Security video monitoring client

Abstract

A security video monitoring client system and method of presenting feeds within the same are disclosed. Out-of-process renderer components executing outside the client program provide an important performance advantage, particularly as to the number of video feeds to decode and/or render that can be decoded. This external thread execution strategy likewise facilitates fault isolation, shielding the client from undesired effects arising from the termination, restarting, and/or any other action to be taken as a result of anomalous operation of any one or more out-of-process renderer components.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of presenting a plurality of security camera feeds within a security video monitoring system for interaction by a user, said method comprising:
 executing a first program within an operating system of said security video monitoring system for implementing a semi-transparent window parent structure comprising an array of transparent tiles, each of said array of transparent tiles having specific positions and dimensions defined by user input through said operating system;   running a plurality of out-of-process renderer components under said operating system of the security video monitoring system, said plurality of out-of-process renderer each receiving a camera feed from one of said plurality of security camera feeds and providing a video output resulting in a plurality of video outputs in separate windows controlled by said operating system;   positioning, and dimensioning each of said separate windows of said plurality of video outputs within one tile of said array of transparent tiles according to said specific dimensions with said semi-transparent window parent structure masking said separate windows of said plurality of video outputs;   wherein said first program comprises a GUI playback interface element that collects user point/click input and in response thereto transmits a specific instruction to one of said plurality of out-of-process renderer components.   
     
     
         2 . The method defined in  claim 1 , further comprising causing visual elements of one or more non-renderer components, said non-renderer components operating out-of-process, to be displayed superjacent to said visual outputs and subjacent to said tiles. 
     
     
         3 . The method defined in  claim 1 , further comprising accepting user input for one or more specific positions within said window parent structure and dispatching corresponding commands to out-of-process components at said one or more specific positions. 
     
     
         4 . The method defined in  claim 1 , wherein said user point/click input is any one or more from the group comprising: a mouse click, a drag-and-drop action, a tactile action or gesture, a three-dimensional action or gesture, a key press, and a sensory input. 
     
     
         5 . The method defined in  claim 4  wherein said sensory input is received via one or more voice commands. 
     
     
         6 . The method defined in  claim 4 , wherein said sensory input is received via eye control. 
     
     
         7 . The method defined in  claim 4 , wherein said sensory input is received from of gesture recognition via one or more multimodal sensors. 
     
     
         8 . The method defined in  claim 1 , further comprising monitoring the execution status of said out-of-process renderer components and restarting any one or more said out-of-process renderer components following anomalous operation thereof. 
     
     
         9 . The method defined in  claim 1 , further comprising monitoring the execution status of said out-of-process renderer components and terminating any one or more said out-of-process renderer components following anomalous operation thereof. 
     
     
         10 . The method defined in  claim 8 , wherein said monitoring includes using a condition parameter set to define or to detect the occurrence of said anomalous operation. 
     
     
         11 . The method defined in  claim 10 , wherein said condition parameter set comprises a member specifying the minimum time interval to wait between said anomalous operation and said restarting. 
     
     
         12 . The method defined in  claim 11 , further comprising notifying one or more human users of said anomalous operation by way of a dialog box. 
     
     
         13 . The method defined in  claim 12 , further comprising presenting to one or more human users one or more decisions on how to proceed following said anomalous operation. 
     
     
         14 . A tangible machine-readable storage medium for implementing a security video monitoring client for presenting a plurality of security camera feeds, said medium comprising instructions for causing a processing device to perform the method as defined in  claim 1 . 
     
     
         15 . The medium defined in  claim 14 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to display visual elements of one or more non-renderer components, said non-renderer components operating out-of-process, being situated superjacent to said visual outputs and subjacent to said tiles. 
     
     
         16 . The medium defined in  claim 15 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to overlay, as said visual elements, any one or more from among the group comprising software control component objects, interface components, digital on-screen graphics, and motion graphics over a respective visual output. 
     
     
         17 . The medium defined in  claim 14 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to accept user input for one or more specific positions within said window parent structure and to dispatch corresponding commands to out-of-process components at said one or more specific positions. 
     
     
         18 . The medium defined in  claim 17 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to receive user input to scale ones of said visual elements in proportion to a change in dimension of said window parent. 
     
     
         19 . The medium defined in  claim 14 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to monitor the execution status of said out-of-process renderer components and to restart any one or more said out-of-process renderer components following anomalous operation thereof. 
     
     
         20 . The medium defined in  claim 14 , further comprising instructions for causing a processing device to monitor the execution status of said out-of-process renderer components and to terminate any one or more said out-of-process renderer components following anomalous operation thereof.