Patent ID: 7929016

Claim:
A monitoring system that monitors an area subject to monitoring, said monitoring system comprising a plurality of camera terminals, wherein a self camera terminal of said plurality of camera terminals includes: a camera having a function for adjusting a shooting area of said self camera terminal; a camera controlling unit operable to control the adjusting of the shooting area of said self camera terminal; a communication interface for communicating with another camera terminal of said plurality of camera terminals; and a processing unit operable to adjust a resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal by controlling, via said camera controlling unit, said camera, so as to reduce a difference between a weighted resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal and the weighted resolution of a shooting area of said other camera terminal, based on information related to the shooting area of said other camera terminal obtained from said other camera terminal via said communication interface, the weighted resolution being defined as a degree in which (i) a resolution of a highly important shooting area becomes higher, and (ii) a resolution of a less important shooting area becomes lower, wherein, said monitoring system further comprises a first storage unit that holds a resolution weight map, the resolution weight map identifying a resolution weight of importance corresponding to each small area of a plurality of small areas of the area subject to monitoring, the plurality of small areas being obtained by dividing the area subject to monitoring, wherein said processing unit is operable to determine the weighted resolution by specifying the resolution weight of importance corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal with reference to the resolution weight map held in said first storage unit, and operable to adjust the resolution of the shooting area of said self camera terminal, wherein said first storage unit is further operable to store a plurality of the resolution weight maps and a resolution weight selection list defining a rule for selecting one resolution weight map of the plurality of stored resolution weight maps based on a monitoring situation, and wherein said processing unit is further operable to (i) specify the monitoring situation, (ii) select a resolution weight map, of the plurality of resolution weight maps, corresponding to the specified monitoring situation, based on the rule defined in the resolution weight selection list, and (iii) specify, from the selected resolution weight map, the resolution weight of importance corresponding to the shooting area of said self camera terminal.