Technologia hemisferyczna (j.ang.)

Hemispheric technology - camera Q24

Discrete Room Overview With One Single Camera Without Any Blind Spots

The German company MOBOTIX AG is known as the leading pioneer in network camera technology and its decentralized concept has made high-resolution video systems cost efficient.

HiRes Video Innovations: The Hemispheric Camera

The primary components of the hemispheric camera include a fisheye lens, a high-resolution image sensor and image correction software that is integrated into the camera. Using an ultra-wide angle fisheye lens, the camera captures a 180° hemispheric image of the room and projects it onto a high-resolution image sensor.

When ceiling mounted, the image area of the hemispheric camera covers the entire room. The image in the hemisphere is convex, particularly near the image borders. These image sections are corrected for the viewer by the integrated distortion correction software, allowing a view of the scene from the usual perspective. The virtual PTZ feature allows you to enlarge or move image sections within the hemisphere, just like a PTZ camera yet, with MOBOTIX, this is achieved with no moving parts.

One or more image sections can be corrected for perspective in the hemispheric view, allowing you to monitor and record several different areas of a room at the same time, something that a mechanical PTZ camera is not capable of doing.

Perfect Room Overview - Discreet And Low Maintenance

The MOBOTIX Q24M Hemispheric camera is an elegant, ultra-compact and weather proof IP network dome camera with a special hemispheric lens (fisheye). When mounted on the ceiling, the camera is capable of providing full 360° allround view or a 180° panorama when mounted on a wall. The first of its kind in the world, this camera is evidence of the MOBOTIX commitment to innovation as the global leader in megapixel video security cameras.

Hemispheric cameras are extremely discreet because they manage their task with only one lens, which is generally focused on the entire room and not a specific object. MOBOTIX hemispheric cameras are without mechanical moving parts and require low maintenance. In addition, they are silent when panning and focusing on a specific image area.

Less Cameras Thanks To Panoramic Views

The perspective of the hemispheric image can also be transformed into an ultra-wide angle panoramic view spanning 180° if the camera is mounted on a wall, providing a wall-to-wall view of the room without any blind spots. It offers a substantially better view of the scene, compared to other cameras, it also results in the need for fewer cameras overall. When ceiling mounted, one camera can also capture an entire room by two opposite panoramic views.

Using solutions featuring several individual cameras, moving objects will normally jump from one viewing area of a camera to another. This often produces a confusing situation for the viewer because objects may disappear from sight for a moment or even appear twice if the viewing areas overlap. This is not the case with hemispheric panoramic cameras. Objects remain in view at all times and the viewer can always keep good track of objects in the scene.

High-Resolution 180° Panorama (Wall-Mounted)

When several cameras are monitoring a single room, it is difficult to understand the room layout due to the different viewing directions of each camera. This makes it hard to comprehend the overall setting. The new panorama function of the Q24M delivers a widescreen image of a high-resolution 180° allround view. High image quality is achieved through the use of a 3.1 megapixel sensor and the new hemispheric lens.

Panorama Focus – One Camera, Three Views (Wall-Mounted)

Maximum room overview while simultaneously viewing detail in a single image: the Q24M is capable of providing two more views at the same time with the 180° panorama, allowing you to focus on two scenes in parallel ("Panorama Focus" display mode).

Double Panorama For A Simultaneous View In Two Directions (Ceiling-Mounted)

When the camera is mounted in the center of the ceiling of a room, “Double Panorama“ display mode provides a corrected panorama image of both halves of the room. It corresponds roughly with the situation of personally standing in the middle of the room and being able to look both forwards and backwards at the same time. A superb overview for the user – provided by a single Q24M camera alone.

Full Image And Normal View

With innovative MOBOTIX Hemispheric Technology, an entire room can be ideally monitored. For instance, one single, particularly elegant and discreet, Q24M replaces the time-consuming and expensive installation of several standard cameras. The overview image provided by a single Q24M, which may be tailored in a number of ways according to specific user requirements, not only reduces the number of required cameras, but also minimizes the system costs by reducing the wiring complexity, emergency power requirements and number of recording devices required.

In addition to Panorama, Double Panorama and Panorama Focus views, the Q24M image may be displayed on a monitor in the original fisheye version ("Full Image" display mode), the camera-corrected full image ("Normal" display mode) or in a quad view of all four directions ("Surround" display mode). Switching to a different display mode is possible at any time within seconds.

Surround View (Quad View), Based On The Correct Full Image

The Q24 "Surround" display mode replaces (when ceiling mounted) four cameras, and shows four directions simultaneously on the monitor in a quad view. The preset North position can be moved to any direction in the image; the camera generates the other three directions (East, South, West) automatically and stores them as separate views.

Each of the four views features a software-controlled pan/tilt/zoom function (virtual PTZ), allowing it to be customized as necessary.

In order to reduce user workload, the Q24M can store in addition to the North, East, South and West standard views, a total of 256 user-defined camera views using the vPTZ function, which can easily be brought up using joystick keys or softbuttons. Besides being able to manually bring up specific camera views, the camera can also show them automatically by moving through the North, East, South and West views or by showing the first 16 saved camera views (one after the other like in a slide show).

