Video surveillance system with pilot and slave cameras

摘要

A video surveillance system for monitoring an area is made up of a stationary pilot camera for monitoring the area and one or more moveable slave cameras for monitoring at least part of the area. Each slave camera is allocated to part of the area being monitored. The pilot camera produces a signal representative of the area. The location of a moving object in the area monitored by the pilot camera is determined. A signal is produced representing the location of the object. The slave cameras track the object based on the signal representing the location of the object. The pilot camera is provided with a fisheye lens and thus has a field of view wider than that of the slave cameras. The area being monitored is divided into cartesian, polar or spherical coordinates thereby enabling a microcomputer to instruct the slave camera to follow the object. The signal representative of the area is compressed and transmitted over a communications channel for remote monitoring.