This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 107116410, filed on May 15, 2018. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The invention relates to a camera apparatus, and more particularly, to a webcam apparatus and a monitoring system.
With the development of science and technology, more and more remote monitoring products have been developed. A common remote monitoring product has the function of providing real-time video information of a monitoring region, so that the user can watch the status of the monitoring region in real time. However, with the increase of various monitoring applications, the traditional video monitoring functions can no longer meet the user's monitoring needs. Therefore, several solutions are provided in the following embodiments.
The invention provides a webcam apparatus and a monitoring system capable of providing a video screen in real time and automatically determining whether a moving object moves to a specific screen block in the video screen in order to correspondingly output a warning signal.
A webcam apparatus of the invention includes a camera, a processor, and a first communication module. The camera is configured to obtain a video screen. The processor is coupled to the camera. The processor analyzes the video screen. The first communication module is coupled to the processor. When the first communication module communicates with an electronic device, the first communication module outputs the video screen to the electronic device. When the processor determines that a moving object moves to a specific screen block in the video screen, the processor outputs a warning signal.
A monitoring system of the invention includes a webcam apparatus and an electronic device. The webcam apparatus includes a camera, a processor, and a first communication module. The camera is configured to obtain a video screen. The processor is coupled to the camera. The processor analyzes the video screen. The first communication module is coupled to the processor. The electronic device is configured to communicate with the first communication module and receive the video screen. When the processor determines that is moving object moves to a specific screen block in the video screen, the processor outputs a warning signal.
Based on the above, the webcam apparatus and the monitoring system of the invention can provide the video screen to the remote electronic device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet or a personal computer) in real time, and the webcam apparatus can analyze the video screen in real time, so as to determine whether it is required to prompt warnings. In other words, even if there is nobody watching the video screen, the webcam apparatus and the monitoring system of the invention can still automatically determine whether the moving object moves to the specific screen block sets by the user to thereby prompt warnings in real time.
To make the above features and advantages of the disclosure more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
In order to make content of the present disclosure more comprehensible, embodiments are described below as the examples to prove that the present disclosure can actually be realized. Moreover, elements/components/steps with same reference numerals represent same or similar parts in the drawings and embodiments.
In this embodiment, the moving object may be pet or human. For instance, one dangerous region may exist in the specific region. In this case, the user may monitor the specific region by using the webcam apparatus 100, and preset a screen block corresponding to the dangerous region as the specific screen in the video screen. In other words, when pet or human is close to or enters the dangerous region, the processor 120 of the webcam apparatus 100 may automatically determine whether the moving object moves to the specific screen through image analysis. Further, in this embodiment, the webcam apparatus 100 may automatically sends out warnings, so as to effectively prevent pet or human from entering the dangerous region.
In this embodiment, the camera 110 may include a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) sensor or a CCD (Charge Coupled Device). The camera 110 of the present embodiment may be used for recording or providing a real-time video screen to the processor 120.
In the present embodiment, the processor 120 may be an image signal processor (ISP), a central processing unit (CPU), a system on chip (SOC) or other programmable devices for general purpose or special purpose, such as a microprocessor and a digital signal processor (DSP), a programmable controller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD) or other similar processing devices or a combination of the above. The invention is not limited in this regard.
In this embodiment, the communication module 130 may be a wireless communication circuit that supports Wi-fi communication standard. In this embodiment, the communication module 130 may first be connected to a network base station within a communication range, and may then communicate with the external electronic device through the network base station. Alternatively, in an embodiment, the communication module 130 may also communicate with the electronic device directly. The invention is not limited in this regard.
In this embodiment, the webcam apparatus 100 may further include a memory. The memory may be used for recording the video screen obtained by the camera 110. In this embodiment, the memory may be a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium may be Read-Only Memory (ROM), Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM) or Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM). The invention is not limited in this regard. In this embodiment, the memory may be used for storing the video screen, analysis software and function software described in each embodiment of the invention, which may be read and executed by the processor 120.
In this embodiment, the first direction P1, a second direction P2 and a third direction P3 are perpendicular to each other. A wall surface S1 is a plane formed in parallel with the second direction P2 and the third direction P3. Specifically, when a magnetic part 281 of the rotation part 280 is combined with a wall-mount part 380, the device body 200B is in a rotatable state. In other words, the webcam apparatus 200 may be disposed onto the wall surface S1, and the device body 200B of the webcam apparatus 200 may be rotated according different use requirements, so that the camera 210 may perform image sensing in a specific orientation.
In this embodiment, the base 400D of the webcam apparatus 400 may be disposed on a desktop S2, for example. The docking station 400C is used for combining with the connection part 490 of the docking station 400B. When the base 400D is fixed to the desktop S2, the docking station 400C has a tiltable range θ1 in a vertical direction, and the docking station 400C has a rotatable range θ2 in a horizontal direction. Specifically, the tiltable range θ1 may be 30 degrees (±15 degrees based on the third direction P3). The rotatable range may be 310 degrees (with the first direction P1 and the second direction P2 as a rotation plane). In other words, the webcam apparatus 400 may be disposed onto a flat surface, and the device body 400B of the webcam apparatus 400 may be rotated or tilted according different use requirements, so that the camera 410 may perform image sensing in a specific orientation.
It should be noted that, the docking station 400C may further be a light source module, a storage module or an automatic feeder. For instance, the docking station may be the light source module configured to provide a lighting function. The light source module may include a light emitting diode (LED). As another example, the docking station 400C may be the automatic feeder configured to provide pet food. In other words, when the user is remotely monitoring pet through the webcam apparatus 400, the user may remotely control the docking station 400C of the webcam apparatus 400 to provide pet food.
