Patent Application
20080049103
Hereinafter, the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In
Particularly, the video image change detector 7 has: reference video image signal waveform data storing means 71 that stores in advance into the reference video image memory 8, as the signal waveform data of the reference video image, the waveform data of the digital video image found to have no changes in scan lines of a video image that is entered from a camera 16; input video image change determination means 72 that receives an video image signal from the camera 16 which is set to a camera surveillance mode through the operation on the operation section 14, compares the signal waveform data of the digitally converted input video image with the signal waveform data of the reference video image stored in the reference video image memory 8, and, thereby, determines whether or not there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16; scan line change quantity determination means 73 that determines whether or not a number of scan lines of the signal of the input video image exceeds a set scan line change quantity that corresponds to a surveillance level selected by a user from among a plurality of surveillance levels when it is determined that there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16; and warning signal generation means 74 that generates a warning signal when it is determined that a number of scan lines of the signal of the input video image that are changed exceeds the set scan line change quantity. It is to be noted that a partial area in the video image memory provided originally in the information recording/reproducing apparatus 1 may be used as the reference video image memory 8 although it is not shown. With this arrangement, no additional memory needs to be provided.
In the information recording/reproducing apparatus 1 structured in this way, the A/D converting circuit 2 converts the analog video image signal entered from the camera 16 into the digital video image signal. The FIFO memory 3 memorizes the digital video image signal from the A/D converting circuit 2 as the signal waveform data of the input video image. The synchronization signal separation circuit 4 separates a vertical synchronization signal and a horizontal synchronization signal included in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16 and outputs the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals respectively. The memory control circuit 6 receives the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals from the synchronization signal separation circuit 4 and, in synchronization therewith, outputs a write clock signal and a write address reset signal for a write control signal to the FIFO memory 3. The memory control circuit 6, upon receiving a readout control signal from the video image change detector 7, outputs the read-out clock signal and the read-out address reset signal. The oscillation circuit 5 outputs an A/D conversion clock signal and a memory control clock signal.
The video image change detector 7 feeds the read-out control signal to the memory control circuit 6 for reading out the signal waveform data of the input video image from the FIFO memory 3, compares the signal waveform data of the input video image that is read out from the FIFO memory 3 in which the signal waveform data has been stored with the signal waveform data of the reference video image stored in advance in the reference video image memory 8, and determines whether or not there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16. In other words, the video image change detector 7 receives the signal of the input video image from the camera 16 which is set to the camera surveillance mode through the operation on the operation section 14, compares the signal waveform data of the input video image that is converted into a digital format with the signal waveform data of the reference video image stored in the reference video image memory 8, and, thereby, determines by using the input video image change determination means 72 whether or not there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16.
In addition, when it is determined that there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16, the video image change detector 7 determines with the scan line change quantity determination means 73 whether or not a number of scan lines of the signal of the input video image that are changed exceeds the set scan line change quantity corresponding to the surveillance level that is selected from among the plurality of surveillance levels through the user's operation, generates by using the warning signal generation means 74 a warning signal when it is determined that the number of scan lines of the signal of the input video image exceeds the set scan line change quantity. The warning means 9 is a light-emitting diode that emits light in response to the warning signal from the video image change detector 7, a buzzer that generates a warning sound in response to the warning signal, or the like.
The camera video image signal processing circuit 10 performs processing to convert the signal of the input video image from the camera 16 into a video signal format which can be handled by the recording/reproducing processing section 11. The recording/reproducing processing section 11 compresses an audio visual signal of a TV broadcast that is obtained by tuning the station through a tuner 15 or an audio/video signal from another unillustrated reproducing apparatus into a predetermined format and stores the compressed data into the recording medium 12 as audio/video data, decompresses the audio/video data stored in the recording medium 12 into a predetermined format and reproduces as audio/video signal, or compresses the camera audio/video signal from the camera video image signal processing circuit 10 into a predetermined format and stores into the recording medium 12 as audio/video data. Among these signals, the reproduced audio/video signal is fed to a monitor apparatus 17, the video signal is reproduced by a display apparatus as a video image thereon, and the audio signal is reproduced by a loudspeaker or the like as a sound. The system controller 13 controls the video image change detector 7, the recording/reproducing processing section 11, the tuner 15, the monitor apparatus 17, and the like and performs various controls in response to an operation signal corresponding to key operations on the operation section 14 such as a remote controller.
