Video surveillance and object recognition

A central server arranged under the control of software for use in an object recognition enabled video surveillance system for capturing video of a scene and allowing recognition of objects within that scene,

• the central server being arranged for communication with at least one camera apparatus via a communication channel and being arranged under the control of software for:
• receiving video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera apparatus;
• receiving object recognition data along with the video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera;
• and outputting to at least one end user device packages of data for allowing end users to view video received from the camera apparatus and/or for allowing end users to be informed of object recognition events,
• the central server being further arranged under the control of software to:
• i) provide to the at least one camera apparatus, a first watch list of objects to be held at the camera apparatus and for use in conducting object recognition at the camera apparatus;
• ii) receive from the camera apparatus an object recognised alert when an object of interest is found to match with an object on the first watch list at the camera apparatus;
• iii) receive from the camera apparatus captured image data/captured video clip data as object recognition data, where the captured image data/captured video clip data corresponds to a captured image/video clip in which an object of interest has been detected by the camera apparatus when the object of interest is found to match with an object on the first watch list;
• and
• iv) conduct object recognition against a main watch list of objects held at the server based on the captured image data/captured video clip data received from the camera apparatus.

A central server arranged under the control of software for use in an object recognition enabled video surveillance system for capturing video of a scene and allowing recognition of objects within that scene,

• the central server being arranged for communication with at least one camera apparatus via a communication channel and being arranged under the control of software for:
• receiving video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera apparatus;
• receiving object recognition data along with the video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera;
• and outputting to at least one end user device packages of data for allowing end users to view video received from the camera apparatus and/or for allowing end users to be informed of object recognition events,
• the central server being further arranged under the control of software to:
• a) provide to the at least one camera apparatus, a first watch list of objects to be held at the camera apparatus and for use in conducting object recognition at the camera apparatus;
• b) determine the content of the first watch list for provision to the camera apparatus in dependence on:
• the content of a main watch list held at the central server;
• a priority value given to objects on the main watch list;
• and
• at least one of the following factors:
• i) at least one capability of the camera apparatus as detected by the system;
• and
• ii) the quality of enrollment images held in respect of objects on the main watch list.

A central server arranged under the control of software for use in an object recognition enabled video surveillance system for capturing video of a scene and allowing recognition of objects within that scene,

• the central server being arranged for communication with at least one camera apparatus via a communication channel and being arranged under the control of software for:
• receiving video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera apparatus;
• receiving object recognition data along with the video data via the communication channel from the at least one camera;
• and outputting to at least one end user device packages of data for allowing end users to view video received from the camera apparatus and/or for allowing end users to be informed of object recognition events,
• the central server being further arranged under the control of software to:
• i) comprise a watch list database comprising enrollment images in respect of objects in the watch list;
• ii) receive from the camera apparatus captured image data/captured video clip data as object recognition data;
• iii) treat the received captured image data/captured video clip data as a probe image and conduct object recognition by processing the enrollment images and probe image;
• and
• iv) determine a quality of each enrollment image and each probe image and use said determined quality in conducting object recognition, and
• wherein the central server is further arranged under the control of software to:
• accept results as a valid match where a match is found and image quality of the enrolment image and image quality of the probe image together meet a combined threshold metric;
• and
• reject results as an invalid match where even though a match is found, the image quality of the enrolment image and the image quality of the probe image together fail to meet a combined threshold metric.