Patent Grant
9628750
The present invention relates to an adaptive video security system for processing a video signal using a different scheme based on a transmission scheme from a security camera to a digital video recorder (DVR) system and image quality of the transmitted video. More particularly, the present invention relates to a video transmission scheme and a video image quality adaptive DVR system that may determine whether a video signal is an analog video signal transmitted using an analog transmission scheme from a security camera that generates an analog video signal by including image quality information in an original video signal or a digital video signal transmitted using a digital transmission scheme from a security camera, and may convert an analog video signal to a first digital component video signal and detect analog video image quality information from the analog when the received video signal is determined as the analog video signal, and may convert a digital video signal to a second digital component video signal and detect digital video image quality information from the digital video signal when the received video signal is determined as the digital video signal, and, in a video signal processing operation, may scale, compress, store, or display the first digital component video signal by referring to the analog video image quality information in the case of the analog, and may scale, compress, store, or display the second digital component video signal by referring to the digital video image quality information in the case of the digital.
A digital video recorder (DVR) system refers to a digital video storage device that stores a digital video signal in a large storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) and enables a user to play the digital video signal if necessary. Such the DVR system is also employed in a security system and compresses and processes video input from a plurality of security cameras and enables long-hour recording, a quick search, and a clear image playback. Also, the DVR system supports real-time video transmission and remote monitoring over the Internet by integrating a network function. Accordingly, the utility value of the DVR system is increasing.
An analog camera used for the DVR system may be classified based on image quality. For example, there are a low image quality camera having a video band of about 6 MHz and about 720 horizontal pixels (hereinafter, a video of such image quality is referred to as a “low image quality video”) and a recent high image quality camera having a video band of about 8 MHz and about 960 horizontal pixels (hereinafter, a video of such image quality is referred to as a “high image quality video”) to output a further vivid image. However, the DVR system requires image quality information of an input video to perform video processing such as video scaling, compressing, storing, or displaying. Only when a camera transmits video image quality information and the DVR system recognizes the video image quality information and is set in interaction with the video image quality information, the DVR system may be optimally utilized.
In general, a standard format of an analog video includes a national television system committee (NTSC) scheme in which a single frame includes 525 video lines and a phase alternation by line (PAL) scheme in which a single frame includes 625 video lines. While maintaining a standard format of an NTSC or PAL video signal without deformation or damage to video information, additional information such as a closed caption (CC) and a teletext may be transferred. In an analog video signal standard format, such additional information is included in a vertical blanking interval (VBI) and thereby transmitted using a characteristic that the additional information is not displayed on a screen in the VBI. Video image quality information between an analog camera and the DVR system may be transmitted using the VBI.
The resolution of a digital camera used for the DVR system may be classified into 720P, 1080I, and 1080P, and may be developed to be further diversified in the near future. Similar to the analog camera, even in the case of the digital camera, the DVR system requires image quality information of an input video to perform video processing such as video scaling, compressing, storing, or displaying. Only when a camera transmits video image quality information and the DVR system recognizes the video image quality information and is set in interaction with the video image quality information, the DVR system may be optimally utilized. However, when a video signal transmitted from the digital camera is transmitted using a serial digital interface (SDI), image quality information is included in digital information. Depending on cases, image quality information may be known by measuring the number of valid pixels included in video or measuring a clock frequency. For example, when the number of valid pixels is 720×1280 and a transmission clock is 74.25 MHz, the image quality may be determined as a 720P format.
The present invention has been made in an effort to outperform the aforementioned issues found in the related art and to provide a transmission scheme that may insert video image quality information and thereby transmit a video signal while maintaining a standard format of the video signal in an analog camera output, and enable a DVR system to determine a transmission scheme of the received video signal and video image quality of the received video signal and to differentiate video processing based on the determined video signal transmission scheme and video signal image quality, and to provide a video image quality adaptive DVR system. In detail, an analog camera inserts a signal (hereinafter, referred to as an “image quality determination signal”) having image quality information in a VBI of a video signal and thereby transmits the video signal to a DVR system. The DVR system determines whether the received video signal is an analog video signal or a digital video signal and converts the video signal to a component video signal and detects the image quality information using a video decoder when the received signal is the analog video signal, and converts the received video signal to a component video signal and detects the image quality information using a video receiver when the received video signal is the digital video signal, selects the component video signal and the video image quality information based on the determination of the video transmission scheme, and performs video processing, such as video scaling, compressing, storing, or displaying, on the selected component video based on the selected video image quality.
