking whether there is a analytic component (110) connected to the system framework based on the configuration data provided in a data access layer module (104);

if there exists a analytic component, passing the event data from the hardware mediation module (101) to said identified analytic component (1 10) through an adapter module (102) provided in the system framework (100); and

if there is no analytic component detected, transmitting the event data to a display module (10 If) provided in the system framework (lOO)for displaying.

11. A multiple image acquisition and display module for a video surveillance system (10) as claimed in Claim 8, wherein said step of displaying or outputting the processed data further comprising the steps of:

determining whether there is an alarm event detected from the processed data by the hardware mediation module (101); and

triggering an alert based on the processed data and configuration data received from the data access layer module (104) of the system framework if an alarm event is known.