Imaging system, server device, server device control method, program, and storage medium

Abstract

To efficiently distribute video of an area selected by a user.SOLUTION: An imaging system 500 includes an imaging device 501, and a video recording server 502 communicatively connected to the imaging device 501. The imaging device 501 includes: an imaging unit 503 that generates video with a plurality of resolutions; a division unit 504 that performs division processing for dividing the video generated by the imaging unit 503 into one or more tile areas, and generates tile images; and a transmission unit 506 that transmits the video to the video recording server 502. The video recording server 502 includes a division control unit 507 that outputs an instruction to change a division method of the division processing to the imaging device, according to a designation frequency of a designated area designated in the video transmitted from the imaging device 501.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an imaging system, a server device, a control method for a server device, a program, and a storage medium. [Background technology]

[0002] Advances in network technologies, such as the Internet, have increased opportunities for users to remotely view video provided by cameras and other imaging devices. One service allows users to select a region of interest from a camera image capturing a specific area, digitally crop the region, and then zoom in or out on the client side to display the region. However, cropping and zooming the image on the client side reduces the effective resolution of the image, resulting in a degraded image. To overcome this issue, a recording server is used to divide the entire video or multiple high-resolution videos into multiple predetermined regions (tile regions), and each tile image is then transmitted to the client. A technology is known that achieves high scalability and bandwidth management by transmitting the tile image closest to the user-specified region of interest to the client. This technology allows for the distribution of video tailored to the user's selected range using a technique for switching the video stream based on the user's selection or behavior (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2016-58994 A [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-156474 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, if there is a large difference between the tiles captured by a camera or other imaging device and the area selected (specified) by the user, in order for the user to view the image at high resolution, it becomes necessary to either send the image of multiple tiles to the user or generate an image of the user area from the images of multiple tiles. The former puts a strain on the user's bandwidth, and the latter puts a strain on server resources.

[0005] Therefore, the present invention provides a technique that is advantageous in terms of efficiently distributing video of an area selected by a user. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an imaging system including an imaging device and a server device communicably connected to the imaging device, wherein the imaging device: a first image having a first resolution and a second image having a second resolution higher than the first resolution; multiple Film an imaging unit that generates an image; At least the second image A division process is performed to divide the image into multiple tile regions. A plurality of tile regions corresponding to the plurality of tile regions a segmentation unit for generating tile images; Depending on the user's specification, The server device Based on at least some of the tile images a transmitting unit that transmits the video; the first image is an image that is not divided by the division process, or is an image that is divided into fewer tile regions than the second image; The server device performs the following in response to a frequency of designation of a designated area designated in the video transmitted from the imaging device: The division method is based on the position of the specified area. The image capturing apparatus further includes an instruction unit that outputs an instruction to change the division method of the division process to the image capturing apparatus. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a technique that is advantageous in terms of efficiently distributing video of an area selected by a user. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an imaging system according to a first embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of tile division of an image generated by an imaging device. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of video stored in a recording server. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the relationship between SL and NSL. [Figure 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a fixation area according to the first embodiment. [Figure 6] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an imaging system according to a first embodiment. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart showing a distribution video determination process performed by a distribution video determination unit. [Figure 8] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a tile division process according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the configurations shown in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configurations.

[0010] First Embodiment First, the challenges of an imaging system with high scalability and bandwidth management will be explained using Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

[0011] Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an imaging system 500 according to a first embodiment. Fig. 1(A) is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the configuration of an imaging system 500 that provides high scalability and bandwidth management. Figs. 1(B) and 1(C) are diagrams showing examples of tiled images transmitted from an imaging device 501 to a recording server 502. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of tile division of an image generated by the imaging device 501.

[0012] The imaging system 500 includes an imaging device 501 and a recording server 502, and is a system that distributes a captured scene 101 to a client 104 or 105 operated by a user. The imaging device 501 is communicably connected to the recording server 502, and the recording server 502 is communicably connected to the client 104 or 105. Here, the clients are arranged outside the imaging system 500, but they may also be incorporated inside the imaging system 500. Furthermore, for convenience of explanation, the number of clients is limited to two here, but the number may be one or more.