The present invention has been made in an effort to outperform the aforementioned issues found in the related art and to provide a transmission scheme that may insert video image quality information and thereby transmit a video signal while maintaining a standard format of the video signal in an analog camera output, and enable a digital video recorder (DVR) system to determine a transmission scheme of the received video signal and video image quality of the received video signal and to differentiate video processing based on the determined video signal transmission scheme and video signal image quality, and to provide a video image quality adaptive DVR system. In detail an analog camera inserts a signal (hereinafter, referred to as an “image quality determination signal”) having image quality information in a VBI of a video signal and thereby transmits the video signal to a DVR system. The DVR system determines whether the received video signal is an analog video signal or a digital video signal and converts the video signal to a component video signal and detects the image quality information using a video decoder when the received signal is the analog video signal, and converts the received video signal to a component video signal and detects the image quality information using a video receiver when the received video signal is the digital video signal, selects the component video signal and the video image quality information based on the determination of the video transmission scheme, and performs video processing, such as video scaling, compressing, storing, or displaying, on the selected component video based on the selected video image quality.
To solve the aforementioned issues found in the related art, an aspect of the present invention proposes a security camera for an image quality adaptive video security system, the security camera including: a video signal generator configured to generate an original video signal from a camera sensor; and an image quality information inserter configured to generate an analog video signal by inserting, in the original video signal, an image quality determination signal including quality information of a video.
Another aspect of the present invention proposes an image quality adaptive digital video recorder (DVR) system, including: an image quality information detector configured to receive, from a security camera, an analog video signal in which an image quality determination signal including image quality information of a video is inserted, and to detect the image quality information of the video from the image quality determination signal; a decoder configured to output a digital component video signal by decoding the received analog video signal by referring to the detected image quality information; and a video processing unit configured to scale, compress, store, or display the digital component video signal. Here, the image quality information may be referred to only by the decoder, may be referred to only by the video processing unit, or may also be referred to by both the decoder and the video processing unit.
Still another aspect of the present invention proposes a complex image quality adaptive DVR system, including: a video transmission scheme detector configured to determine whether a video signal received from a security camera is an analog video signal transmitted using an analog transmission scheme or a digital video signal transmitted using a digital transmission scheme; an image quality information detector and signal converter configured to decode the analog video signal to a first digital component video signal and to detect analog video image quality information from the analog video signal when the received video signal is determined as the analog video signal, and to convert the digital video signal to a second digital component video signal and to detect digital video image quality information from the digital video signal when the received video signal is determined as the digital video signal; and a video signal processing unit configured to scale, compress, store, or display the first digital component video signal by referring to the detected image quality information of the analog video signal in the case of an analog, and to scale, compress, store, or display the second digital component video signal by referring to the detected image quality information of the digital video signal in the case of a digital.
The present invention may determine whether a video signal transmitted from a camera connected to a digital video recorder (DVR) system is an analog video signal transmitted using an analog transmission scheme or a digital video signal transmitted using a digital transmission scheme, and may automatically set the DVR system based on the determination. Accordingly, there is no need to install the DVR system by considering a transmission scheme of the camera when installing the DVR system. Also, the present invention may automatically determine image quality (for example, low image quality and high image quality) of a video received by the DVR system and thus, there is no need to install the DVR system by considering image quality of the camera when installing the DVR system. In a case that the camera is changed to a camera of a different transmission scheme or a camera of different image quality after installing the DVR system, the DVR system may automatically adapt to the changed camera without any manual settings of the DVR system. Accordingly, it is possible to save maintenance cost and convenient to use the DVR system. Also, it is possible to develop the DVR system that is easily adaptable to the image quality of the input video and capable of efficiently using a storage space (HDD) for recording and storing the received video. It is possible to configure, into a single DVR system, DVR systems respectively supporting security cameras having an analog transmission or digital transmission and low image quality, high image quality, or another image quality. Thus, the present invention is advantageous in economical and technical aspects.
