(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a home security system that monitors the inside of a facility, and especially relates to a home security system that detects any occurrence of alarming situations and captures the images within a house or a facility by a camera.
(2) Description of the Related Art
So far, a home security system for monitoring the inside of a house has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H10-271572 as reference).
The conventional home security system mentioned above includes a plurality of sensors that detect any intruder breaking in, a plurality of cameras that are installed within a house, and a control unit that controls the cameras according to the result of detection by the sensors.
For example, when one of the aforementioned sensors detects an intruder breaking in, the control unit makes a camera that is fixedly associated with the sensor to capture the image, and sends the captured image data to an external home care service center via communication lines.
However, in the conventional home security system, each of the sensors and cameras are always associated with each other according to certain relationships, and the locations for capturing images cannot be varied nor the number be increased or decreased according to the level and condition of monitoring.
For instance, when the conventional home security system is installed in a house, and a sensor that detects an intruder breaking in from an entrance hall and a camera that captures the image of the entrance hall area are fixedly associated with each other, then when the sensor detects an intruder breaking in, the control unit chooses, among a plurality of cameras, the camera that is associated with the sensor to be the only camera to capture the image. As a result, even when the user, meaning the resident of the house, desires to have sufficient monitoring for going out, only one camera that is fixedly associated with a certain sensor captures images in the conventional home security system, and cannot make other cameras capture images. On the other hand, even when the user is at home and feeling a light monitoring is sufficient, in the conventional home security system, all the cameras that are fixedly associated with a certain sensor are going to capture images.
Now, in consideration of the foregoing problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a home security system that allows to vary as well as increase and decrease the locations of capturing images according to the level and condition of monitoring.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is the home security system that monitors an inside of a facility and comprises: a plurality of detection units operable to detect an alarming situation in different locations inside the facility; a plurality of image capturing units operable to capture an image in different locations inside the facility; an association memory unit operable to memorize associations between a plurality of the detection units and a plurality of the image capturing units; an updating unit operable to update the associations memorized in the association memory unit; and a control unit operable to, when one of a plurality of the detection units detects an alarming situation, have the image capturing unit which is associated with the detection unit that detects the alarming situation capture an image based on the associations memorized in the association memory unit.
Accordingly, since the updating unit updates said associations, it becomes possible to vary as well as increase and decrease the locations of capturing images according to the level and condition of monitoring.
Also, in the home security system, a plurality of the detection units, a plurality of the image capturing units and the control unit may communicate each other via an electric power line.
Therefore, when configuring the system in an already constructed house, a plurality of the detection units, a plurality of the image capturing units and the control unit can be connected using electric power lines that are already established in the house. As a result, not only that the system can be configured easily, but the detection units and the image capturing units can be added quite easily.
The home security system further comprises an image display unit, wherein the image capturing unit sends image data that indicates content of the captured image to the image display unit, and the image display unit displays the image captured by the image capturing unit based on the image data.
Accordingly, since the image captured by the capturing unit is displayed on the image display unit, the state of alarm situations can be confirmed easily by viewing the images.
Also, the home security system may further comprise a server that communicates with the image display unit and provides an image via a communication line, wherein the image display unit sends the image data obtained from the image capturing unit to the server, and the server provides the image based on the image data to a device that accesses the server via the communication line.
Accordingly, since the server provides the images captured by the image capturing unit via communication lines, the user is able to confirm the images captured by the image capturing units even from a place where he/she has gone by accessing the server using personal computers etc.