Virtual PTZ (vPTZ) – No Motor Required

The Q24M can zoom in on detail as well. These vPTZ functions are a standard feature in the integrated Q24M camera software. The image from the hemispheric camera can be enlarged using e.g. the mouse wheel, a joystick or a software-controlled PTZ panel, and you can “move“ the view to any section of the image. This provides the features of a mechanical PTZ camera without the disadvantages of maintenance and wear.

The vPTZ functionality works differently depending on the camera operation platform (web browser, MxEasy, MxControlCenter). Virtual zoom, pan and tilt using MxEasy and MxControlCenter is very simple thanks to special software tools and the use of an optional joystick. However, a joystick may also be used even with pure browser-based operation from Internet Explorer (together with an ActiveX plug-in).

Simultaneous Corrected Live Image And Full Image Recording

All conventional, motorized PTZ cameras only store the image that is currently viewed as the live image (live image recording). This has one serious disadvantage as the recording can only show what has happened in the "visible" portion of the image; the rest is lost and cannot be examined later on. For this reason, MOBOTIX has added the new full image recording feature to the Q24M. This will not store the currently viewed image that reflects the pan/tilt position and the zoom setting chosen by the user, but the full sensor image - without vPTZ settings or image correction. When examining the recorded images at a later point in time, the vPTZ features again come into play, as they allow zooming the visible image and use the pan/tilt features to examine every corner of the recorded full image.

Integrated vPTZ functions allow "analysis" of the complete saved full image at a later point in time (in MxEasy and MxControlCenter)

Example: The people marked by the large circle in the middle area of the image would not have been recorded by a regular PTZ camera in the PTZ setting shown in the live image; the full image recording of the Q24M in this example allows you to determine at a later stage the exact time at which the people entered the image area recorded by the camera. A browser (Internet Explorer with MxPEG ActiveX plug-in), MxControlCenter or MxEasy can be used to examine the recorded sequences.

Maximum Ease Of Use

The full image generated by the hemispherical lens (fisheye) can be difficult to evaluate. MOBOTIX solves this problem with image distortion correction in the camera software that displays perfectly corrected live images. The user PC does not experience any additional load through this process, as image correction and generation of all desired image views takes place in the camera itself. The result is that a large number of panoramic cameras may be displayed simultaneously on a single PC.

Highly Efficient, Application-Oriented Image Transfer

While other camera systems must transport the full 3.1 megapixel image over the network for further processing, a MOBOTIX camera will only transmit the desired image sections. This means that a Q24M panorama image will only require a small part of the usual data and bandwidth. Data from up to six times as many MOBOTIX cameras may be transported over the same network compared to "standard" cameras.

Image after panorama correction
Economical bandwidth usage due to smaller, in-camera corrected images (no loss of image information)

Internal DVR

The Q24M SECURE model features direct recording to integrated MicroSD cards, which makes the camera fully independent of any external storage media, even for longer periods of time. The camera internally saves high-resolution video and audio, without requiring an external storage device or PC or overloading the network whatsoever. Old recordings may be overwritten automatically or deleted automatically after a specified period of time. A 16 GB MicroSD card, for example, allows the camera to store more than a quarter million event images in VGA format (640 x 480). For security reasons, the camera can even encrypt the stored data.

Power failures are not an issue, as the video and image sequences remain safely stored on the MicroSD card. Access to stored video sequences is possible at any time from the camera user interface in the browser, MxControlCenter or MxEasy. If you would like to archive sequences, you can store all of the data or only certain parts to a computer or external hard disk.

High Frame Rates Of Up To 30 fps

Like all other MOBOTIX cameras, the Q24M models can generate live video streams with high frame rates and a maximum image resolution of 3.1 megapixels (QXGA with 2048 x 1536 pixels). Up to 30 fps are generated at a megapixel resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels. Even at 3.1 megapixels, the camera will still generate up to 20 fps! And the audio playback is always lip-synchronous.

Robust And Maintenance-Free

Thanks to its low power consumption of approximately 3 watts and the total absence of mechanical moving parts, the Q24M models feature the highest operating temperature range from -30°C to +60°C (-22°F to +140°F). Both Q24M models (BASIC & SECURE) are absolutely dust proof to IP54, with the SECURE model being resistant against water jets (IP65) also. Since the cameras neither fog up nor require heating, power can be supplied all-year round via the Ethernet cabling using standard PoE products.

Camera Design Creates New Applications

Some application scenarios benefit from a surveillance camera that is present, but doesn’t attract attention. The low-key elegance of the camera’s design, especially when installed with the In-Ceiling set, makes the Q24M the ideal solution for the intersection of discreet design and inconspicuous look. For example, hotels and restaurants – not to mention installations in public buildings, waiting rooms, and showrooms – present a suitable backdrop for this type of equipment.

The integrated DVR functionality with long-term storage on a MicroSD card also makes the camera an ideal solution for mobile applications since it only requires a power supply via the network cable (standard PoE) for full event-driven recording with video and audio, thus delivering a complete standalone product. Application examples in this context are installations in public transportation such as busses, trains, aboard ships, airplanes, etc.