In this embodiment, the electronic device 600 includes a display 610, a processor 620 and a communication module 630. The electronic device 600 may be a mobile phone, a tablet, a portable computer or a desktop computer. The invention is not limited in this regard. In this embodiment, the communication module 530 and the communication module 630 support the same communication standard. The display 610 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) or other displays. The invention is not limited in this regard. In this embodiment, the display 610 is used for displaying the video screen in real time. Further, when the electronic device 600 receives an externally input screen selection signal, the processor 620 of the electronic device 600 returns a setting signal to the communication module 530 via the communication module 630, so that the processor 520 of the webcam apparatus 500 is able to set a position of the specific screen block in the video screen.
For instance, as shown in
In this embodiment, the sound player 740 may be used for providing a sound message. For example, when the warning signal output by the processor 720 is received by the sound player 740, the sound player 740 correspondingly plays a warning sound. In this embodiment, the sound sensor 750 may be used for sensing a sound, and the sound may then be analyzed by the processor 720. For example, when the processor 720 determines that the sound meets a preset sound condition, the processor 720 may output a reminder signal to the external electronic device via the first communication module 730 to remind the user. For instance, when a pet sound is received by the sound sensor 750, sound processing software pre-built in the processor 720 may recognize whether the pet sound meets the preset sound condition to thereby provide corresponding reminder information for the user. In addition, the sound sensor 750 may also be used for receiving a sound message of the user, so that the processor 720 is able to perform voice recognition on the sound message of the user.
In this embodiment, the first communication module 730 may be a wireless communication circuit that supports Wi-fi communication standard, and the second communication module 760 may be a wireless communication circuit that supports Bluetooth. In this embodiment, the second communication module 760 may be used for communicating with an external peripheral apparatus. For instance, the sound sensor 750 may receive the sound message of the user, and then after going through the voice recognition, the processor 720 may output a control signal to the external peripheral apparatus via the second communication module 760 in order to remotely control the external peripheral apparatus. Alternatively, in an embodiment, the second communication module 760 may communicate with an external positioning device to receive a real-time positioning message. For instance, a monitoring target may wear the positioning device, so that the webcam apparatus 700 may receive a positioning signal of the monitoring target in real time via the second communication module 760. After the positioning signal is processed by the processor 720, the webcam apparatus 700 may provide the processed signal to the external electronic device via the first communication module 730. The monitoring target may be, for example, a pet, a baby or an elderly person. In other words, even if the monitoring target does not appear in the video screen, the user may still be aware of a position of the monitoring target.
In this embodiment, the first communication module 830 may be a wireless communication circuit that supports Wi-fi communication standard, and the second communication module 860 may be a wireless communication circuit that supports Bluetooth. Specifically, the webcam apparatus 800 may be connected to a network base station through Wi-fi and connected to the communication module 930 of the cloud system 900 through the network base station. After the sound message of the user is received by the sound sensor 850, the webcam apparatus 800 may provide the sound message to the cloud system 900 via the first communication module 830. The cloud system 900 may analyze the sound message of the user, and return a corresponding voice recognition result to the webcam apparatus 800 via the second communication module 860. Accordingly, the webcam apparatus 800 may then execute a corresponding function according to the voice recognition result returned from the cloud system 900.
For instance, the peripheral apparatus 1000 may be an air conditioning apparatus, and the user may send out the sound message, which is a request to turn on the air conditioning apparatus, to the webcam apparatus 800. The webcam apparatus 800 provides the sound message to the cloud system 900, so that a corresponding control command may be generated by the voice recognition module 910. The cloud system 900 returns the corresponding control command to the webcam apparatus 800, so that the webcam apparatus 800 may output the corresponding control command to the peripheral apparatus 1000 via the second communication module 860 in order to turn on the air conditioning apparatus. In other words, the webcam apparatus 800 of the invention may also provide a remote voice control function.
It should be noted that, the webcam apparatus 800 of the invention may further record a connection history. Specifically, when the first communication module 830 finds a network base station within a communication range and the connection history recorded in the memory of the webcam apparatus 800 includes the connection history of that network base station, the first communication module 830 may be automatically connected to the network base station and further connected to the cloud system through the network base station. In other words, if the user has manually set an account name, a location or a login password of the network base station in the past, the processor 820 of the webcam apparatus 800 may record such a connection history. When the next time the user uses the webcam apparatus 800, the user does not need to re-enter the account name, the location, the login password of the network base station again. In other words, the webcam apparatus 800 of the invention may provide an automatic connection function.
In addition, enough teaching, suggestion, and implementation regarding technical features and video monitoring features of other functional devices in the webcam apparatus 800 of this embodiment may be obtained with reference to the foregoing embodiments of
In summary, the webcam apparatus and the monitoring system of the invention may provide the video screen of the specific monitoring region in real time to the remote electronic device. After being set by the user, the webcam apparatus and the monitoring system of the invention may automatically determine whether the moving object moves to the dangerous region in the specific monitoring region to thereby prompt warnings in real time. Also, the webcam apparatus and the monitoring system of the invention may further provide functions like sound playing, sound sensing and remote controlling the peripheral apparatus. Moreover, the webcam apparatus of the invention may be used independently or in conjunction with the docking station. In this way, the webcam apparatus may be conveniently disposed on the wall surface or on the flat surface, so that the camera of the webcam apparatus may perform image sensing in a specific orientation. In addition, the docking station may be the light source module, the storage module or the automatic feeder, so as to provide diverse extension functions.
Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that modifications to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure will be defined by the attached claims and not by the above detailed descriptions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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107116410 | May 2018 | TW | national |