1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a standalone video tracking device. More particularly, the present invention is related to a standalone video tracking device with embedded operation systems and computation power to perform tracking objects by analyzing the changes of the image pixel changes and the detection results of the associated sensors without an aid of remote computers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional video tracking systems mainly use the following technical methods to monitor real-time moving objects:
Method 1: The most common solution is to install as many cameras as needed to cover the entire area ensuing no blind spot. This is well seen in most commercial buildings, public facilities, public transportation, private offices, and some residential houses, etc. The issue with this simple solution is the high cost and tedious effort to set up a large number of cameras. Furthermore, because large video contents are recorded, a huge video storage and complicated wiring is needed. A central control room with human operators may be needed if real-time tracking is required.
Method 2: A better solution is to connect the above cameras to a super computer to compare video image frame-by-frame to see if there is any movement or change on the video pixels of each camera. If there is any pixel change, super computer will analyze and provide directional instructions to guide the camera to track the moving objects. The issue with this solution is that the super computer will become more and more expensive as the number of the cameras is increased to the point that the surveillance system is too expensive to be afforded. In no cases, this type of auto-tracking system, which requires a supercomputer to work with multiple remote cameras, is suitable for residential application where cost is the main factor.
In summary, conventional video tracking systems demands a lot of human resources and equipment expenses to achieve the purpose of real-time tracking operations. Accordingly, an affordable tracking device which can automatically execute real-time tracking operation is a technical issue needed to be solved in this technical field.
To solve the previous technical problems, one objective of the present application is to provide a real-time tracking device with embedded operation systems and computation power to execute live tracking operations.
To achieve the aforementioned objective, the present application provides a dynamic tracking device. The device comprises of a video recording module, a plurality of sensors and a controller. The controller is connected with the video recording module and the sensors. The controller further analyzes and provides directional instructions to guide the motors of the cameras to the desired direction where the movement was found based on the detection data of the sensors. The detection data of the sensors could be the results of audio, light, body temperature, smoke, chemical components, etc. The device may be equipped with infrared (IR) LED lights such that it can continue performing real-time night-vision tracking. The sensors which are located on the sides or back of the device further provides detection information to the controller so the camera can turn to the back if the back sensors detect movement or audio.
In summary, comparing against conventional tracking techniques which adjust the camera direction either by manual operations or by image recognition of super computers, the dynamic tracking device of present application automatically adjusts the camera direction by the detection results of the sensors as to achieve the purpose of real-time dynamic tracking operation. It significantly saves the cost of having the human eye monitor the videos, which is unreliable. It also saves a huge hardware cost to build up a super computer to analyze possible multiple cameras pixel changes simultaneously. In other words, the proposed solution not only avoids the error-prone human operations but also reduces the equipment cost of super-fast computers to perform real-time video monitoring. By adding multiple sensors around the device, a low-cost camera with associated sensors will be able to perform real-time 360-degree tracking even the found area is on the back of the camera.
For a better understanding of the aforementioned embodiments of the invention as well as additional embodiments thereof, reference should be made to the Description of Embodiments below in conjunction with the following drawings in which like reference numerals refer to the corresponding parts throughout the figures.
The following description is about embodiments of the present invention; however it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Present application further provides another one embodiment. Present embodiment is similar to the first embodiment; however the difference is that the present embodiment further comprises a rotor which is electrically connected with controller 11, fixedly connected with the body 10, and actively connected with the video recording module 11 so as to provide the controller 13 enabling the video recording module to rotate according to the rotation direction.
Present application further provides another embodiment. Present embodiment is similar to the first embodiment; however the difference is that present embodiment further comprises a rotor which is electrically connected with controller 13, fixedly connected with the video recording module 11 and actively connected with the body 10 so as to provide controller 13 based on the rotation direction to enable the video recording module 11 rotating with respect to the body 10.