[0013] The imaging device 501 captures the scene 101 at multiple resolutions, generates videos (images) at multiple resolutions, and transmits them to the recording server 502. The images generated by the imaging device 501 include, for example, a low-resolution image 106, a medium-resolution image 107 with a higher resolution than image 106, and an image 108 with a higher resolution than image 107. Here, the image 106 with the lowest resolution is designated as layer 1, and the medium-resolution image 107 is designated as layer 2, with the layer number increasing as the captured resolution increases. For example, the imaging device 501 divides the image of layer 1 into one tile (tile area). Since layer 1 is divided into one tile, it can also be said that there is no division. The image of layer 2 is divided into 2 x 2 tiles, and the image of layer 3 is divided into 4 x 4 tiles. Each tile image is compressed using a compression method such as H.264, and transmitted to the recording server 502. Here, if the maximum number of layers is 3 and the number of divisions in the i-th layer is n i , then in the illustrated example, n1 = 1, n2 = 4, and n3 = 16. Let Aij be the tile image generated by the imaging device 501, where i is the layer number to which it belongs and j is the value indicating the tile's position. Here, the tile position is numbered, for example, starting from the upper left corner as shown in FIG. 2, with "1" being the starting point, the tile to the right being the next number, and so on in raster scan order. The recording server 502 then receives and records Σn i video per frame time. In this specification, a layer with a number greater than a certain layer K is referred to as a layer below that layer K, and the layer with the greatest number of layers is referred to as the lowest layer.

[0014] Meanwhile, client 104, client 105, or both, send a request to acquire video data to recording server 502. For example, when recording server 502 receives a video acquisition request from client 104, it first sends the entire video of the captured scene in layer 1 (image 106) to the client.

[0015] FIG. 3 shows an example of video stored by the recording server 502. FIG. 3A shows an example of video acquired by the recording server 502 from the recording server 502. FIGS. 1B and 1C show examples of video displayed on a client screen. In this embodiment, as an example, the image capture device 501 divides the captured video into predetermined tile areas as shown in FIG. 3A. Here, the video 300 in FIG. 3B is the video of layer 1 displayed on the display device (client screen) of the client 104. Assume that a user operates an input device (such as a mouse or touch panel, not shown) provided on the client to set (designate) area 301 in the video (video 300) displayed on the client screen as the area to be focused on (hereinafter referred to as the "focus area"). Note that the "focus area" here refers to an area designated by the user and can also be referred to as a "designated area." At this time, the client 104 transmits a video acquisition command including information identifying the focus area to the recording server 502. The recording server 502 receives this and transmits to the client 104 the video of tile A21 in layer 2, which corresponds to the area of focus (area 301 in this case). As a result, the video displayed on the client 104 changes to video 303. If a user viewing video 300 sets area 302 as the area of focus, the recording server 502 transmits to the client 104 the video of tile A32, which belongs to layer 3. As a result, the video displayed on the client 104 changes to video 304. Note that hereinafter, the "video of tile A21" transmitted to the client will simply be referred to as tile image A21. For example, if the user sets area 305 as the area of focus, the recording server 502 transmits tile images A21, A22, A23, and A24 in layer 2. The client 104 must then decode tile images A21, A22, A23, and A24 and extract and display the area corresponding to area 305. In this case, the bandwidth between the recording server 502 and the client 104 is four times as large as when specifying an area that requires only one tile image to be transmitted. This can lead to poor efficiency in a shooting scene where many users focus on an area that requires multiple images to be displayed (e.g., area 305).Therefore, in this embodiment, a system is presented that switches the tile division method depending on the setting frequency (designation frequency) at which the user sets (designates) the gaze area, and efficiently delivers at the resolution desired by the user.

