JPH11335013A - Elevator car monitoring device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To capture and record an image of an elevator car with a camera so that image data can be efficiently saved. An image capture device in a car captures an image from a camera into a memory, and an image compression unit compresses the image data at a compression ratio determined by an image data storage unit. The image data storage unit 3 determines the compression state based on the state of the elevator received by the elevator state reception unit 4 and stores the image data. Image data deleting means 5
Deletes unnecessary ones of the stored image data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for monitoring the inside of an elevator car by a monitoring camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, crimes in elevator cars have been increasing. Along with this, there has been a demand that a surveillance camera is installed on a ceiling or the like in the car to constantly monitor the inside of the car. On the other hand, in the past, it was common to record video at intervals of several seconds using a video device. However, with the recent development of digital technology, digital image processing has become possible.

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram showing a conventional elevator car monitoring apparatus. An analog camera or a digital camera is installed in a car of the elevator, and the image data is taken into the memory by the image taking device 1. If the captured image data is to be stored in the memory as it is, a large amount of memory is required. The compressed image data is stored by the image storage means 3 in a large-capacity memory device such as a hard disk. The stored image data is taken out by the image taking out means 6 and reproduced as needed.

[0004]

In the conventional elevator car monitoring apparatus as described above, since image data is recorded in a large-capacity memory device under certain conditions, a large amount of data that is not originally required is stored. Therefore, there is a problem that the memory cannot be used effectively.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide an elevator car monitoring apparatus capable of efficiently storing car image data.

[0006]

An elevator car monitoring apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention sets the priority of image data according to the state of the elevator, and compresses the image data according to the priority. The rate is changed and recorded in the storage memory.

In the elevator car monitoring apparatus according to the second invention, the priority of the image data is set in accordance with the state of the elevator in the first invention. Is set to be high and recorded in the storage memory.

A third aspect of the present invention is an elevator car monitoring apparatus according to the first or second aspect.
According to the state of the elevator, the recorded image data is deleted retroactively.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an elevator car monitoring apparatus according to the first or second aspect.
When the storage memory is insufficient, the image data recorded in the storage memory is deleted.

In the elevator car monitoring apparatus according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the image is deleted from the image having the lower priority.

A sixth aspect of the invention provides an elevator car monitoring apparatus according to the fourth aspect, wherein an image having a high priority is recompressed and recorded.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 1 to 3 show one embodiment of the first invention to the sixth invention of the present invention.
1 is an overall configuration diagram, FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an image data storing operation, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an image data deleting operation.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image capture device for capturing an image of an analog camera or a digital camera installed in a car of an elevator into a memory, and 2 denotes an image image in the car captured in a memory. Image compression means for forming image data to be stored by being compressed by the compression ratio determined by the storage means 3, image data storage means for recording the compressed image data in a storage memory (not shown), and serial Based on communication, contact signals, etc., the current floor of the elevator, traveling direction, door open / closed state, operation / pause state, presence / absence of destination call in the car,
This is an elevator status receiving means for receiving the status of the elevator such as the load in the car (the number of passengers).

Reference numeral 5 denotes an image data deleting unit for deleting the image data stored in the image data storing unit 3, and reference numeral 6 denotes an image extracting unit for extracting the image data stored in the image data storing unit 3.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
The image capturing device 1 captures an image in a car into a memory. Since the image captured in the memory requires a large amount of memory as it is, it becomes image data to be compressed and stored by the image compression means 2. At this time, the image data storage unit 3 determines the compression ratio of the image data. JPEG, MPEG
Various methods have been proposed, some of which have been integrated into ICs and can be processed at high speed.

In any of the compression algorithms, the memory size required for data can be changed by specifying a compression ratio. That is, if the compression ratio is increased,
Although the memory capacity can be reduced, the image quality when the image is reproduced decreases. In some cases, the storage means of the image data may be changed by switching between an algorithm for compressing a still image and an algorithm for compressing a moving image.

The image data storing means 3 determines the state of the elevator received by the elevator state receiving means 4, determines a compression rate as a priority, and stores the image data compressed at the compression rate. The image data deletion unit 5 deletes unnecessary image data of the image data stored by the image data storage unit 3. In this way, the stored image data is taken out to the outside by the image taking out means 6, and the image is reproduced as needed. As the image extracting means 6,
Means such as copying from the hard disk device in the monitoring device to the hard disk device of the personal computer using a device such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer), and taking out by transmission from a remote monitoring center via a telephone line have been realized.

Next, the operation of the image data storage means 3 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In step S1, it is determined whether the elevator is suspended. If the elevator is suspended, the process ends without saving the image data. If not suspended, step S2
Then, it is determined whether or not the door is opened. If the door is opened, the compression ratio a is set to 20% in step S3. This is because if the camera is properly positioned and oriented, it is possible to accurately record the figure of a person getting into the car when the door is opened. This is because it is considered to be useful for the analysis.

