Digital video recording system

A digital video recording system comprising:

• a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
• an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to determine if any changes have occurred therein;
• a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of video images;
• wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve said video images produced by said camera, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate a video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired, video images;
• wherein each of said plurality of video images comprises a plurality of pixel elements and said image processor is configured to process blocks of said pixels and to compare each of said blocks against a corresponding block from said previously established reference image;
• wherein said image processor is configured to identify which of said blocks in said video images have changed relative to the corresponding block in said previously established reference image;
• and
• wherein said image processor is configured to store said reference image and said identified changed blocks in said memory.

A digital video recording system comprising:

• a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
• an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to determine if any changes have occurred therein;
• a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of video images;
• wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve said video images produced by said camera, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate a video image of interest and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images;
• wherein each of said plurality of video images comprises a plurality of pixel elements and said image processor is configured to process blocks of said pixels and to compare each of said blocks against a corresponding block from said previously established reference image;
• and
• wherein said image processor is configured to store those block of said video image which differ from a corresponding block of said reference image, said image processor configured to apply a compression algorithm to each of said blocks prior to storage to maximize the storage capability of said memory.

A digital video recording system comprising:

• a plurality of cameras directed towards at least one scene of interest to view said at least one scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
• an image processor configured to compare said plurality of video images generated by said cameras with a plurality of previously established reference images of said at least one scene to identify any regions of change therein, said processor configured to store only those regions of said video images which differ from said a corresponding region of the reference image and the reference image in a memory associated with said image processor;
• and
• wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve at least one video image of interest produced by said cameras, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate said video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images.

A digital video recording system comprising:

• a plurality of cameras directed towards at least one scene of interest to view said at least one scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
• an image processor configured to compare said plurality of video images generated by said cameras with a plurality of previously established reference images of said at least one scene to identify any regions of change therein;
• a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store a plurality of images;
• wherein said image processor is further configured to access said memory to retrieve at least one video image of interest produced by said cameras, said image processor accessing said memory at any desired memory location representing a time of interest so as not to have to sequentially scan a plurality of video images to locate said video image of interest, and said image processor configured to access said memory without interrupting said processing of currently acquired video images;
• and
• wherein said image processor is configured to store any identified regions of change in said memory.

A method of recording video images and storing and retrieving the same comprising:

• viewing a scene of interest with a camera and generating video images thereof;
• converting each frame of video imagery produced by said camera to a digital signal;
• processing said digital signal, said processing including
• comparing blocks of the video image represented by a digital signal with corresponding blocks of a previously established reference of the scene to determine if any changes have occurred in any of the blocks therein, and storing the contents of said blocks in a memory if the block differs from the corresponding block of the reference image with date and time data appended to each stored video image represented by a digital signal;
• and,
• accessing said memory to retrieve the contents of said digital signals to recreate the video images produced by said camera, said memory being accessed to retrieve said video images simultaneously with digital signals being stored therein, and said memory being accessed at any desired location representing a time of interest whereby video images stored in said memory do not to be sequentially scanned to locate a video image of interest.

A digital video recording system comprising:

• a camera directed at a scene of interest to view the scene and to continuously generate a plurality of video images thereof;
• an image processor configured to compare the video images generated by said camera with a previously established reference image of said scene to identify the occurrence of a change in said scene;
• a memory associated with said image processor, said memory configured to store video image data of the video image if the video image differs from the reference image;
• wherein said image processor is further configured to select and store said previously established reference video image in said memory, and wherein said image processor is further configured to store, in said memory, video image data representative of identified changes in said scene;
• wherein each of said video images is composed of a plurality of pixels, and wherein said video image data representative of identified changes in said scene includes at least one changed block of pixels from a video image together with a reference image associated block map;
• and
• wherein said reference image associated block map consists of at least one binary representation of a corresponding pixel block comprising a video image, a first binary representation indicating an unchanged pixel block, and a second binary representation indicating a changed pixel block.