[0016] Generally, when an image is divided into M×M tiles and an image is created by combining the tiles, the following number of images are possible.

number

[0017] On the other hand, consider the case where the number of tiles is doubled every time the layer is increased by 1. L becomes as follows:

number

number

[0018] where NSL If the recording server 502 can prepare tile images, the user can specify the position of the tile images at a resolution corresponding to the number of images in the lowest layer, allowing for efficient distribution. However, due to the limited bandwidth between the imaging device 501 and the recording server 502 and the limited capabilities of the imaging device 501, the number of images that can be sent to the recording server is actually limited. Therefore, the total number of images is S L This example shows a method in which the number of images is fixed at 100% and the tile image configuration of each layer is changed depending on the frequency with which the user sets the area as the gaze area and its position. Here, a system is shown in which the number of images increases by 2x2 when the number of layers increases by one, but this is for simplicity's sake, and any value is acceptable as long as the rate of increase is fixed. That is, in this embodiment, the number of images increases as the resolution increases. In other words, the ratio of the total number of tile images on each layer correlates with the ratio of the resolutions of each layer.

[0019] If the area of interest selected by the user is the size of a tile image on layer K, the recording server 502 represents and stores that area as a combination of images (tiles) on layer k+1. This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an area of interest according to the first embodiment. For example, if the area of interest selected by the user is area 401 as shown in FIG. 5, the area of interest is stored as the size of a tile image on layer 2, and is made up of tile images A35, A36, A39, and A310 on layer 3. Here, the configuration of all four tiles on layer 2 is also described using the reference tile on layer 3, one level below, for example, A21 = (A31, A32, A35, A36). Here, the reference tile refers to the entire shooting area divided by the size of the tiles on layer k. 2(k-1) The reference tile configuration is defined as the configuration covered by each tile. For example, in layer 3, the reference tile configuration is A21 = (A31, A32, A35, A36), A22 = (A33, A34, A37, A38), A23 = (A39, A310, A313, A314), A24 = (A311, A312, A315, A316). The reference tile configuration is uniquely determined for all layers.

[0020] Here, if the tile images of the Kth layer are expressed in the K+1th layer, the image combination, C kbecomes:

number

number

number

number

[0021] This configuration allows for the transmission of a single tile image when there is a bias in the selection of a user's gaze area and the selection of the user's gaze area requires the transmission of multiple tile images in the standard tile configuration. Specifically, for example, if the user frequently selects area 305 shown in Figure 3(B), the configuration can be changed to a tile division configuration in which only one tile image including area 305 is required, enabling efficient transmission.

[0022] An example of the configuration of an imaging system according to this embodiment is shown with reference to Fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an imaging system 500 according to the first embodiment. The imaging system 500 includes an imaging device 501 and a recording server 502. Note that each block in this diagram is implemented by a computer (CPU) (not shown) that serves as a control unit built into each of the imaging device 501 and the recording server 502. The computer is implemented by executing a computer program stored in memory. Note that clients 104 and 105 are also assumed to have built-in computers.

[0023] The imaging device 501 includes an imaging unit 503 , a dividing unit 504 , an encoding unit 505 , and a transmitting unit 506 .

[0024] The imaging unit 503 captures multiple images with different resolutions. That is, the imaging unit 503 generates images with multiple resolutions. Here, the image with the lowest resolution is called layer 1, and the images in order from lowest to highest resolution are called layer 2, layer 3, ..., layer k. The imaging unit 503 outputs the images of each layer to the dividing unit 504.

[0025] The division unit 504 divides the image of each layer using the number of tiles and pattern (division method) determined for each layer, and outputs the divided image to the encoding unit 505. Here, the division method is selected from two types: a configuration specified by the division control unit 507 (described later), and a standard tile configuration that divides the image so that the entire area is covered by a predetermined number of tiles for each layer. For simplicity, let us assume that the number of tiles n determined for layer i is i For example, 2 2(i-L) Let's say.

