Video monitoring system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9779308-B2
Application number	US-201314442438-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2013
Priority date	Nov 14, 2012
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A video transmission apparatus detects a target object to be monitored from images obtained by imaging a monitoring area, tracks the detected target object, obtains existence time from appearance to disappearance of the target object, and transmits a data volume reduced image of the target object to a video reception apparatus. The video reception apparatus analyzes the data volume reduced image transmitted from the video transmission apparatus and transmits a video request of the target object to the video transmission apparatus) based on input made according to the result of the analysis. When the video request transmitted from the video reception apparatus is received, the video transmission apparatus generates a monitoring video from the appearance to the disappearance of the target object based on the existence time of the target object and transmits the monitoring video to the video reception apparatus.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A video monitoring system comprising a video transmission apparatus and a video reception apparatus,
the video transmission apparatus including at least one program which causes the video transmission apparatus to perform functions comprising:
receiving a plurality of consecutive images obtained by imaging a monitoring area, the plurality of consecutive images being input to the video transmission apparatus;
detecting a target object to be monitored from the plurality of consecutive images;
tracking the target object detected by the detecting to obtain an existence time from an appearance to a disappearance of the target object in the monitoring area;
selecting an image, in which the target object is detected, from the plurality of consecutive images and reducing a data volume of the selected image to generate a data volume reduced image of the target object; and
transmitting the data volume reduced image to the video reception apparatus,

the video reception apparatus including at least one program which causes the video reception apparatus to perform functions comprising:
receiving the data volume reduced image transmitted from the video transmission apparatus;
analyzing the data volume reduced image; and
transmitting a video request that requests a plurality of consecutive images of the target object to the video transmission apparatus based on an input made according to an analysis result of the analyzing,

the video transmission apparatus further performing functions comprising:
storing the plurality of consecutive images input to the video transmission apparatus;
receiving the video request transmitted from the video reception apparatus;
generating a monitoring video of the target object including a plurality of consecutive images from the appearance to the disappearance of the target object based on the existence time of the target object when the the video request is received; and
transmitting the monitoring video to the video reception apparatus.

2. The video monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein
the functions performed by the video transmission apparatus further comprise:
analyzing an action of the target object from the plurality of consecutive images input to the video transmission apparatus to obtain a monitoring action time from a start to an end of the action; and
when an action to be monitored is designated in the video reception apparatus,
generating, as the monitoring video, a video including a plurality of consecutive images from the start to the end of the action of the target object to be monitored based on the monitoring action time.

3. The video monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein
a plurality of the video transmission apparatus is installed in one monitoring area, images obtained by imaging the monitoring area from different positions are input to the plurality of the video transmission apparatus, and
the functions performed by the video reception apparatus further comprise:
analyzing a plurality of data volume reduced images received from the plurality of the video transmission apparatus to check whether target objects of the plurality of data volume reduced images are a same person; and
selecting a best-shot image from the plurality of data volume reduced images when the target objects are determined to be the same person as a result of the check.

4. The video monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein
the monitoring area includes an exit/entrance area of a shop,
a plurality of the video transmission apparatus is installed to monitor the exit/entrance area of the shop,
the plurality of the video transmission apparatus includes a first video transmission apparatus installed at a first position that allows imaging of a person entering the shop and a second video transmission apparatus installed at a second position that allows imaging a person leaving the shop, the target object to be monitored by the first video transmission apparatus being the person entering the shop, the target object to be monitored by the second video transmission apparatus being the person leaving the shop,
the functions performed by the video reception apparatus further comprise:
receiving an appearance time of the target object of the first video transmission apparatus from the first video transmission apparatus;
receiving a disappearance time of the target object of the second video transmission apparatus from the second video transmission apparatus; and
analyzing data volume reduced images received from the first video transmission apparatus and the second video transmission apparatus to check whether the target object of the first video transmission apparatus and the target object of the second video transmission apparatus are a same person, and

the video reception apparatus obtains, as a shop stay time of the target object, a time from the appearance time of the target object of the first video transmission apparatus to the disappearance time of the target object of the second video transmission apparatus when the target objects are determined to be the same person as a result of the check.

5. The video monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein
the monitoring area includes an exit/entrance area of a shop,
a plurality of the video transmission apparatus is installed to monitor the exit/entrance area of the shop,
the plurality of the video transmission apparatus includes a first video transmission apparatus installed at a first position that allows imaging an entrance point of the shop and a second video transmission apparatus installed at a second position that allows imaging an ordering point of the shop, the target object to be monitored by the first video transmission apparatus and the second video transmission apparatus being a person entering the shop,
the functions performed by the video reception apparatus further comprise:
receiving an appearance time of the target object from the first video transmission apparatus;
receiving a disappearance time of the target object from the second video transmission apparatus; and
analyzing data volume reduced images received from the first video transmission apparatus and the second video transmission apparatus to check whether the target object of the first video transmission apparatus and the target object of the second video transmission apparatus are a same person, and

the video reception apparatus obtains, as a time from entering the shop area to ordering, a time from the appearance time of the target object of the first video transmission apparatus to the disappearance time of the target object of the second video transmission apparatus when the target objects are determined to be the same person as a result of the check.

6. The video monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein
the monitoring area includes a drive-through shop area,
a plurality of the video transmission apparatus is installed to monitor the drive-through shop area,
the plurality of the video transmission apparatus includes a first video transmission apparatus installed at a first position that allows imaging an entrance point in the drive-through shop area, a second video transmission apparatus installed at a second position that allows imaging an ordering point in the drive-through shop area, and a third video transmission apparatus installed at a third position that allows imaging a delivery point in the drive-through shop area,
the target object to be monitored by the first video transmission apparatus, the second video transmission apparatus, and the third video transmission apparatus is a vehicle or a driver of the vehicle passing through the drive-through shop area,
the functions performed by the video reception apparatus further comprise:
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Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kuwahara Marie
• Yokomitsu Sumio
• Ikeda Jun
• Ohno Hiroyuki
• Yomogida Yasuo

Classifications

• G08B13/19669 Primary

  Event triggers storage or change of storage policy · CPC title

• G06V20/52

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

• G06F18/24

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• G06T7/20

  Analysis of motion (motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51) · CPC title

• G06K9/00832

  Physics · mapped topic