Before the camera surveillance mode is set, it is necessary to receive the video image signal of a still image of a place to be monitored which is taken by the camera 16 and store the signal waveform data of the reference video image into the reference video image memory 8. To do this, the reference video image signal waveform data storing means 71 of the video image change detector 7, upon receiving the video image signal from the camera 16, stores the signal waveform data of the digitized video image while the scan lines of the video image signal unchanged into the reference video image memory 8 as the signal waveform data of the reference video image. In other words, the video image signal from the camera 16 is converted into a digital format by the A/D conversion circuit 2, the digital video image signal is stored into the FIFO memory 3 as the signal waveform data of the input video image. However, the data which has not changed among the signal waveform data of the input video image is stored into the reference video image memory 8 as the signal waveform data of the reference video image.
After the signal waveform data of the reference video image is stored into the reference video image memory 8 in this way and when the system controller 10 detects that the camera surveillance mode is set through the operation on the operation section 14 (Step S1), the system controller 10 sets the operation mode of the information recording/reproducing apparatus 1 to the camera surveillance mode. Through this process, the signal of the input video image is fed in from the camera 16 (Step S2), and the signal of the input video image is converted from analog into digital by the A/D conversion circuit 2 (Step S3). Then, the memory control circuit 6 controls the FIFO memory 3 so that the signal of the input video image that has been digitized through the A/D conversion is stored into the FIFO memory 3 as the signal waveform data of the input video image.
By controlling the memory control circuit 6, the input video image change determination means 72 of the video image change detector 7 controls the FIFO memory 3 to be read, reads out the signal waveform data of the input video image from the FIFO memory 3, reads out the signal waveform data of the reference video image from the reference video image memory 8, compares the signal waveform data of the input image and the signal waveform data of the reference video image (Step S4), and determines whether or not there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16 by using a known technology (Step S5).
When it is determined that there is no change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16, no warning is made. However, when it is determined that there is a change in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16, the scan line change quantity determination means 73 of the video image change detector 7 determines whether or not a number of scan lines of the signal of the input video image exceeds a set scan line change quantity that corresponds to a surveillance level selected by a user from among a plurality of surveillance levels (Step S6). Here, the detection of the number of scan lines that are changed is made possible by checking a quantity of lines that are changed during a scanning period (a period between blanking signals) of the video image signal.
For example, if five surveillance levels are provided, the number of changed scan lines is arranged in five levels, namely, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 in the progressive scan method because there are 525 scan lines in total in NTSC system. In this example, the user operates through the operation section 14 so as to display the camera surveillance mode setting screen on the monitor apparatus 17 and arrange the surveillance levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the order in which the surveillance sensitivity increases as the level number increases larger and arrange the number of changed scan lines, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 for the surveillance levels respectively. In step 6, in the description thereof, it is assumed that the surveillance level is set to “2” and, thus the set scan line change quantity is set to “200”.
However, if the scan method is the interlaced scan method, one frame is comprised of two fields (one screen). The number of scan lines in one field is a half of that of the progressive scan method. Therefore, the number of changed scan lines corresponding to the surveillance levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 will be 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250, respectively.
Now, in step S6, when the number of scan lines that are changed in the signal of the input video image from the camera 16 exceeds the set scan line change quantity (200 lines), the warning signal generation means 74 of the image change detector 7 generates a warning signal (Step S7), and, thereby, the warning means 9 outputs a warning (Step S8). If the warning means 9 is an light-emitting diode, then it lights up or blinks. If the warning means 9 is a buzzer, then it generates a notification sound. Without limiting the warning means 9 to the light-emitting diode or the buzzer, the warning means 9 may be any one of the light output means and sound output means that is capable of notifying the user.
According to this embodiment as described above, since a plurality of surveillance levels is arranged, for example, when a garden is monitored at midnight, a parking area into which nobody is supposed to enter at midnight is monitored, or other areas are monitored, it is possible to set such a surveillance level (surveillance sensitivity) that the apparatus does not make a wrong determination by such a subtle change as swaying trees and movements of withered leaves caused by wind. With this arrangement, it becomes possible to correctly notify a user that there is an intruder when the watching area is intruded.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-227312 | Aug 2006 | JP | national |