[0026] The encoding unit 505 encodes each of the images input from the division unit 504 and outputs the encoded images to the transmission unit 506 .

[0027] The transmitting unit 506 outputs the video group input from the encoding unit 505 to the recording server 502 .

[0028] The recording server 502 includes a video receiving unit 511 , a video storage unit 512 , a video transmitting unit 513 , a command receiving unit 510 , a video distribution determining unit 509 , a calculation unit 508 , and a division control unit 507 .

[0029] The video receiving unit 511 receives the video group input from the imaging device 501 and outputs it to the video storage unit 512 .

[0030] The video storage unit 512 stores the group of videos input from the video receiving unit 511 in a medium. Here, the medium is, for example, an SSD (Solid State Drive). The video storage unit 512 also outputs the video requested for distribution by the video distribution determination unit 509 to the video transmission unit 513. Here, storing the video in a medium is not necessarily a required function, and it is also acceptable to simply output the video requested for distribution.

[0031] The video transmission unit 513 transmits the video input from the video storage unit 512 to the client that has requested it.

[0032] The command receiving unit 510 receives a command to specify a gaze area from the client and transmits it to the distribution video determination unit 509. The gaze area specification command may be specified using coordinates within the entire video of layer 1, for example, or using global coordinates centered on the camera.

[0033] The distribution video determination unit 509 determines the video stored in the video storage unit 512 that is closest to the user-specified gaze area received by the command receiving unit 510 , and transmits the determined area to the video storage unit 512 .

[0034] Here, a method for selecting a group of tiles closest to the gaze area will be described using the flowchart in Fig. 7. Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing the distribution video determination process of distribution video determination unit 509. Note that each operation (step) shown in this flowchart can be executed by a computer in recording server 502 executing a computer program stored in memory.

[0035] When a user-specified gaze area is received from the client via the command receiving unit 510, the distribution video determination unit 509 expands the gaze area into a circumscribing rectangle in S601. The circumscribing rectangle may be formed, for example, simply by combining the maximum x-coordinate value, minimum x-coordinate value, maximum y-coordinate value, and minimum y-coordinate value of the area. Here, x and y can be set parallel to the horizontal and vertical sides of the image, respectively. Once the circumscribing rectangle has been determined, the attention area is expanded to the aforementioned circumscribing rectangle, and the process proceeds to S602.

[0036] In S602, the size and center coordinates of the region of interest are calculated, and the process proceeds to S603. Here, the coordinate system is the coordinate system in the image (whole image) of layer 1. For simplicity, the size can be determined by the length of the x-side or the y-side, whichever is longer, and the axis information (information on whether it is the x-side or the y-side).

[0037] In S603, starting from layer 1, the side length of the same axis as the axis information of one of the reference tiles is compared with the side length of the gaze area. The layers are moved down until the side length of the reference tile becomes smaller than the side length of the gaze area. The layer above the layer where the side length of the reference tile becomes smaller than the side length of the gaze area is determined to be the transmission tile layer, and the process proceeds to S604. Note that if the side length of the gaze area is smaller than the side length of the reference tile in the bottom layer, the bottom layer is determined to be the transmission tile layer.

[0038] In S604, the layer immediately below the transmission tile layer is set as the constituent tile layer, and the process proceeds to S605. Note that if the bottommost layer is the transmission tile layer, the constituent tile layer is set as the bottommost layer.

[0039] In S605, a group of constituent tiles consisting of a plurality of tiles that completely cover the gaze area is identified in the reference tile configuration of the constituent tile layer, and the process proceeds to S606.

[0040] In S606, it is confirmed whether a tile containing all of the constituent tiles exists in the transmission tile layer. If it exists, proceed to S607. If it does not exist, proceed to S608. In S607, a single tile containing all of the constituent tiles is selected as the tile to be transmitted, and the process ends.

[0041] In S608, it is confirmed whether the tile containing the constituent tile group exists in the transmission tile layer. If it exists, the process proceeds to S609, and if it does not exist, the process proceeds to S613.

