1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus and a camera system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a monitoring camera system, a network camera which can freely perform a PTZR (pan, tilt, zoom, rotation) driving has been spread and many kinds of various functions have been provided. Therefore, there is a monitoring camera system in which video display units corresponding to a plurality of video sizes, functional dialogues (dialogue boxes) corresponding to a plurality of camera operations, and the like are displayed in a mixed manner.
As a system which handles a plurality of windows, a variety of systems such as general OS itself, image editing software, document editing software, remote communication tool of an application sharing type, and the like exist. There is also software which can manage a layout of a plurality of window groups.
For example, the network camera has a UI for switching a photographed video image to an image size such as QVGA, VGA, or SXGA and displaying and a UI for providing camera functions such as control dialogue of PTZ, event displaying dialogue, panorama screen control dialogue, and the like to the user (for example, network camera VB-M40 made by Canon Inc).
Further, what is called a viewer PTZ or the like in which one rectangle is cut out from a video image displayed on a viewer of the client and is displayed as if it was electronically PTZ-driven has also been realized (for example, network camera VB-M600 made by Canon Inc).
As a function of the OS such as Windows (registered trademark) or a function of Explorer, there is such a function that previous window display information is stored and, when the window is displayed again, its display position is restored.
Further, there is such a function that by software having a plurality of operating modes, layout information of windows which are displayed on a screen is stored every operating mode, when the operating mode is switched, they are displayed in accordance with the stored layout information (publication of U.S. patent application 2006/0233192). Therefore, each time the display mode is switched, the positions can be restored and the windows can be displayed by the layout which is conditional on the display mode.
When a plurality of windows or dialogues are displayed, they can be also automatically arranged (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-15626).
In an image displaying apparatus in the monitoring camera system, display units of monitor video images are important. Further, among them, since the video image is carefully viewed in accordance with a situation or the camera operation is necessary, a watching location and functions to be used are not fixed. Particularly, in the case of enlarging an image size for the purpose of monitoring, a highlighted portion is important.
However, there is such a problem that even if the positions are merely restored to a layout which has previously been conditional on, the images cannot be always displayed in a desirable layout.