Monitoring system for generating 3-dimensional image and method of measuring distance by using the image
View Patent ↗A monitoring system for generating a three-dimensional (3D) image, the system including: a plurality of monitoring cameras which are arranged to capture respective images of an area such that a portion of an angle of view of one monitoring camera overlaps a portion of an angle of view of another monitoring camera; and a controller which crops a plurality of overlapped images, each of which is an image of the overlapped portion, from among the respective images captured by the plurality of monitoring cameras, and generates a 3D image by adding the overlapped images.
1. An apparatus for monitoring an area, the apparatus comprising:
a plurality of monitoring cameras which are fixed so as not to move and arranged in a circular form on a plane to capture respective images of an area such that a portion of an angle of view of one monitoring camera overlaps a portion of an angle of view of another monitoring camera; and
a controller comprising:
an angle of view setter configured to set an angle of view at which each of the plurality of monitoring cameras captures a respective image of the area;
a first crop unit configured to crop a plurality of overlapped images, each of the overlapped images being an image of the overlapped portion, from among the respective images captured by the plurality of monitoring cameras;
panorama generator configured to generate a first three-dimensional (3D) image of the area according to a first overlapped image of the plurality of overlapped images cropped by the first crop unit and configured generate a 3D panorama image of the area by adding the first 3D image to a second 3D image generated according to a second overlapped image of the plurality of overlapped images cropped by the first crop unit; and
a second crop unit configured to receive an external signal, configured to crop at least one partial image designated by the external signal from the 3D panorama image, and configured to output the cropped at least one partial image to the outside.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring cameras are configured such that the angle of view of each of the monitoring cameras is changed by a user.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein space information about the area is obtained from the 3D image.
4. The apparatus claim 1 , wherein the controller generates a two-dimensional (2D) image by removing one of the overlapped images from the 3D image.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the external signal comprises at least one set of coordinates and the second crop unit crops the at least one partial image corresponding to the at least one set of coordinates of the external signal.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to generate two overlapped images from among the overlapped images, configured to extract two object images by removing background images from the two overlapped images, configured to detect correlation coefficients between the two object images and peak values of the correlation coefficients, configured to calculate an interval between the two object images by using the peak values, and configured to calculate a distance between one of the monitoring cameras, capturing one of the two overlapped images, and the object by applying the interval between the object images.
7. A method of monitoring an area using a plurality of cameras, the method comprising:
arranging a plurality of monitoring cameras which are fixed so as not to move and arranged in a circular form on a plane to capture respective images of an area such that a portion of an angle of view of one monitoring camera overlaps a portion of an angle of view of another monitoring camera;
cropping a plurality of overlapped images, each of which is an image of the overlapped portion, from among the respective images captured by the plurality of monitoring cameras;
generating a first three-dimensional (3D) image of the area according to a first overlapped image of the plurality of overlapped images;
generating a 3D panorama image of the area by adding the first 3D image to a second 3D image generated according to a second overlapped image of the plurality of overlapped images: and
receiving an external signal cropping at least one partial image designated by the external signal from the 3D panorama image, and outputting the cropped at least one partial image to the outside.
8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
extracting two object images by removing background images from two of the overlapped images;
detecting correlation coefficients between the two object images;
detecting peak values of the correlation coefficients;
calculating an interval between the two object images by using the peak values; and
calculating a distance between one of the monitoring cameras which provides one of the two overlapped images, and the object by applying the interval between the two object images.
9. A method of measuring distance between a monitoring camera and an object, the method comprising:
generating two overlapped images by cropping overlapping portions of images of the object captured by two monitoring cameras;
extracting two object images by removing background images from the two overlapped images;
detecting correlation coefficients between the two object images;
detecting peak values of the correlation coefficients;
calculating an interval between the two object images by using the peak values; and
calculating a distance between one of the two monitoring cameras and the object by applying the interval between the two object images.