[0042] In S609, it is confirmed whether the tiles of the transmission tile layer including the constituent tiles can be combined to include the entire constituent tile group. If the tiles can be included, the process proceeds to S610, and if only a portion of the entire constituent tile group can be included, the process proceeds to S611.

[0043] In S610, the combination with the smallest number of tiles that can include all the constituent tiles is selected as the transmission tile group, and the process ends.

[0044] In S611, a portion of the transmission tile group is selected. Specifically, of the tiles on the transmission tile layer that include the constituent tiles, the tile on the transmission tile layer that overlaps the constituent tiles the most (the tile with the largest overlapping area) is determined as the transmission tile. The constituent tiles included in the determined tile are removed from the constituent tile group, and similarly determined as the transmission tile. By repeating this method until there are no more tiles on the transmission tile layer that include the constituent tiles, a portion of the transmission tiles can be determined.

[0045] In S612, the constituent tiles included in the transmitted tile are removed from the constituent tile group, the constituent tile group is updated, and the process proceeds to S613.

[0046] In S613, it is confirmed whether the constituent tile layer is the bottom layer. If the constituent tile layer is the bottom layer, the process proceeds to S614, and if not, the process proceeds to S615.

[0047] In S614, the constituent tiles are selected as tiles to be transmitted, and the process ends.

[0048] On the other hand, in S615, the constituent tile layer is moved down one level, and the process proceeds to S616. In S616, the constituent tile group is updated by using the reference tile group of the constituent tile layer that covers the constituent tile group as the new constituent tile group, and the process returns to S606.

[0049] The distribution video determination unit 509 transmits the group of tiles selected in this manner to the video storage unit 512 as the group of tiles closest to the gaze area. Then, the video storage unit 512 outputs the video requested for distribution by the distribution video determination unit 509 to the video transmission unit 513. The video transmission unit 513 transmits the video input from the video storage unit 512 to the client. do.

[0050] Returning to FIG. 6, the calculation unit 508 increments the frequency of the smallest tile that includes all of the constituent tiles that make up the fixation area, and outputs the frequency to the division control unit 507.

[0051] The division control unit 507 divides the layers into layers k, which are designated by a number k ranging from 1 to the total number of the lowest layers, in descending order of the number of times they have been selected, for example, 2 2(k-1) Whether to change the division method is determined based on the areas, their selection count, the total selection count, and uncovered areas. Specifically, the division control unit 507 determines whether to divide using the standard tile configuration or to enable the tile configuration based on the specified frequency. Then, it outputs an instruction to the division unit 504 of the image capture device 501. That is, the division control unit 507 functions as an instruction unit that outputs an instruction to the image capture device 501 to change the division method for the division process. Here, for example, if formula (1-8) is satisfied, the standard tile configuration is used, and if not, the tile configuration based on the frequency is used.

[0052] It is preferable that the division control unit 507 determines whether to change the division method for the division process for the images of the plurality of resolutions, starting from the highest resolution, excluding the lowest layer, and outputs a change instruction to the division unit 504. With this configuration, it is possible to optimize images in order from the highest resolution, thereby making it possible to achieve greater efficiency.

[0053] By switching the tile division method in the above way, even if there is a bias in user selection, it is possible to efficiently provide video that is frequently selected as a gaze area without changing the overall bandwidth. Also, it is possible to efficiently deliver areas that are more frequently designated as a gaze area by users.

[0054] (Second embodiment) As a second embodiment, an imaging device according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 8. Like the first embodiment, this embodiment is a system that switches the tile division method depending on the frequency with which the user sets a gaze area, and efficiently delivers at the resolution desired by the user. This embodiment is characterized in that evaluation information on the robustness of the captured video to scaling transformation is further used to determine the tile configuration described in the first embodiment. The tile division method selected by the division unit 504 shown in FIG. 6 differs from the first embodiment, and other parts are the same as those in the first embodiment. The parts other than the tile division method will be omitted.

