METHOD AND APPARATUS TO SELECT THE BEST VIDEO FRAME TO TRANSMIT TO A REMOTE STATION FOR CLOSED CIRCUIT TELEVISION (CCTV) BASED RESIDENTIAL BAREA SECURITY MONITORING

摘要

A security monitoring system (100) including: an alarm system (102) having detectors for detection of an alarm in a structure (104); at least one camera (114, 116) for capturing image data inside and/or outside the structure; a processor (130) for selecting a subset of the image data upon the occurrence of the alarm based on a predetermined criteria; and a modem (102a) for transmitting the subset of image data to a remote location. Preferably, the at least one camera is a video camera, the image data is video image data, and the subset of the image data is at least one video frame of the video image data. Preferably, the processor ranks each video frame from the image data according to how well each video frame meets the predetermined criteria and the modem transmits a predetermined number of video frames having the best rank to the remote location. Preferably, the predetermined criteria is selected from a group consisting of: how centered a difference region is in the video frame; how large the difference region is; whether the difference region consists of a large difference region or a group of smaller difference regions; the contrast of the difference region; the lighting condition on the difference region; whether a face is detected in the difference; whether the video frame is blurred; how much skin color is contained in the video frame; if a person is recognized in the video frame; and the lighting condition on a region of motion in the video frame.