Patent ID: 7222356

Claim:
A communication system which includes a camera server connected to at least one camera and a plurality of terminals, wherein said camera server comprises: (a) a managing device that manages camera state information received from said camera, wherein the camera state information includes a time stamp which indicates an information transmission time of said camera and attribution information of said camera which indicates at least one of pan, tilt, and zoom of said camera; and (b) a transmission device that, in response to receiving new camera state information from said camera, transmits the new camera state information to the plurality of terminals, and wherein each of said plurality of terminals comprises: (a) a display device that displays a map representing a location at which said camera is disposed, wherein the map includes a symbol image to be superimposed on a map image and which indicates the state of at least one of pan, tilt, and zoom of said camera; (b) a control device that transmits a control command for changing at least one of pan, tilt, and zoom of said camera to said camera; (c) a notification device that provides notification of camera state information including a time stamp which indicates an information transmission time of said control device and attribution information of said camera which indicates at least one of pan, tilt, and zoom of said camera to be controlled by said control device; (d) a determination device that when the camera state information is received from said transmission device or notified by said notification device, determines whether the time stamp included in the camera state information which is currently received or notified is newer than the time stamp included in the camera state information which has been already received or notified; and (e) a display control device that when it is determined that the time stamp included in the camera state information which is currently received is newer, controls said display device to display the symbol image in accordance with the attribution information included in the camera state information which is currently received.