Television – Special applications – Observation of or from a specific location
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-23
2002-09-24
Rao, Andy (Department: 2713)
Television
Special applications
Observation of or from a specific location
C348S152000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06456321
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surveillance camera apparatus in which video data is obtained by photographing a scene of a surveillance area with a surveillance camera, a remote surveillance apparatus in which the scene of the surveillance area is reproduced from the video data at a remote location, and a remote surveillance system having the surveillance camera apparatus and the remote surveillance apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a department store or a shopping center, many customers go in and out. In this case, a surveillance camera is arranged in each surveillance area of the store or center, in which a large number of articles of commerce are arranged or a large amount of money is used, to always monitor the surveillance area, and a watchman always watches a monitor, on which a scene of the surveillance area is displayed, in a surveillance room. Therefore, many types of surveillance systems respectively having one surveillance camera and one monitor have been proposed.
2.1. First Previously Proposed Art
For example, a scene of a surveillance area placed in a department store or shopping center is photographed by a surveillance camera, and a monitor for displaying the scene of the surveillance area photographed by the surveillance camera is arranged in a surveillance room placed in the same department store or shopping center. In this case, the surveillance camera is connected to the monitor through a cable.
In this surveillance system, video data indicating a photographed scene image is transmitted from the surveillance camera to the monitor through the cable at a high speed, and the photographed scene image is displayed on the monitor at real time. Therefore, a watchman always watches the photographed scene image displayed on the monitor.
2.2. Problems to be Solved by the Invention
However, in the conventional surveillance system described above, it is required that a watchman always watches the photographed image displayed on the monitor. In this case, because it is required that the watchman carefully watches the photographed image while maintaining the power of his attention, the watching operation is a hard work for the watchman, so that the watchman easily becomes fatigued. Also, because it is required that the watchman always watches the photographed image, the watchman cannot do another work. Also, because a plurality of surveillance cameras are normally arranged in a department store or shopping center, a large number of watchmen are required to reliably watch many photographed scene images transmitted from the surveillance cameras.
2.3. Second Previously Proposed Art
To prevent a hard burden on the watchman and to prevent the requirement of a plurality of watchmen, not only a photographed scene image is displayed on a monitor of a surveillance center at real time, but also video data indicating the photographed scene image is stored in a video data storing unit arranged in the surveillance center. Therefore, when a watchman placed in the surveillance center requires a specific photographed scene image corresponding to a specific time period, specific video data of the specific photographed scene image is read out from the video data storing unit, so that the specific photographed scene image can be reproduced on the monitor of the surveillance center at any time.
Also, in a remote surveillance system, a surveillance camera is arranged in a surveillance area of the department store or the shopping center, and a monitor is placed in a remote surveillance center placed far from the department store or shopping center. In this case, the surveillance camera is connected to the remote surveillance center through a communication line to perform a remote surveillance operation.
2.4. Problems to be solved by the invention
However, in this remote surveillance system, an upper data transfer rate (or a channel capacity) in the communication line is not sufficient to transmit a large volume of video data indicating the photographed scene image, so that it is difficult to transmit a large volume of video data produced by the surveillance camera to the remote surveillance center at high speed. In this case, there is a problem that a photographed scene image of the surveillance area cannot be displayed at real time.
Also, because it is required that the video data storing unit has a large data capacity to store a large data volume of video data indicating a photographed scene image, it is difficult to arrange the remote surveillance center with the video data storing unit in a small-sized area, and it is difficult to provide the remote surveillance system at a low cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide, with due consideration to the drawbacks of such a conventional remote surveillance system, a surveillance camera apparatus used for a remote surveillance system, a surveillance apparatus used for the remote surveillance system and the remote surveillance system in which a scene image of a surveillance area photographed by a surveillance camera is easily transmitted from the surveillance camera apparatus to the surveillance apparatus through a communication line having a small channel capacity and is reproduced in the surveillance apparatus at real time to be possible to be viewed by a watchman.
Also, a second object of the present invention is to provide a surveillance camera apparatus used for a remote surveillance system, a surveillance apparatus used for the remote surveillance system and the remote surveillance system in which a burden on a watchman viewing the scene image of the surveillance area is reduced and many watchmen are not required.
The first object is achieved by the provision of a surveillance camera apparatus, comprising:
photographing means for photographing a surveillance area to produce video data indicating a scene of the surveillance area;
video data compressing means for compressing the video data produced by the photographing means at a first compression degree to produce high-compressed video data and compressing the video data at a second compression degree lower than the first compression degree to produce low-compressed video data;
compressed video data storing means for storing the low-compressed video data produced by the video data compressing means;
communication performing means for transmitting the high-compressed video data produced by the video data compressing means to an external apparatus through a communication line to make the external apparatus reproduce a low-definition scene image of the surveillance area at real time or transmitting the low-compressed video data stored in the compressed video data storing means to the external apparatus through the communication line to make the external apparatus reproduce a high-definition past-time scene image of the surveillance area; and
control means for controlling the communication performing means to normally transmit the high-compressed video data and to transmit the low-compressed video data in cases where a request for transmitting the low-compressed video data is received.
In the above configuration, video data is produced by photographing a surveillance area with the photographing means, high-compressed video data is obtained by compressing the video data at a first compression degree, low-compressed video data is obtained by compressing the video data at a second compression degree, and the low-compressed video data is stored in the compressed video data storing means. In this case, the high-compressed video data has a small data volume, and the low-compressed video data has a large data volume. Also, a high-definition scene image is reproduced from the low-compressed video data, and a low-definition scene image is reproduced from the high-compressed video data.
Because a communication line connecting the surveillance camera apparatus and the external apparatus has a small channel capacity, though the high-compressed video data having a small data volume can be trans
Ito Fujio
Miyabe Hiroshi
Tagawa Haruo
Takahashi Kenji
Lowe Hauptman & Gilman & Berner LLP
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Rao Andy
LandOfFree
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