When a plurality of cameras are installed, the camera can be switched at the timing of opening the door or the like to capture an image. Next, if the door is not open,
Proceeding to step S4, it is determined whether the load in the car is equal to or less than a predetermined value. If the load is higher than the predetermined value, the compression ratio a is set to 70% in step S5. This is because it is considered that a crime or the like rarely occurs when a large number of people are in the car, so that an image having a low resolution may be stored.

Next, if the load in the car is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S6, where it is determined whether there is a destination call registered in the car. If there is no destination call, the compression ratio a is reduced to 70% in step S7. To This means that when there is no destination call,
This is because there is a high possibility that no person is in the car, and it is considered more efficient to reduce memory consumption even if the resolution is reduced. If there is a destination call, step S8
To set the compression ratio a to 50% and save a standard image.

Then, the flow advances to step S9 to store the image data compressed at the determined compression ratio a in the large-capacity memory. At this time, the elevator status signal used for the determination of the compression ratio a, the determined compression ratio a, and the time, such as the floor where the car is located, the driving direction, and the open / closed state of the door, are stored.
In the above description, the compression rate a is used as the recording format in the memory. However, it is also possible to change the compression rate by using a time interval for saving or a compression procedure.

Next, the operation of the image data deleting means 5 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In step S11, it is determined whether or not the elevator is in a halt state. If it is not in the pause state, the process jumps to step S13, and if it is in the pause state, it proceeds to step S12. In step S12, the stored image data is checked from the oldest one, and the image data up to the point where the door is opened is deleted. This is because the image data from the last closing of the door to the hibernation is
This is because the same treatment as during suspension is sufficient.

Next, it is determined in step S13 whether or not the image data storage memory is insufficient. If the memory is insufficient, the data at the oldest time is checked in step S14, and the compression ratio a is higher than a predetermined value ( Check the image data (low resolution) and delete it. In step S15, it is determined whether there is no image data to be deleted or if the memory is still insufficient after the deletion. If the memory is insufficient, an image having a low compression rate a is reproduced in step S16. And save again.

It is determined in step S17 whether the memory is still insufficient. If the memory is insufficient, the predetermined value of the compression ratio is gradually reduced in step S18 in accordance with the degree of lack of the large-capacity memory, and the flow advances to step S14. Return. As a result, the high-priority image data is stored, and the low-priority image data is deleted. Then, steps S13, S15, S1
If it is determined in step 7 that the memory is sufficient, the process ends.

As described above, the compression ratio corresponding to the priority of the image data is changed according to the state of the elevator, so that the image can be efficiently recorded in accordance with the priority of the image. Becomes Also, when reproducing and analyzing an image, an important image can be recorded as a clear image.

[0026]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the priority of the image data is set according to the state of the elevator, and the compression ratio of the image data is changed according to the priority to store the priority in the storage memory. In the second invention,
Since the image data having a lower priority is recorded with a higher compression ratio, the image can be efficiently recorded in accordance with the priority of the image. Further, when an image is reproduced and analyzed, an important image can be obtained as a clear image.

Further, in the third invention, the recorded image data is deleted retroactively, in the fourth invention, the image data is deleted when the storage memory is insufficient, and in the fifth invention, the priority is deleted. In the sixth aspect of the invention, images are deleted from lower images, and images with higher priority are recompressed and recorded.
The capacity of the storage memory can be saved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an image data storing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an image data deleting operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram showing a conventional elevator car monitoring device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 image capturing device, 2 image compressing means, 3 image data storing means, 4 elevator status receiving means, 5 image data deleting means.

Claims (6)

[Claims] An apparatus for recording image data obtained from a camera installed in a car of an elevator in a storage memory, wherein a priority of the image data is set according to a state of the elevator, and the priority is set to the priority. An elevator car monitoring apparatus, comprising: an image data storage means for changing the compression ratio of the image data in accordance with the image data and storing the image data in the storage memory. 2. An image data storage means, wherein the priority of image data is set according to the state of the elevator, and the lower the priority of the image data, the higher the compression ratio is recorded in the storage memory. The elevator car interior monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. An image data deleting means for deleting recorded image data retroactively according to a state of an elevator.
An elevator car monitoring device as described. 4. The elevator car according to claim 1, further comprising image data deleting means for deleting image data recorded in the storage memory when the storage memory is insufficient. Monitoring device inside. 5. An elevator car monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said image data deleting means is configured to delete images having lower priority. 6. The elevator car monitoring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the image data deleting means is configured to recompress and record the high priority image.