Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A video camera apparatus and a video surveillance system having a video camera are provided with a video compression unit which utilizes quantization for spatial processing and motion vectors for temporal processing. The camera apparatus and surveillance system include a camera with an adjustment mechanism which allows panning, tiring, zooming and focusing of the camera. The adjustment mechanism has a device for generating adjustment indication signals which indicate the state of adjustment of the camera. The adjustment indication signals are generated by a remote control panel or by means of transducers which detect the state of panning, tilting, zooming or focusing. A processor generates an instruction to the compression unit to adjust the degree of compression processing by video compression unit in response to the adjustment indication signals.

Abstract: A video surveillance system has a camera equipped with a fisheye lens having a substantially hemispheric field of view. The system implements operations equivalent to the panning, tilting and zooming of a conventional camera without the use of moving parts. The lens is mounted vertically above a plane under surveillance. The camera produces a fisheye image made up of a plurality of pixels. The fisheye image is distorted due to the properties of the fisheye lens. The system corrects the distortion by mapping the pixels of the fisheye image to coordinates produced by selecting a particular part of the fisheye image to be viewed. This allows an operator to select parts of the field of view of the fisheye lens and view them as if they had been produced by a camera having a conventional lens being panned tilted or zoomed. The fisheye image formed by the camera is split into four separate image components carried by four bundles of optical fibers.

Abstract: A video surveillance system has a camera equipped with a fisheye lens having a substantially hemispheric field of view. The system implements operations equivalent to the panning, tilting and zooming of a conventional camera without the use of moving parts. The lens is mounted vertically above a plane under surveillance. The camera produces a fisheye image made up of a plurality of pixels. The fisheye image is distorted due to the properties of the fisheye lens. The system corrects the distortion by mapping the pixels of the fisheye image to coordinates produced by selecting a particular part of the fisheye image to be viewed. This allows an operator to select parts of the field of view of the fisheye lens and view them as if they had been produced by a camera having a conventional lens being panned tilted or zoomed. The fisheye image formed by the camera is split into four separate image components carried by four bundles of optical fibers.