[0055] A tile division method for a certain K layer that is not the lowest layer will be described below with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 8. Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the tile division process according to the second embodiment. Note that each operation (step) shown in this flowchart can be executed by a computer in the imaging device 501 executing a computer program stored in memory. Note that the tile division method for the lowest layer is the same as in Example 1, and uses a reference tile configuration.

[0056] In S801, the tiles of layer K, which are composed of the constituent tile group of layer K (the same as the reference tile group of layer K+1), are defined as Aj. If the number of times each Aj is selected by the user is nj, then the probability Pj that each Aj is selected is calculated as follows, and the process proceeds to S802.

Number

[0057] In S802, the tile configuration candidate R is obtained as follows. The tile group Ap that becomes an element of the request tile set from the lower layer is obtained, Ap is removed from the constituent tile group Aj, and the tiles Aj are rearranged in descending order of the probability Pj. Finally, the tile group Ap is added to the head of the rearranged Aj, and it is numbered so that the numbers increase as it goes from the head to the back as A’. Then, from A1’ to A 2^(2k-2) ′ up to becomes the tile configuration candidate R. Also, the request tile set to layer k-1 is initialized as an empty set, and the process proceeds to S803. Here, the request from the lower layer is determined by the processing result of S801 in layer k+1.

[0058] In S803, the coverage rate Ω is calculated as follows, and the process proceeds to S804.

Number

[0059] In S804, the coverage rate Ω is compared with a certain threshold value Ω th . If the coverage rate Ω is smaller than a certain threshold value Ω th , the process proceeds to S806; otherwise, it proceeds to S805. Here, the threshold value Ω th can be any value, for example, 0.5 is also acceptable.

[0060] In S805, the tile configuration candidate R is adopted as the configuration tile to be used for tile division of the K layer, and the process ends.

[0061] In S806, from A1', A 2^(2k-2) ', calculate the spatial frequencies of tiles that are elements of the tile configuration candidate R, and proceed to S807. Here, each frequency is calculated as (ω1, ω2, ..., ω2 2(k-1) ) and for simplicity, for example, the spatial frequency may be assumed to be a horizontal spatial frequency.

[0062] In S807, the threshold frequency ω th A subset B of the tile configuration candidates R having a frequency ω lower than ω is obtained, and the process proceeds to S808. th is the spatial frequency at which image quality does not deteriorate due to scaling. For simplicity, we are considering a system in which the resolution per tile in each layer is the same, so in this case, for example, W / 4 would suffice. Here, W is the number of pixels on the horizontal side of the tile.

[0063] It is evaluated whether the subset B found in S808 is an empty set. If the subset B is an empty set (No), the process proceeds to S809, otherwise (Yes), the process proceeds to S810.

[0064] In S809, the tile configuration candidate R is adopted as the configuration tile to be used for tile division of the K layer, and the process ends.

[0065] In S810, if the reference tile of the K-1 layer, which has tiles of subset B as its constituent tiles, does not overlap with the elements of the K-1 requested tile set, it is added to the K-1 requested tile set and the process proceeds to S811.

[0066] In S811, the elements of subset B are removed from tile configuration candidate R. This makes it possible to include as many elements NB as there are elements in subset B in tile configuration candidate R for layer K. Therefore, from the group of tiles constituting layer K that are to be constructed, in the set obtained by subtracting tile configuration candidate R, the number of elements NB with the highest probability Pk are extracted, and these are added to tile configuration candidate R to form new tile configuration candidate R, and the process returns to S803.

[0067] In this way, an effective tile configuration can be determined using the method described above until the coverage rate Ω exceeds the threshold Ωth or there is no tile set that does not deteriorate when represented in a higher layer.By switching between the tile configuration determined using the method described above, the reference tile, and the tile division method, it is possible to efficiently provide images that are frequently selected in the gaze area without changing the overall bandwidth, even if there is a bias in user selection.

