Imaging systems, moving bodies, and imaging control methods for remote monitoring of a moving target

摘要

To provide a new framework that can flexibly take images of a moving target in remote monitoring without the need to arrange a plurality of network cameras, an autonomously movable moving body is used to take an image of a photographic target in accordance with a request from a user terminal, and the photographic image is provided to the user terminal. The moving body includes: a position estimating unit that acquires, from a wireless tag reader, a radio field intensity of wireless communication with a wireless tag held by the photographic target to estimate a position of the photographic target based on the acquired radio field intensity; a movement control unit that controls the movement of the moving body so that the moving body moves to the estimated position as a destination; and an imaging unit that takes an image of the photographic target when the moving body is located near the destination, associates the photographic image with a wireless tag ID designated by the request, and transmits the photographic image to an apparatus outside the moving body.

主权项

1. An imaging system comprising:
a management server; and a single movable body configured to communicate with the management server, the management server comprising:
a table configured to store a correspondence relationship between a photographic target, a wireless tag ID of a wireless tag held by the photographic target, and the single movable body assigned to a plurality of photographic targets;an imaging instructing unit configured to refer to the table when an imaging request designating one of the photographic targets is received from a user terminal having a pre-determined relationship to the designated photographic target to identify a wireless tag ID and the single movable body corresponding to the designated photographic target and further configured to transmit an imaging instruction designating the identified wireless tag to the identified single movable body; andan image providing unit configured to:
associate and store the wireless tag ID and a photographic image when the wireless tag ID and the photographic image are received from the single movable body,refer to the table when an image acquisition request designating the photographic target is received from the user terminal to identify the wireless tag ID corresponding to the designated photographic target, to read out the image corresponding to the identified wireless tag ID, and to transmit the image to the user terminal that has transmitted the image acquisition request,wherein the single movable body comprises:
at least one wireless tag reader configured to read a wireless tag ID from a wireless tag through wireless communication;a position estimating unit configured to acquire, from the wireless tag reader, a radio field intensity of wireless communication with the wireless tag storing the wireless tag ID designated by the imaging instruction when the imaging instruction is received from the management server to estimate a position of the photographic target based on the acquired radio field intensity;a movement control unit configured to control the movement of the single movable body so that the single movable body moves to the estimated position as a destination;an imaging unit configured to take an image of the photographic target when the single movable body is located near the destination, associate the photographic image with the wireless tag ID designated by the imaging instruction, and transmit the photographic image and the wireless tag ID to the management server; andan imaging control unit configured to control he direction of the imaging unit based on a result of an image recognition process.