The same reference numerals refer to the same constituent elements illustrated in the drawings.
Basically, the VBI is not displayed in a video and thus, is most appropriate to insert additional information while maintaining a standard format of a video signal. The VBI includes a plurality of video lines, and the image quality determination signal may be inserted in one or at least two video lines among the plurality of video signals. An insertion type of the image quality determination signal is described in more detail with reference to
A sync signal detection for detecting the VBI may also perform a sync detection from the original video signal and may also use a sync signal employed in the video signal generator 110. Also, the image quality determination signal may be inserted in an original video signal in an analog form and may also be inserted in a digital output of the video signal generator 110.
According to an exemplary embodiment, an analog video signal may be generated by converting an original video signal to an analog form through a DAC before inserting image quality information, detecting a sync signal from the converted analog original video signal, and then inserting image quality information in an analog form in a VBI. According to another exemplary embodiment, an image quality determination signal may be digitally inserted in an original video signal with a digital form output from the video signal generator 110 during a VBI using a sync signal used by the video signal generator 110 and a video signal in a digital form in which image quality information is inserted may also be converted to an analog video signal through a DAC. As described above, the analog video signal in which image quality information is inserted, that is, an analog composite signal may be transmitted to a digital video recorder (DVR) system through a transmission cable.
A horizontal sync signal and a vertical sync signal for detecting a VBI may also be detected from the input analog video signal, and may also be detected from a digital video signal converted by the ADC, although not illustrated. A sync signal detected by the decoder 210 for video decoding may also be used.
Also, the decoder 210 generates a digital component video signal through a process of separating a luminance signal Y and a chrominance signal C from the input analog video signal, and demodulating the chrominance signal C. A description relating to a general decoding process is omitted.
The image quality information detector detects a predetermined area (for example, a predetermined video line) of a VBI using the detected horizontal sync signal and vertical sync signal, and determines image quality of a video based on a signal detected in the above section. The predetermined area may be preset and the image quality information may be divided in two types, high image quality and low image quality, and thereby be inserted as different sets of information. However, by employing a scheme of inserting additional information in the case of the high image quality and not inserting additional information in the case of the low image quality, a case in which the additional information is inserted in the VBI may be determined as the high image quality and an opposite case may also be determined as the low image quality. Also, similar to detection of a sync signal, image quality information may also be detected from a received analog video signal and may also be detected from a video signal in a digital form converted by the ADC.
In the present example, although image quality information is illustrated to be referred to only by the video processing unit 250, the image quality information may also be referred to by the decoder 210 and may also be referred to by both the decoder 210 and the video processing unit 250. For example, in the case of performing decoding by referring to image quality information (for example, high image quality or low image quality) received from the image quality information detector, a digital component video signal may be output by setting a decoding clock according to the low image quality or the high image quality or by correcting or enhancing the image quality. The video processing unit 250 may process the digital component video signal by referring to image quality information received from the image quality information detector. That is, the video processing unit 250 performs scaling, compressing, storing, or displaying of the video based on the image quality information (for example, high image quality or low image quality) of the video corresponding to the image quality information.
As described above, a DVR system is automatically set to be suitable for each image quality with respect to a plurality of cameras having different image quality by performing video processing using image quality information inserted in a VBI of an analog video signal and thus, a unified DVR system may be utilized. That is, it is possible to implement an image quality adaptive video security system that performs appropriate video processing (for example, video scaling, storing, compressing, or displaying) based on image quality.
The video transmission scheme detector 310 may be divided in an analog detector configured to determine whether the received video signal is the analog video signal and a digital detector configured to determine whether the received video signal is a digital video signal. The analog detector may determine a connection of an analog signal by referring to strength of the received analog video signal, a format of a sync signal, phase locked loop (PLL) state information of a sync signal detected when the analog video decoder decodes a video, and color signal PLL state information. The digital detector may determine a connection of a digital signal by referring to strength of the received digital video signal, a format of a sync signal, a clock frequency, and clock PLL state information. Next, a final video transmission scheme may be detected by referring to a detection result of the analog detector and a detection result of the digital detector.
