阅读说明：本技术 重要场所室内安全检查的方法、检查设备、机器人及终端 (Method for indoor safety inspection of important place, inspection equipment, robot and terminal ) 是由 吴�琳 李靖 温立文 李建兵 孙鹏 于 2020-12-15 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明属于室内外定位技术领域,公开了一种重要场所室内安全检查的方法、检查设备、机器人及终端,构建安全环境下的数据；激光点云室内建模；获取巡逻人员或机器人的坐标信息、视场角及方位角信息；计算传感器可扫描或观察到的区域,并对采集到的激光点云数据进行三维重建,得到实时室内三维轮廓；根据设备的采集区域实时三维重建,并且与安全状态下的模型数据进行对比,通过算法计算两个模型之间的室内空间变化情况；将重点场所室内变化情况通过颜色进行标记。本发明能够对重点场所室内环境的精确监控,增强重点场所的安全保障,更好地维护公共安全和社会稳定。本发明提供的重要场所室内安全检查的方法,能够实现对重点场所室内环境的精确监控,从而在发现重点场所内发生的变化情况。(The invention belongs to the technical field of indoor and outdoor positioning, and discloses a method, inspection equipment, a robot and a terminal for indoor safety inspection of an important place, which are used for constructing data in a safety environment; indoor modeling of laser point cloud; acquiring coordinate information, field angle and azimuth angle information of patrol personnel or robots; calculating the area which can be scanned or observed by the sensor, and performing three-dimensional reconstruction on the collected laser point cloud data to obtain a real-time indoor three-dimensional profile; according to the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction of the acquisition area of the equipment, comparing the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction with model data in a safe state, and calculating the indoor space change condition between the two models through an algorithm; and marking the indoor change conditions of the key places by colors. The invention can accurately monitor the indoor environment of the key site, enhance the safety guarantee of the key site and better maintain the public safety and social stability. The method for indoor safety inspection of important places can accurately monitor the indoor environment of the important places, so that the change condition occurring in the important places can be found.)

1. A method for indoor security inspection of a key site is characterized by comprising the following steps:

carrying out data acquisition on an indoor security area through mobile acquisition equipment or a mobile robot carrying a laser radar, and transmitting the acquired data to a background server;

constructing an indoor three-dimensional vector outline through laser point cloud, and directly loading indoor vector outline data with coordinate information into a three-dimensional geographic information system;

coordinate information of patrol personnel or patrol mobile robots is obtained through positioning equipment, and meanwhile field angle and azimuth angle information of the sensor is obtained;

according to the position of patrol personnel or a patrol mobile robot, the area scanned or detected by the sensor is calculated in real time by combining the information of the field angle, the azimuth angle and the height of the sensor, and the collected laser point cloud data is subjected to three-dimensional reconstruction to obtain a real-time indoor three-dimensional profile;

comparing the real-time indoor three-dimensional contour with model data in a safe state according to the obtained real-time indoor three-dimensional contour, and calculating the difference between the real-time indoor three-dimensional contour and the model in the safe state to obtain the indoor space change condition;

and marking the obtained indoor change conditions of the key places by colors, loading the marked indoor change conditions into a three-dimensional geographic information system, and checking the indoor changed positions by the handheld equipment.

2. The method for indoor security inspection of important places according to claim 1, wherein the building of the indoor three-dimensional vector contour by the laser point cloud and the direct loading of the indoor vector contour data with coordinate information into the three-dimensional geographic information system comprise:

(1) continuously generating a surface model from the discrete point cloud data to simulate the surface of an indoor scene, fitting each point set originally belonging to the same plane to determine a central plane, and simultaneously determining the outline of the plane; extracting special three-dimensional coordinate information of lines and points by utilizing the interrelation of a plurality of planes with definite edge contour information and space position information;

(2) determining the contour of the indoor space real object on the plane, obtaining projection points from each point of the original real object to a fitting plane by solving the vertical line and the foothold of the point and the plane, and fitting the contour line of the real object through all the projection points;

(3) and (4) boundary fitting, wherein a polynomial method is selected for fitting at the boundary of the curve due to the fact that the indoor environment is too complex.

3. The method for indoor security inspection of a significant site according to claim 2, wherein the fitting method is: known plane equation z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂The polynomial being y ═ w₀+w₁x+w₂x²+…+w_nxⁿ；

X, Y coordinates for a set of curve boundary points:

at least squares:

minimum w₀,w₁,w₂,……,w_nAnd the matrix form of the determined polynomial obtained through mathematical processing is as follows:

then using the boundary curve belonging to the plane z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂Then canTo uniquely determine the coefficient w₀,w₁,...,w_nThis curve is determined.

4. The method for indoor security inspection of a public place of interest as set forth in claim 1, wherein the area scanned or detected by the sensor calculated in real time is an acquisition area of laser point cloud data.

