Immersive Surveillance System Merging Camera Arrays for Wide-Area Resolution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional surveillance systems face challenges in providing high-resolution, wide-area coverage due to limitations in spatial resolution, leading to gaps in video surveillance and overwhelming multiple views for operators, and require multiple users to monitor disparate camera feeds.
Innovation Solution
An immersive surveillance system utilizing an array of cameras with overlapping fields of view, a processor for image decomposition and compression, and a server for serving image tiles at various resolutions, allowing a single user to monitor a wide area with high-resolution imagery and virtual pan/tilt/zoom functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional surveillance systems use multiple cameras with individual pan/tilt/zoom mechanisms to cover wide areas, then the coverage area increases, but the spatial resolution decreases and gaps in surveillance coverage occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple fixed cameras with different fields of view into a single unified surveillance system. The processor merges images from multiple cameras to create a composite wide-area view, eliminating the need for multiple individual camera views and providing continuous high-resolution coverage across the entire surveillance area.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a single-camera perspective to a multi-dimensional approach by integrating images from multiple cameras with overlapping fields of view. This creates a seamless composite image that provides both wide-area coverage and high spatial resolution simultaneously, resolving the trade-off between coverage area and resolution.
2Measurement precision
If conventional systems zoom in to provide high resolution images, then the spatial resolution improves, but the video surveillance coverage gaps increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges images from multiple cameras that have overlapping fields of view. By combining these overlapping views, the system maintains continuous coverage across the entire area while providing high resolution in each overlapping region, eliminating gaps that would occur with single-camera zooming.
3Measurement precision
If conventional systems provide individual video feeds for each camera, then the spatial resolution is maintained per camera, but the operator workload increases and multiple users are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple individual camera views into a single unified composite image that displays the entire surveillance area. This allows a single operator to monitor the complete scene at once while maintaining high resolution through the overlapping field of view approach, eliminating the need for multiple operators to monitor separate camera feeds.
4Area of stationary object
If conventional surveillance systems use many cameras to achieve wide-area high resolution coverage, then the coverage area and resolution improve, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a fixed camera configuration where each camera serves multiple purposes: providing wide-area coverage, contributing to high-resolution composite images through overlapping views, and enabling both panoramic and detailed views simultaneously. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional cameras and complex pan/tilt/zoom mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Security guards at large facilities, such as airports, monitor multiple screens that display images from individual surveillance cameras dispersed throughout the facility. If a guard zooms with a particular camera, he may lose image resolution, along with perspective on the surrounding area. Embodiments of the inventive Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance (ISIS) solve these problems by combining multiple cameras in one device. When properly mounted, example ISIS systems offer up to 360-degree, 240-megapixel views on a single screen. (Other fields of view and resolutions are also possible.) Image-stitching software merges multiple video feeds into one scene. The system also allows operators to tag and follow targets, and can monitor restricted areas and sound an alert when intruders breach them.