Video Stream Mark-up Overlay for PTZ Camera Analytics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional security surveillance systems provide limited interactive capabilities and metadata functionality, especially for PTZ cameras, which restrict user engagement and video analytics, and are typically non-interactive with limited ability to interrogate video feeds for additional information.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that allow users to add, transmit, and render mark-ups on video streams, such as drawings or timers, which define metadata for security cameras, enabling persistent and refreshing video analytics by encoding and decoding user-selected metadata for display on the video stream.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional security surveillance systems are used, then system simplicity is maintained, but user interaction capability and video analytics functionality are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a computing device as an intermediary between the camera system and the user. This device receives video streams and metadata from the camera, processes mark-ups locally, and sends updated metadata back to the camera. This intermediary approach enables sophisticated user interaction and video analytics without requiring the camera hardware itself to be complex, thus improving adaptability while managing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimension of interaction by allowing users to draw mark-ups directly on the video stream display interface. This graphical overlay layer provides an additional dimension for user engagement and video analytics without fundamentally altering the core camera system, enabling enhanced versatility while maintaining relative system simplicity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If PTZ cameras are used to provide video at different points in space, then field-of-view flexibility is improved, but metadata consistency and mark-up persistence become challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback loop where the computing device receives both video streams and metadata from the PTZ camera, processes mark-ups in relation to the current camera view, and sends updated metadata back to the camera to maintain the mark-ups. This continuous feedback mechanism ensures that mark-ups remain persistent and consistent even as the camera pans, tilts, or zooms to different fields of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic metadata updating where the computing device adjusts mark-up positions and coordinates based on the current camera view and sends updated metadata back to the camera. This dynamic adaptation allows mark-ups to maintain their intended meaning and position relative to the scene being monitored, even as the camera dynamically changes its field of view through pan, tilt, and zoom operations.
3Loss of information
If video streams are transmitted with limited metadata, then transmission efficiency is maintained, but user ability to interrogate video feed for additional information is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The camera system performs preliminary actions by embedding basic metadata (such as camera ID, timestamp, and view identification) directly in the video stream transmission. This preliminary metadata provision enables the computing device to subsequently process and enhance the information with user-generated mark-ups without requiring complete re-transmission of all data, thus improving information completeness while managing data transmission volume efficiently.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and systems for adding a mark-up to a video stream. One method includes receiving, with a computing device, a video stream from an image sensor and metadata associated with at least one mark-up. The method also includes processing, with the computing device, the metadata to generate the at least one mark-up for the video stream and displaying the at least one mark-up overlaid on the video stream.