The field relates to security systems and more particularly to retrieving images from security cameras of the security system.
Security systems are generally known. Such systems may include a physical barrier (e.g., a fence, walls, etc.) to entry to a secure area. A number of sensors may be used to detect intruders within the secure area. For example, doors and windows may be provided with perimeter switches that are activated by entry by an intruder. As an alternative to or in addition to perimeter switches, many security systems use intrusion detectors that detect motion of intruders from a distance. These types of intrusion detectors may be based upon infrared detection or processing images captured by a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera.
While perimeter switches and motion detectors are effective, they often do not detect intruders in all situations. In some cases, the sensitivity of such devices must be adjusted such that blowing debris or small animals do not trigger an alarm.
Unfortunately, by setting such devices to avoid false alarms, intruders may be missed. After a security breach in such cases, security personnel must manually review security camera recordings to detect and obtain images of intruders and their activity in order to gather evidence for prosecution. Upon detecting the intruder in the camera recordings, security personnel may use bookmarking features of the security system to identify images within the recordings for later reference.
However, the use of bookmarks is tedious. Where many cameras are involved bookmarks can be missed resulting in lost evidence. Because of the importance of such evidence, a better method is needed for tracking such evidence.
Also included within the secure area 12 may be a number of cameras 18, 20. The cameras 18, 20 may also be connected to the panel 22 via wires or via a wireless transceiver located within each of the cameras 18, 20 and panel 22.
Located within the control panel 22 may be one or more programmed processors 24, 26. Processors 24, 26 may be programmed with one or more software computer programs 28, 30 loaded from a non-transitory computer readable medium (memory) 32.
Of the processors 24, 26, at least one processor 24, 26 (e.g., a motion detection processor) may process video images from each of the cameras 18, 20 to detect motion within the images from the camera 18, 20.
Another processor 24, 26 (e.g., an alarm processor) may detect intruders detected by sensors 14, 16 or by the motion detection processor 24, 26. In response, the alarm processor 24, 26 may activate an intrusion alarm and/or send an alarm message to a central monitoring station.
Other processors 24, 26 may receive a continuous sequence of video images from each of the cameras 18, 20 and continuously save those images into one or more video files 34, 36. An identification processor 24, 26 may provide a time stamp and an identifier of the camera 18, 20 that provided the sequence of images that is, in turn, saved along with each of the images.
In addition to saving the images from each of the cameras 18, 20, a user interface (e.g., a computer monitor and keyboard) 38 may be provided. The user interface 38 allows a security guard to view images from each of the cameras 18, 20 in real time as the images are collected.
In general, intruders may be detected within the images provided by the cameras 18, 20 via the motion detection processors 24, 26 or via one or more security guards seated at the user interface 38. If an intruder 60 is detected by a motion detection processor 24, 26, then the guard may be alerted via a visual indicator associated with the window 56 displaying the intruder 60. For example, the intrusion detection processor 24, 26 may cause highlighting around the window 56 to flash. If the system 10 contains too many cameras 18, 20 to be displayed at any one time and the detected intruder 60 is not currently displayed on the screen 50, then a sequencing processor 24, 26 within the panel 22 may advance the sequence to display the video from the camera 18, 20 from which the intruder 60 has been detected within one of the windows 52, 54, 56, 58.
Alternatively, the system 10 may not include motion detection capability or the guard may observe and detect the intruder 60 before the intruder 60 is detected by the motion detection processors 24, 26. In this case, the guard may place a cursor 62 over the focus of attention of the guard (i.e., the window 56 showing the intruder 60) and activate (e.g., double clicks on) a switch associated with the cursor 62 to select the particular camera 18, 20 displayed in the window 56.
By double clicking on a window 56 depicting the intruder 60, the system 10 selects and displays the selected camera 18, 20 and surrounding cameras 18, 20 as shown in
In this regard, a mapping processor 24, 26 within the alarm panel 22 may map video from each of the adjoining cameras 18, 20 onto the computer desktop or screen 100 as shown in
During normal operation, the mapping processor 24, 26 may monitor a position of a cursor 62 and a switch associated with the cursor 62. If the guard should wants to change his focus of attention, then the guard places the cursor 62 over one of the other windows and activates (e.g., double clicks) the switch associated with the cursor 62. Alternatively, the guard may place the cursor 62 over a selected window and drag the camera 18, 20 to the default window 102. In response, the mapping processor 24, 26 may reverse the relative positions of the camera images shown in the default or focus window 102 and the window over which the cursor 62 was located when the switch was activated. For example, in
Included within the screen 100 may be an evidence collection activation button 128 for an evidence collection system. Under one illustrated embodiment, the evidence collection system may include a collection processor 24, 26 that monitors the button 128 for indication that video evidence (video frames) should be collected 130 from one or more of the cameras 18, 20. Upon activation of the button 128, the collection processor 24, 26 may open an evidence file 40 for collection of a sequence of video frames from the one or more cameras 18, 20. Alternatively, the collection processor 24, 26 may save identifiers of a camera 18, 20 and a time stamp of the frame to be collected.
The collection processor 24, 26 may also activate a monitoring processor 24, 26 that tracks a focus of attention of the guard and records video frames, one frame (and camera) at a time, into the evidence file. Under one particular embodiment, the monitoring processor 24, 26 may simply monitor for and identify the camera 18, 20 that generates the video frames that are being displayed in the default window 102.
In this case and upon receiving an identifier of the camera 18, 20 from the monitoring processor 24, 26, the collection processor 24, 26 captures video frames from the identified camera and saves the captured frames into the evidence file 40. In addition to the video frames from the identified camera 18, 20, the collection processor 24, 26 also saves a time stamp from a timing base processor 24, 26 and the identifier of the camera 18, 20 providing the video frames.
In this case, the monitoring processor 24, 26 detects each change in focus of the guard via the identity of the camera 18, 20 displaying video in the enhanced resolution window 102. As the guard changes focus by selecting a different camera 18, 20, to display video in the enhanced window 102, the collection processor 24, 26 records video from that different camera 18, 20 into the evidence file 40.
In another illustrated embodiment, a direction processor 24, 26 may automatically track movement 132 (
In another illustrated embodiment, the collection processor 24, 26 may simultaneously record a sequence of video from a plurality of camera 18, 20 into the evidence file 40. In this case, the monitoring processor 24, 26 provide a first indication of the focus of attention via the identifier of the camera 18, 20 being displayed within the enhanced resolution window 102 and also a camera 18, 20 over which the cursor 62 is currently located. Under this embodiment, the guard does not have to activate the switch associated with the cursor to record video from other cameras 18, 20, but only to place the cursor over these other cameras. In this way, the guard can record relevant video from more than just the camera 18, 20 displaying the enhanced video where the guard feels that the other camera is showing important detail not shown in the enhanced window.
Although a few embodiments have been described in detail above, other modifications are possible. For example, the logic flows depicted in the figures do not require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Other steps may be provided, or steps may be eliminated, from the described flows, and other components may be added to, or removed from, the described systems. Other embodiments may be within the scope of the following claims.