Patent ID: 6987528

Claim:
An image collection apparatus comprising: a control unit that controls the operation of a plurality of units comprising the image collection apparatus, the plurality of units including; an image acquisition unit which acquires an image; an event detection unit which detects an event based on the image; an operation unit by which inputted instructions are implemented; an event data creation unit which creates event data indicative of at least a generation time and contents of the event detected by said event detection unit; a macro event definition unit which defines a macro event, including at least a first event and a last event related to each other, and having a time width, equivalent to an entire range of events between a beginning of the at least first event to an end of the last event, by using the generation time and contents of the event; wherein the macro event definition unit carries out definition including repetition of a predetermined event in a series of events constituting the macro event; a macro event data creation unit for creating macro event data by structuring the at least first event and the last event from a plurality of event data generated by said event data creation unit based on definition contents of the macro event defined by said macro event definition unit allowing dependent storage and retrieval of the at least first event and the last event; an image recording unit which records an image of a macro event corresponding to the macro event data; a retrieval unit which retrieves a desirable macro event based on the macro event data; and a display unit which acquires at least an image of the macro event retrieved by the retrieval unit from the image recording unit and displays the image; an image summary unit which selects an image in a predetermined portion of the image of the macro event and summarizes the image of the macro event; wherein said image recording unit records the image of the macro event summarized by said image summary unit; a measurement unit which measures data related to the image; and a measured data storage unit which stores the measured data acquired by said measurement unit in relation to the macro event, wherein said display unit displays the image of the macro event and displays the measured data related to the macro event.