Patent ID: 7880766

Claim:
A detection range adjustment device, comprising: camera terminals connected to each other via a communication line, wherein the detection range adjustment device is operable to enable capturing of an image in a target detection range by adjusting detection ranges which are imaging ranges of the camera terminals, each of the camera terminals comprising: a camera operable to capture an image of a detection range included in the target detection range, the camera including a unit operable to change a position of the detection range and a spatial resolution of the detection range; a communication unit operable to send, to another camera terminal among the camera terminals, detection range information including information for identifying the detection range and information for identifying the spatial resolution of the detection range, via the communication line, and operable to receive detection range information from the other camera terminal; and an adjustment unit operable to adjust the position and the spatial resolution of the detection range by controlling a camera of a camera terminal so that 1) an undetectable range, which does not belong to any of the detection ranges of the camera terminals, is not included in a surrounding area adjacent to the detection range and 2) the spatial resolution of the detection range of the camera terminal and a spatial resolution of the detection range of the other camera terminal become approximately the same, based on the detection range information of the camera terminal and the detection range information of the other camera terminal received by the communication unit, wherein the adjustment unit is operable to control the camera of the camera terminal so that an amount of an overlap area of the detection range of the camera terminal and a detection range of an adjacent detection range of the camera terminal is smaller than a certain value, and the adjustment unit is operable to adjust the position and the spatial resolution of the detection range of the camera terminal to a position and a spatial resolution which are obtained by repeating the following: selecting the detection range which is adjacent to the detection range of the camera terminal, from detection ranges of the camera terminals; calculating an overlap range differential amount which is a difference between a predetermined target amount and an overlap range amount of the selected adjacent detection range and the detection range of the camera terminal; calculating a spatial resolution differential amount which is a difference between the spatial resolution of the selected detection range and the spatial resolution of the detection range of the camera terminal; and calculating the position and the spatial resolution of the detection range of the camera terminal, the position and the spatial resolution enabling the overlap range differential amount and the spatial resolution differential amount to be close to 0.