The aforementioned sensors 12 can be selected from infrared sensor, ultrasonic sensor, smoke sensor, sonic receiving sensor (e.g. microphone), radio signal sensor, thermal sensor . . . etc. However the type of the sensor is not limited by aforementioned examples. The structure of body 10 can be selected from sphere structure, approximate sphere structure, cylinder structure, approximate cylinder structure, or multi plane structure to provide at least one setting surface. The setting surface faces to at least one direction so as to provide at least one sensing range having at least one dimension. The structure of the body 10 is not limited by aforementioned description.
Please refer to
The aforementioned operations can be tabulated in Table 1:
Sensors 12 can also be configured to spread on various surface locations of the dynamic tracking device 1 so as to form a three-dimensional sensing coverage. However the sensor positions, dimensions, sizes, and coverages are not limited by aforementioned description.
Controller 13 further comprises of a communications interface, and transmits sensing data provided by the sensor 23 and shooting image to the management-end device by the communications interface. Aforementioned communications interface can be wireline communications interface (e.g. coaxial cable interface, telephone cable interface, network cable interface, fiber cable interface) or wireless communications interface (e.g. all kind of mobile communications interface).
Controller 12 now guides the video recording module 11 to track target 2 by following its movement until either target 2 stops or target 2 disappears. Once target 2 shows no movement, controller 13 will guide the rotating module 14 to position the video recording module 11 to a new location where the second target 2 is found by the feedback of the sensor 12.
The present application further provides a third embodiment. The third embodiment is similar to the second embodiment; however the difference is that controller 13 of the third embodiment further executes a characteristic recognition operation to the selected portion of the shooting image so as to identify the type (e.g. people, pet, or shaking background) of the target 2. With the acquired type, controller 13 determines whether to take the dynamic tracking action on target 2 according to the recognition results. Illustrated by
Present application further provides fourth embodiment. The fourth embodiment is similar to the third embodiment; however the difference is that controller 13 of the fourth embodiment further transmits the selected images to a local database system or a remote database system to perform recognition process and later acquires a feedback identification information. Controller 13 analyzes the feedback identification information from data systems and determines if a tracking operation is needed. This is useful as the device will not track owners but only possible intruders or unrecognized persons.
Controller 13 may have a local controlling interface or a remote controlling interface so as to provide configurations of the tracking priority and rules thereof. The tracking priority rules are shown in Table 2. The managing rule is not limited by aforementioned description.
Once controller 13 acquires ID information from local or remote systems, controller 13 will load and perform pre-programmed operations according to Table 2.
As an example, in
Present application further provides a fifth embodiment. The fifth embodiment is similar to the forth embodiment; however the difference is that controller 13 of the fifth embodiment can automatically configure the image focus and the position of video recording module 11 after determining the selected area (e.g. face) of target 2 (e.g. person 21). Please refer to
Present application further provides a sixth embodiment. The difference between sixth embodiment and aforementioned embodiment is that the sensors 12 of the dynamic tracking device 1 are audio sensors. The dynamic tracking device 1 is applied to a distance meeting environment where there are multiple persons in a local meeting environment. Controller 13 (set in the local meeting environment) acquires the ambient audio sources by analyzing the audio sensing results to determine the location of the speaking person. Controller 13 then guides rotating module 14 to turn the direction of the speaking person so as to obtain the best audio reception. The remote end persons can then see and hear the speaking person.
Present application further provides seventh embodiment. The difference between seventh embodiment and aforementioned embodiment is that the sensors 12 of the seventh embodiment are smoke sensors and the dynamic tracking device 1 is applied to smoke alert. When there is a smoke detected in the monitored environment, controller 13 analyzes the sensing results to acquire the direction of smoke source of the monitored environment, and then sets to the direction of smoke source and generates an instant alert so as to provide managers to deal with the situation immediately.
The aforementioned video recording module 11 further comprises a video camera device and a controlling circuit thereof. Controller 13 is an electrical device having an operating ability such as computer devices, microprocessors, and programmable digital circuits, etc.
The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.