[0068] (Other embodiments) The present invention can also be realized by supplying a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and having one or more processors in the computer of the system or device read and execute the program.The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (e.g., ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

[0069] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0070] 500 Imaging System 501 Imaging device 502 Recording Server 503 Imaging unit 504 Split part 505 Encoding section 506 Transmission Unit 507 Division control unit 508 Calculation Department

Claims

1. An imaging system including an imaging device and a server device communicably connected to the imaging device, The imaging device is an imaging unit that generates a plurality of images including a first image having a first resolution and a second image having a second resolution higher than the first resolution; a division unit that performs a division process of dividing at least the second video into a plurality of tile regions and generates a plurality of tile images corresponding to the plurality of tile regions; a transmission unit that transmits to the server device a video based on at least some of the tile images in response to a user's instruction, the first image is an image that is not divided by the division process, or is an image that is divided into a smaller number of tile regions than the second image; The server device An imaging system characterized by having an instruction unit that outputs to the imaging device an instruction to change the division method of the division process to a division method based on the position of a designated area, depending on the frequency of designation of the designated area in the video transmitted from the imaging device.

2. The imaging system according to claim 1 , wherein the instruction unit further outputs to the imaging device an instruction to change a division method for the division process depending on a position of the specified area in the video.

3. The imaging system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the instruction unit outputs an instruction to the imaging device as to whether to perform the division processing in the predetermined tile area or based on the specified area.

4. An imaging system as described in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the ratio of the total number of tile images generated from a first image having the first resolution to the total number of tile images generated from a second image having the second resolution higher than the first resolution is correlated to the ratio between the first resolution and the second resolution.

5. a calculation unit that calculates an expected value of the number of images that the imaging device will transmit to the server device according to the specified area; 5. The imaging system according to claim 1, wherein the instruction unit outputs the instruction based on the expected value.

6. The imaging system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the instruction unit determines whether to change the division method of the division process for the images of the plurality of resolutions, in descending order of resolution, excluding the image with the highest resolution, and outputs the instruction to the imaging device.

7. 7. The imaging system according to claim 1, wherein the dividing unit performs the dividing process based on evaluation information of image quality degradation due to scaling conversion.

8. The imaging system according to claim 7 , wherein the dividing unit, when evaluating degradation of image quality due to the scaling transformation, acquires a spatial frequency of the area divided into the tile area and performs the dividing process.

9. The imaging system according to claim 1 , wherein the imaging device further comprises an encoding unit that encodes the video generated by the imaging unit and the tile images.

10. An imaging device that generates a plurality of images including a first image having a first resolution and a second image having a second resolution higher than the first resolution, performs a division process to divide at least the second image into a plurality of tile regions, and generates a plurality of tile images corresponding to the plurality of tile regions, and a server device that is communicably connected to the imaging device, A server device characterized by having an instruction unit that outputs to the imaging device an instruction to change the division method of the division process to a division method based on the position of a designated area, depending on the frequency of designation of the designated area in the video transmitted from the imaging device.

11. A control method for an imaging device that generates a plurality of images including a first image having a first resolution and a second image having a second resolution higher than the first resolution, performs a division process that divides at least the second image into a plurality of tile regions, and generates a plurality of tile images corresponding to the plurality of tile regions, and a server device that is communicably connected thereto, comprising: A control method characterized by outputting to the imaging device an instruction to change the division method of the division process to a division method based on the position of a designated area, depending on the frequency of designation of the designated area in the video transmitted from the imaging device.

12. A program for causing a computer to execute a control method for an imaging device that generates a plurality of images including a first image having a first resolution and a second image having a second resolution higher than the first resolution, performs a division process that divides at least the second image into a plurality of tile regions, and generates a plurality of tile images corresponding to the plurality of tile regions, and a server device that is communicably connected, comprising: A program that causes the imaging device to output an instruction to change the division method of the division process to a division method based on the position of a designated area, depending on the frequency of designation of the designated area in the video transmitted from the imaging device.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 12.

Images