Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – With particular system function
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-20
2004-06-08
Trieu, Van (Department: 2636)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
With particular system function
C340S517000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06747554
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a video transmission technique through a network, and especially to a technique for monitoring alarm information due to an image on monitor equipment or a sensor by means of a monitor of such as a remote computer.
A surveillance system in the prior art comprises a monitor camera, a monitor video equipment such as a switcher, an image display monitor, and a coaxial cable for connecting the various equipment described above for transmitting video and control information, wherein the person in charge of monitor is required to constantly watch the monitor installed at a predetermined place such as a security room. Also, a dedicated line in a system separate from the video coaxial cable for image is used for transmission of the alarm information.
Also, in the conventional image transmission apparatus of network type, the image transmission or the monitor equipment control through a network connected to a personal computer (PC) is realized by mounting a dedicated software on the personal computer.
Further, in the case where the conventional image transmission apparatus of network type is connected to a PC for setting the operating environment, the availability of only one connector with the PC makes it necessary to remove the apparatus from a rack for setting the operating environment of the apparatus or updating the program by connecting directly to the PC after installing the apparatus on the rack.
Also, in the conventional image transmission apparatus of network type, various control commands are received and processed one by one and a response is sent from and to a display terminal through a network accompanied by a considerable delay.
The conventional network image transmission apparatus, however, has the following problems.
As the first problem, the network distribution of an image from security equipment such as a camera or a switcher, the log recording of alarm generation information from a sensor or the security equipment, and the distribution of the alarm information are realized by different devices, so that it is difficult to relate the image and the alarm generation information to each other.
As the second problem, the provision of means for coding and storing the image corresponding to each of image input channels from a camera or a video output device connected to a network surveillance unit increases the number of component parts resulting in a high cost.
As the third problem, the display capabilities and the display formats varied from one terminal to another are required to be handled efficiently in order to meet the requirement of the various types of display terminals including the personal computer (PC), the portable terminals such as the portable telephone and the PDA and the computerized home appliances such as TV.
As the fourth problem, images of a plurality of channels using image coding means and storage means of one system, each of which can process an image of only one channel at the same time, cannot be displayed on the same terminal merely by switching the image input channel.
As the fifth problem, only the latest image is stored in a conventional coded image storage system, so that it is difficult to acquire the alarm image before the alarm generation.
As the sixth problem, in the case where the second alarm is generated while the series of the first alarm images are stored, the first alarm image is required depending on applications or the second image is required depending on applications.
As the seventh problem, a special and dedicated software is required for acquiring and displaying a list of alarm information and an alarm image.
As the eighth problem, in the case where the video transmission ability is higher than the input image coding ability in terms of the frame rate of image, the dual transmission of the image of the same frame results in the wasteful generation of the video transmission band.
As the ninth problem, the provision of image coding means of a single system makes it impossible for the conventional network image transmission apparatus to transmit images of different channels to a plurality of display terminals in response to image acquisition requests through a plurality of different channels from the different display terminals.
As the tenth problem, in the case where a screen displayed on a display terminal is changed in accordance with the internal setting value of an apparatus, a conventional HTML file transmission method requires the production and accumulation in the transmission apparatus of network type, of HTML files in the number proportional to the number of patterns of the setting value.
As the 11th problem, in the case where a connector to a setting PC is arranged in the rear portion of a housing, the housing is required to be removed from a rack when connecting to the PC, while in the case where the connector to the PC is arranged on the front portion of the housing, the connecting cable suspended on the front surface of the rack stands in the way of mounting the apparatus connected fixedly with a device on the rack.
As the 12th problem, when controlling the monitor equipment having only simple control instructions in case of transmission delay in the network, a series of process from start to end of the operation requires a considerable time or the person operating the monitor equipment cannot perform the control operation with an intended accuracy in terms of the change amount.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network surveillance unit having a configuration comprising: an image input unit for being supplied with image information output from a video output device such as a camera or a switcher; a coded image storage unit for coding and accumulating the image information; an alarm management unit for detecting alarm generation from an alarm generating device and for storing alarm information; and a communication unit for receiving a request from a display terminal through a network and for transmitting the coded image accumulated in the coded image storage unit or the alarm information accumulated in the alarm management unit in response to the request.
The configuration mentioned above permits the display terminal to acquire the image and the alarm generation information from the monitor equipment through the network.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network surveillance unit having a configuration comprising: in addition to the configuration according to the first aspect, an image input switching unit connected to a plurality of video output devices and capable of switching to an arbitrary channel.
The configuration mentioned above permits the image information and the alarm information of a plurality of channels within a monitor area to be displayed on the display terminal through the network.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network surveillance unit having a configuration comprising: in addition to the configuration according to the first aspect, a terminal-wise display format conversion unit for shaping the image information and the alarm information into the display format for the browsing means (browser) on a personal computer (PC).
The configuration mentioned above permits a remote PC to acquire and display the image information and the alarm information within the monitor area through the network by the operation of the browser operating on the PC.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network surveillance unit having a configuration comprising: in addition to the configuration according to the first or second aspect, a terminal-wise display format conversion unit for shaping the image information and the alarm information into a display format for WWW browsing means (browser) adapted to be built in TV and a portable terminal meeting internet requirement.
The configuration mentioned above permits the TV and
Hamada Jun-ichi
Higashimura Mamoru
Misawa Motohiro
Nakamura Manabu
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Trieu Van
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