Moving object monitoring device, server device, and moving object monitoring system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019385291-A1
Application number	US-201816486353-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 17, 2018
Priority date	Feb 28, 2017
Publication date	Dec 19, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

Provided is a color camera that captures using environmental light, a monochrome camera that captures using infrared light, a signal processing unit that processes a signal of a color image output from the color camera and a signal of a monochrome image output from the monochrome camera, a storage unit that stores alignment information generated from a color image and a monochrome image captured in a state of sufficient environmental light, an alignment unit that performs an alignment based on alignment information to match positions of a subject shown in a color image and a monochrome image captured in a state of insufficient environmental light, and an image synthesis unit that acquires color information from the aligned color image and performs color conversion to colorize the monochrome image using the color information

First claim

1 . A moving object monitoring device that synthesizes a color image and a monochrome image obtained by capturing a monitoring area where a moving object to be monitored appears and outputs the synthesized image, the moving object monitoring device comprising:
a color camera that captures the monitoring area using environmental light; a monochrome camera that captures the monitoring area using infrared light; a signal processing unit that processes a signal of a color image output from the color camera and a signal of a monochrome image output from the monochrome camera; a storage unit that stores alignment information generated based on the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of sufficient environmental light; an alignment unit that performs an alignment, based on the alignment information, to match positions of images of a subject shown respectively in the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of insufficient environmental light; and an image synthesis unit that acquires color information from the aligned color image and performs color conversion to colorize the monochrome image using the color information.

2 . The moving object monitoring device of claim 1 ,
wherein the storage unit stores a plurality of pieces of the alignment information for each type of the moving object having a different shape, and the alignment unit detects the moving object from the monochrome image, determines the type of the moving object, and performs the alignment based on the alignment information according to the type of the moving object.

3 . The moving object monitoring device of claim 1 , further comprising:
an alignment information generator that generates the alignment information, wherein the storage unit stores the alignment information generated by the alignment information generator as calibration information together with information on processing conditions of the signal processing unit.

4 . The moving object monitoring device of claim 1 ,
wherein the signal processing unit includes a resolution converter that reduces the number of pixels in the color image by adding a signal value of each of a plurality of adjacent pixels in the color image, and a signal processing controller that controls an operation of the resolution converter based on a capturing environment of the monitoring area.

5 . A server device that receives a color image and a monochrome image obtained by capturing, at a moving object monitoring device, a monitoring area where a moving object to be monitored appears, from the moving object monitoring device through a network, the server device comprising:
a communication unit that receives a color image captured at the moving object monitoring device by a color camera that captures the monitoring area using environmental light and a monochrome image captured at the moving object monitoring device by a monochrome camera that captures the monitoring area using infrared light; a storage unit that stores alignment information generated based on the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of sufficient environmental light; an alignment unit that performs an alignment, based on the alignment information, to match positions of images of a subject shown respectively in the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of insufficient environmental light; and an image synthesis unit that acquires color information from the aligned color image and performs color conversion to colorize the monochrome image using the color information.

6 . A moving object monitoring system that transmits a color image and a monochrome image obtained by capturing, at a moving object monitoring device, a monitoring area where a moving object to be monitored appears, from the moving object monitoring device to a server device through a network,
wherein the moving object monitoring device includes a color camera that captures the monitoring area using environmental light, a monochrome camera that captures the monitoring area using infrared light, a signal processing unit that processes a signal of a color image output from the color camera and a signal of a monochrome image output from the monochrome camera, a storage unit that stores alignment information generated based on the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of sufficient environmental light, an alignment unit that performs an alignment, based on the alignment information, to match positions of images of a subject shown respectively in the color image and the monochrome image captured in a state of insufficient environmental light, an image synthesis unit that acquires color information from the aligned color image and performs color conversion to colorize the monochrome image using the color information, and a communication unit that transmits a synthesized image acquired by the image synthesis unit to the server device.

7 . The moving object monitoring system of claim 6 ,
wherein the server device includes: an alignment information generator that generates the alignment information; and a communication unit that transmits the alignment information to the moving object monitoring device, wherein the moving object monitoring device performs an update processing of the storage unit in accordance with the alignment information received from the server device.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tanaka Shogo
• Tabei Kenji

Classifications

• H04N1/465

  Conversion of monochrome to colour · CPC title

• H04N7/181 Primary

  for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources · CPC title

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G06V10/75

  Organisation of the matching processes, e.g. simultaneous or sequential comparisons of image or video features; Coarse-fine approaches, e.g. multi-scale approaches; using context analysis; Selection of dictionaries · CPC title

• G06V10/56

  relating to colour · CPC title