Method of controlling network camera
Provided is a method of controlling an operation of a network camera that is capable of improving a delay time occurring when a monitoring device controls the network camera, by using a virtual image map and a multi-streaming technique. The method includes displaying a first view image; and performing a panning/tilting control operation, the performing the panning/tilting control operation including: displaying a first virtual image from a virtual image map; and replacing the first virtual image with a second view image.
1. A method of controlling an operation of a network camera by using a monitoring device, the method comprising:
displaying a first view image; and
performing a panning/tilting control operation, the performing the panning/tilting control operation comprising:
displaying a first virtual image from a virtual image map; and
replacing the first virtual image with a second view image,
wherein the second view image comprises:
a first panning/tilting resolution image; and
a second panning/tilting resolution image having a different resolution than that of the first panning/tilting resolution image,
wherein the first and second panning/tilting resolution images are configured to be captured in response to a completion of the panning/tilting operation of the network camera and are streamed from the network camera.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first view image comprises:
a first current view resolution image that is streamed from the network camera; and
a second current view resolution image that is streamed from the network camera and having a different resolution than that of the first current view resolution image.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
generating the virtual image map comprising images captured at various viewing angles; and
storing the generated virtual image map in the monitoring device.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the network camera generates the virtual image map by periodically performing an automatic panning/tilting operation.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the displaying the first view image comprises:
selecting an arbitrary network camera from a network camera list;
simultaneously streaming the first current resolution image and the second current resolution image in response to the first view image being called by a monitoring device;
displaying the first current resolution image in response to the streaming of the first current view image being completed; and
replacing the first current view resolution image with the second current view resolution image to display the second current view resolution image, in response to the streaming of the second current view resolution image being completed.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displaying the first virtual image comprises:
performing the panning/tilting operation from the image that is being displayed;
displaying the first virtual image, corresponding to a resulting view of the panning/tilting control operation, from the virtual image map;
transmitting an operation signal corresponding to the panning/tilting control operation to the network camera; and
simultaneously streaming the first panning/tilting resolution image and the second panning/tilting resolution image by the network camera on which the panning/tilting operation is performed according to the operation signal.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the replacing the first virtual image comprises:
replacing the first virtual image that is being displayed with the first panning/tilting resolution image to display the first panning/tilting resolution image, in response to the streaming of the first panning/tilting resolution image being completed; and
replacing the first panning/tilting resolution image with the second panning/tilting resolution image to display the second panning/tilting resolution image, in response to the streaming of the second panning/tilting resolution image being completed.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a zooming control operation, the performing the zooming control operation comprising:
displaying a digital zoomed image resulting from a first zooming operation performed on the first or second view image; and
replacing the digital zoomed image with a third view image.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the third view image comprises:
a first zooming resolution image; and
a second zooming resolution image having a different resolution than that of the first zooming resolution image,
wherein the first and second zooming resolution images are configured to be captured in response to a completion of a second zooming operation of the network camera and are streamed from the network camera.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the displaying the digital zoomed image comprises:
performing the zooming control operation on the first or second view image that is being displayed;
displaying the digital zoomed image corresponding to a zoomed image of a last frame of the displayed image;
transmitting a zooming operation signal to the network camera; and
simultaneously streaming the first zoomed resolution image and the second zoomed resolution image by the network camera on which the second zooming operation is performed by the operation signal.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the replacing the digital zoomed image comprises:
replacing the digital zoomed image with the first zoomed resolution image to display the first zoomed resolution image, in response to the streaming of the first zoomed resolution image being completed; and
replacing the first zoomed resolution image with the second zoomed resolution image to display the second zoomed resolution image, in response to the streaming of the second zoomed resolution image being completed.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first zooming operation comprises a digital zooming operation and the second zooming operation comprises an optical zooming operation.