The analog video decoder performs a process of converting the analog video signal to a digital video signal, detecting the sync signal from the converted digital video signal, correcting a video signal level, separating a black-and-white signal and a color signal, correcting a color signal level, demodulating the color signal, and thereby converting the analog video signal to a component video signal. A VBI may be detected using a sync signal from the sync signal detector in the analog video detector and image quality information may be detected from an image quality determination signal included in the detected VBI.
The digital video receiver performs a process of receiving a digital video and converting the digital video to a component video signal and uses a high speed serial transmission scheme such as an SDI. To convert a serial digital video signal to a parallel digital video signal, the digital video receiver may extract a clock synchronized with received image data, may convert serial data to parallel data based on the extracted clock, and may detect image quality information from information on the extracted clock or the extracted parallel image data.
A detection scheme of image quality information may employ an image quality information detection scheme of the DVR system described above with reference to
According to an exemplary embodiment, the present system may further include a video signal and image quality information selector 350 configured to select analog video image quality information and a first digital component video signal when the detected video transmission scheme is an analog transmission scheme, and to select digital video image quality information and a second digital component video signal when the detected video transmission scheme is a digital transmission scheme. The selected video signal and image quality information may be input to the video processing unit 370. The video processing unit 370 may scale, compress, store, or display the first or second digital component video signal by referring to the analog or digital video image quality information.
In the case of generating an analog video signal, the image quality information inserter 130 generates an analog video signal by merging an original video signal and an image quality determination signal (that is, a VBI data signal). For example, as illustrated in
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an image quality determination signal including image quality information may be included in at least one VBI. For example, as illustrated by (b) and (c) of
According to still another exemplary embodiment, image quality information may be determined based on whether image quality information is inserted. For example, by not inserting a video determination signal in a VBI for a low image quality video signal and by inserting a video determination signal only for a high image quality video signal, when the video determination signal is detected in the image quality information detector 230, the detected video determination signal may be configured to be recognized as “high image quality”.
Only the specific examples are described in detail to help understand the present invention, and thus, constituent elements disclosed in the present specification, connection and relationship therebetween, and functions thereof are only exemplary. In the present invention, the video signal generator 110 and the image quality information inserter 130 of the security camera are embodied to be physically integrated. However, depending on a necessity, each of the constituent elements may be configured in a physically separate form or in a form in which at least one constituent element is integrated. Similarly, although the image quality information detector 230, the video decoder 210, and the video processing unit 250 are embodied to be physically integrated, each of the constituent elements may be configured in a physically separate form or in a form in which at least one constituent element is integrated. Also, in the complex image quality adaptive DVR system, the video transmission scheme detector 310, the image quality information detector and signal converter 330, and the video processing unit 370 are illustrated to be integrated. However, each of the constituent elements may be configured in a physically separate form or in an integrated form depending on a necessity. Also, as described in the detailed description and illustrated in the drawings, the image quality information detector and signal converter 330 may include a decoder for analog signal conversion, an analog video image quality information detector, a receiver for digital signal conversion, and a digital video image quality information detector, which may be selectively configured or simultaneously configured based on an analog or digital transmission scheme. As described above, the system further including the video signal and image quality information selector 350 may be configured. A transmission scheme detected from the video transmission scheme detector 310 may also be referred to in addition to a video signal and image quality information, based on an analog or a digital. Although an operation by a predetermined order is described in the drawings, operations are not necessarily performed in the predetermined order or sequential order to obtain an exemplary result.
The technical scope of the present invention described above with reference to the exemplary embodiments is not limited to the exemplary embodiments and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, such modification examples or corrections fall within the scope of the invention disclosed in the claims.
The present invention may provide a scheme of transmitting a video from a security camera to a digital video recorder (DVR) system and an adaptive video security system for processing a video signal using a different scheme based on image quality of the transmitted video.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2011-0098746 | Sep 2011 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2012/006335 | 8/9/2012 | WO | 00 | 3/28/2014 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2013/048002 | 4/4/2013 | WO | A |
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