Surveillance video camera enhancement system

• Main Authors: DIEPOLD KLAUS, EDELSON STEVEN D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.05.2002
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

In a video camera surveillance system, a video processor determines dense motion vector fields between adjacent frames of the video. From the dense motion vector fields moving objects are detected and objects undergoing unexpected motion are highlighted in the display fo the video. To distinguish expected motion from unexpected motion, dense motion vector fields are stored representing expected motion and the vectors representing the moving object are compared with the stored vectors to determine whether the object motion is expected or unexpected. In an alternative embodiment, the video surveillance system comprises a panning camera and the frames of the video are arranged in a mosaic. Object motion in the video is detected by means of dense motion vector fields and the predicted position of objects in the mosaic is detected based on the detected object motion. The position of moving objects in the current frame being detected by the panning camera is compared with the predicted position of the objets in the mosaic and if the positions are substantially different, the corresponding object is tagged and highlighted as undergoing unexpected motion. A system is also disclosed for using the dense motion vector fields to control the motion of the panning camera to follow a moving object.