Surveillance monitor system using image processing for monitoring fires and thefts

A surveillance monitor system using image processing, comprising:

• an image-taking means for taking an image of areascape of a surveillance area;
• a fire image recognition section for recognizing a fire from a monitor image taken by said image-taking device and outputting fire detection information;
• an intruder entity image recognition section for recognizing an intruding entity from a monitor image taken by said image-taking device and outputting intruder detection information;
• a mode switching section for specifying that a monitor image be processed by said fire image recognition section and/or said intruder entity image recognition section;
• a pre-alarm output section for outputting a pre-alarm in a central monitor room upon receipt of detection information from said fire image recognition section or said intruder entity image recognition section;
• an image switching section for switching, in response to said pre-alarm, a monitor image in said central monitor room to an image of a location where an abnormality has been detected;
• said fire image recognition section comprising fire judging means using image processing for judging whether or not there is a fire based on a radiant energy source's radiant energy found by a radiant energy calculating means;
• said fire judging means comprising flame outline sampling means for sampling as an outline of a flame an area whose luminance signals, included in an image taken by said image-taking means, exceed a prescribed level;
• at least temperature detection means for detecting a distribution temperature inside a flame outline sampled by said flame outline sampling means;
• distance measurement means for measuring a distance to a radiant energy source;
• and
• said radiant energy calculating means for calculating radiant energy from the radiant energy source, based on the distribution temperature inside the flame outline sampled by said flame outline sampling means;
• said image-taking means taking color images, and said temperature detection means finding for each pixel a flame surface temperature using a ratio of a G component to an R component (G/R) or a ratio of a B component to the R component (B/R) of said color images taken by said image-taking means and referring to a conversion table for converting to said distribution temperature.