Surveillance image retrieval apparatus and surveillance system

Abstract

Disclosed is a surveillance image retrieval apparatus capable of generating an image representing a search result that a surveillant can visually confirm, even if a face image used is not suitable for the visual identification of a person. The surveillance image retrieval apparatus includes a surveillance image acquirer, which acquires surveillance images; a feature amount generator, which extracts a face image from the surveillance images and generates the feature amount of the extracted face image; an image feature amount memory for storing a face image, a surveillance image, and other metadata associated with an acquired feature amount; a face image designator, which selects an appropriate face image in accordance with a user's input, and designates the selected face image as a query image for a person search; a similar image searcher for searching the series of surveillance images stored in the image feature amount memory for a face image similar to the designated face image; a presentation image selector, which examines surveillance images that are close to the search result in imaging time, and selects presentation surveillance images that include face images of the same person; and a screen data generator for outputting the presentation surveillance images selected.