Sony Corporation

Masaaki Kurebayashi

Hiroyuki Hasegawa

Hideki Hama

Hiroshi Nedu

Takeyoshi Kuroya

Mikiko Mase

Noriyuki Yamashita

Takanobu Ujisato

Hiromitsu Baba

A coverage area picture imaging a maximum area is displayed on a coverage area picture display. A camera is moved within a predetermined range and a plurality of frames obtained as a result form a picture. The pixels of the picture is decimated in vertical and horizontal directions and form a thumbnail as the coverage area picture. The coverage area picture display presents a display indicating a direction in which the camera is currently directed for picture photographing. In accordance with the display, a photographing direction is controlled. A plurality of frames are photographed with respect to a designated position, then stored, and displayed. A whole picture display presents a whole panorama picture. A selective picture display presents a frame at the position designated within the whole panorama picture as a selected picture.

Monitoring system, monitoring method, computer program, and storage medium

Monitoring system for a photography unit, monitoring method, computer program, and storage medium

A system and method to monitor a target area of a panoramic images by shooting the target area, sequentially shifting the shooting direction. A unit image of a generated panoramic image and a corresponding unit image of another panoramic image generated before the first panoramic image are compared and the change, if any, in the luminance level is detected. Then, the detected difference of luminance level is compared with a predetermined threshold value and predetermined information is displayed on the display screen with the generated panoramic image. It is possible to define small regions in the area for which a large threshold is predetermined and/or small regions in the area for which no such comparison is made on a unit image basis.

Monitor for monitoring a panoramic image

A camera system includes a camera apparatus for shooting an object to output an image signal and a camera control apparatus for controlling the camera apparatus such that the camera apparatus shoots a plurality of images constructing a panorama image in a predetermined order while changing zoom magnifications based on previously-determined setting and making a panorama image by joining a plurality of images with different zoom magnifications shot by the camera apparatus together.

Camera system, camera control apparatus, panorama image making method and computer program product

An imaging apparatus includes a camera unit, a panorama-image generating section generating a panorama image of the entire area by combining a plurality of unit images obtained by the camera unit, a panorama-image storage/management section storing and managing the panorama image generated by the panorama-image generating section, an infrared camera photographing an object that has a temperature falling within a preset temperature range as an infrared image, a direction controller sequentially shifting the photographing direction of the infrared camera within the area being photographed, an infrared-image generating section combining a plurality of infrared images provided by the infrared camera, an image-synthesizing section synthesizing the panorama image generated by the panorama-image generating section, with the panorama infrared image generated by the infrared-image generating section, and a display displaying the synthesized image generated by the image-synthesizing section.

Monitoring apparatus

Positional and elevation data obtained from a camera unit is correlated with coordinates in an entire image display portion, used as a GUI having positional information to select a specified image with a mouse. Which frame this corresponds to in the entire image is calculated, and further, the position within the clicked frame is calculated. The calculated positional information is converted into positional information and elevation data of the frame. The camera unit is controlled with the positional information and elevation data from the camera unit, and an image of a range indicated by a specified image display frame superimposed on the display portion is taken, and stored and/or displayed. This allows confirmation an image of a range to be photographed beforehand, and the user can tell the relation between the range capable of acquiring images and the photography range at a glance, so desired portions can be continuously monitored.

Camera surveillance system and method for displaying multiple zoom levels of an image on different portions of a display

A monitoring system includes a picture capturing unit, a storage unit for storing original images composed of still images captured by said picture capturing unit, or a compressed images composed of compressed still images generated by compressing the still images, an image display unit, a designating unit for designating a region in an image displayed on the image display unit, and a control unit. The control unit controls said image display unit to display a panoramic entire image composed of the stored original images or compressed images, and updates only an image in the designated region in the entire image.

Monitoring system and method, and program and recording medium used therewith

An imaging apparatus includes a camera unit, a panorama-image generating section generating a panorama image of the entire area by combining a plurality of unit images obtained by the camera unit, a panorama-image storage/management section storing and managing the panorama image generated by the panorama-image generating section, a thermal camera photographing an object that has a temperature falling within a preset temperature range as a thermal image, a direction controller sequentially shifting the photographing direction of the thermal camera within the area being photographed, a thermal-image generating section combining a plurality of thermal images provided by the thermal camera, an image-synthesizing section synthesizing the panorama image generated by the panorama-image generating section, with the panorama thermal image generated by the thermal-image generating section, and a display displaying the synthesized image generated by the image-synthesizing section.

A camera includes a lens unit and an imaging unit. The optical axis of the camera is defined as a reference line, and a central line of a shooting area including an object to be shot is defined as an imaging centerline. A shift lens is moved to a shift-lens position which corresponds to the count of pulses supplied to a servomotor of a pan/tilter, so that an object image travels along an optical path generated by the shift lens is incident on another lens, and is then incident on the imaging unit. Accordingly, the object image incident on the imaging unit does not change while the shift lens is moved.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Masaaki Kurebayashi