This invention relates to video surveillance, and in particular to a method of and system for dynamically tracking intruders across a plurality of associated video screens.
Tracking incidents or persons across a set of related video cameras in a video surveillance system is one of the most routine tasks performed by the surveillance operator. The trigger for this activity can be an alarm or other event from the system or the result of active surveillance in observation of an area. For example, an invalid card swipe may occur at an entrance location and the operator wants to quickly view all possible exits from that particular door with the corresponding camera. Another trigger could occur when an operator is watching a game table in a casino and sees someone stealing or cheating in the game and start to walk away, where the operator needs to follow him easily and cover all his possible movements. There are of course other scenarios in which this operation is useful or performed by the operator.
Existing solutions usually involve manually remembering the related cameras and pulling them up in advance by the operator. This requires knowledge from the operator about the details of the system memorized. More advanced solutions use a complex video analytics algorithm, which is a brute force approach that does an analysis of the data across all cameras. This is error prone and the technology has not matured to deploy it easily in any facility without the need to have expensive equipment. Also, object identification across cameras has not been an easy to solve technical problem resulting in false analysis.
The result is that the existing solutions in the market are not straight forward or easy to use and hence operational efficiency to handle the situation by the end user is convoluted.
The present invention addresses this problem by providing a system and method for pre-associating selected video cameras with each other and allowing the operator to manually select a desired camera to cause those previously associated cameras to also come into view, thus enabling a video pursuit of the suspect.
The present invention is a method of and system for tracking an object of interest throughout an area under surveillance that is made up of a plurality of regions. A plurality of video cameras are strategically located so as to provide a video image associated with each of the regions. For each of the video cameras as a primary video camera, a subset of the video cameras are associated as auxiliary video cameras to that primary video camera. These associations may be stored in a table in computer memory, for example.
One of the video cameras is selected as an initial primary video camera to display a video image on a display as an initial primary video image. In addition, an auxiliary video image is displayed for each of the subset of auxiliary video cameras that were previously associated with the initial primary video camera. This may be for example in a matrix format with the primary video image in the center and the auxiliary video images in sections surrounding the primary video image.
As an intruder or object of interest travels from region to region throughout the area under surveillance, he or it will leave the primary video image and/or appear in an auxiliary video image. Then the user may select one of the auxiliary video cameras to become a subsequent primary video camera, and the video image from the subsequent primary video camera will be displayed as a subequent primary video image. In addition, a video image for each of the subset of auxiliary video cameras previously associated with the subsequent primary video camera will be displayed. This process may be repeated so that the user can easily track the intruder throughout he region.
The present invention is a system and method of using a plurality of video images such as real-time video feeds from a plurality of video cameras in order to quickly and easily track and follow an object or person throughout an area under surveillance such as a warehouse facility. In this invention, the facility being monitored is on a large scale such that a single camera cannot capture the entire area under surveillance. The area under surveillance may be divided into a number of regions, and then a plurality of security video cameras are strategically located so as to provide a video image associated with each of the regions, for example to cover all entrances and exits, windows, hallways, rooms, etc. The video feed input signals from the cameras are fed into a central or common monitoring location and processed such that they can be viewed on a computer monitor and manipulated by an associated computer system.
As shown in
The invention is based on configuring each video camera with a group of associated auxiliary video cameras. For example, when a first video camera that monitors a door leading from a hallway to a room is considered to be the primary video camera (i.e. its images are displayed in the primary or center viewing area), then that video camera as primary video camera may have the following auxiliary video cameras associated with it: a second camera monitoring the inside of the room, a third camera monitoring one end of the hall, a fourth camera monitoring another end of the hall, a fifth camera monitoring the door to another room directly across from the first room, etc. Similarly, when the third camera (that monitors the end of the hall) is considered to be the primary video camera, it may have the following auxiliary cameras associated with it: the fourth camera that monitors the other end of the hall as mentioned above, the first and fifth cameras that monitor the room doors as mentioned above, and a sixth camera that monitors the stairs leading up from the end of the hall, and a seventh camera that monitors the stairs leading down from the end of the hall, etc. This can logically be extended for every video camera in the area under surveillance. As such, each video camera when acting as a primary video camera has a plurality of associated auxiliary video cameras that effectively expand the area being monitored by that particular camera.
In Table 1, only the associations of C10-C14 are shown, but an entry will be made for all video cameras in the system in the same manner. Thus, as shown in Table 1, when camera C10 is in the primary video camera such that its video image will be displayed as a primary video image in the main viewing area “M” as shown in
Thus, each video camera as a primary video camera can be logically associated with a number of (usually adjacent) auxiliary cameras during a configuration or commissioning stage. In addition to associating different physical cameras with a given camera, it may be desired to associate a different preset of the same camera as an associated auxiliary camera. Thus, a video camera could have a zoom setting as one associated auxiliary camera, and a wide-angle setting as another associated auxiliary camera, and a pan setting as another associated auxiliary camera, etc.
Referring again to
As the intruder X flees, he enters the field of view primarily covered by camera C13 (near the building exit door) as shown in
Next, as the intruder X continues to flee, he enters the field of view primarily covered by auxiliary video camera C11 as shown in
As shown by the flowchart of
Note that the operator may not have to drag the various screens but may simply select them in an alternative embodiment. In this case, selecting the desired screen such as by clicking or double-clicking it will cause the computer to automatically repopulate the auxiliary areas of the screen in accordance with the map as shown in Table 1.
In addition to displaying video image feeds from cameras, a viewing zone A1-A8 (or even M) may display secondary information such as the alleged intruder's card holder image, related POS/ATM/slots data, map information etc.
Configurations may be adapted and reconfigured on the fly (during use), and then saved as profiles for later use. Also, an operator can choose any fields of view as desired and have the associated video feeds (or data screens) as described above.
This application claims the benefit and filing priority of copending U.S. provisional application 60/974,483 filed Sep. 23, 2007.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60974483 | Sep 2007 | US |