5. An indoor safety inspection apparatus for a public place, which carries out the method for indoor safety inspection for a public place according to claims 1 to 3.

6. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of security inspection of a venue indoor as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3.

7. A computer arrangement, characterized in that the computer arrangement comprises a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to carry out the method of indoor security check of a significant venue as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3.

8. A mobile robot carrying a laser radar, wherein the mobile robot carrying a laser radar operates the method for indoor security inspection of a critical place according to any one of claims 1 to 3, and is used for patrol of indoor security inspection.

9. A security inspection information data processing terminal, characterized in that the security inspection information data processing terminal is used for realizing the panoramic picture generation method of the indoor security inspection method of the important place of any claim 1 to 3.

10. An intelligent home system is characterized in that an intelligent home system end is used for realizing the panoramic picture generation method for the indoor safety inspection of the important places according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of indoor and outdoor positioning, and particularly relates to a method, inspection equipment, a robot and a terminal for indoor safety inspection of important places.

Background

In recent years, the invasion of illegal criminal behaviors causes serious damage to the security and stability of society and the security of lives and properties of people. The public security organ is an important functional department for handling emergencies and maintaining social stability, and plays an important role in security work. The video monitoring cooperation inspection personnel is one of the main means of the security protection work of the current public security department, the main early warning of the traditional video monitoring system is realized by the personnel through seeing the large screen of the monitoring display, a large amount of manpower investment is needed, meanwhile, the requirement on the concentration degree is very high, the effect of taking evidence afterwards can only be played under most conditions, and the efficiency of taking evidence afterwards is extremely low.

The security work of important places needs to realize the full-coverage inspection of the jurisdiction area, and needs to discover potential safety hazards as early as possible and deal with emergencies in time. The patrol area is large, and the environment is complex. The current working mechanism that adopts is that manpower inspection and video monitoring combine, relies on the policeman on duty naked eye discovery entirely, often has the fish of missing the net. Therefore, a new method for indoor security inspection in important places is needed.

Through the above analysis, the problems and defects of the prior art are as follows:

(1) the main early warning of traditional video monitoring system is realized through seeing the big screen of control display by the personnel, needs a large amount of human input, and to personnel's responsibility heart, concentration degree requirement is very high simultaneously, can only play the effect of collecting evidence afterwards under most of the circumstances, and the efficiency of collecting evidence afterwards is extremely low moreover.

(2) The current working mechanism that adopts is that manpower inspection and video monitoring combine, relies on the policeman on duty naked eye discovery entirely, often has the fish of missing the net.

(3) In the traditional security monitoring system, because the position is fixed, dead angles of a camera exist, the effective visual distance is narrow, and the system can realize autonomous movement, omnibearing, dead angle-free real-time monitoring. In addition, the invention is not influenced by the illumination effect.

The difficulty in solving the above problems and defects is:

(1) the indoor area environment is extremely complex and comprises dynamic objects and static objects, the traditional indoor laser point cloud modeling usually needs a whole-house scanning mode and a post-processing mode, and cannot achieve a real-time effect.

(2) Due to the particularity and the temporality of the guard area, video monitoring is not allowed or installed in some rooms in any condition, and only manual inspection can be carried out. The biggest problem of the manpower inspection is influenced by subjective awareness, experience, responsibility and external environment of inspection personnel.

(3) The invention also combines a three-dimensional geographic information system, can lead patrol personnel to directly find the problem when patrolling through the three-dimensional GIS visualization technology, and can lead the security center manager to see the inspection condition of each patrol personnel in real time.

The significance of solving the problems and the defects is as follows:

(1) and the inspection timeliness is improved.

(2) The problem that patrol personnel cannot find the problem due to subjective judgment and influence of external factors is prevented.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the problems in the prior art, the invention provides a method, a device, a robot and a terminal for indoor security inspection in important places, aiming at solving the problem that the prior art needs to be recognized by patrol personnel through naked eyes in security work in key places.

The invention is realized in such a way that a method for the indoor safety inspection of the important place comprises the following steps:

step one, constructing data under a safe environment: under the premise of safety of indoor environment of important places, data acquisition is carried out on a guard area through mobile acquisition equipment or a mobile robot carrying a laser radar function, and acquired data are transmitted to a background server.

The laser radar mainly uses a laser as a transmitting light source, adopts active remote sensing equipment of a photoelectric detection technical means, and consists of a transmitting system, a receiving system, information processing and the like. It uses a laser to densely sample the indoor surface environment to produce high precision x, y, z measurements. A manageable, displayable, analyzable and shared discrete multipoint cloud data set can be generated.

The movable acquisition equipment or the movable robot with the laser radar function is used for carrying out movable acquisition in a guard area, and 360-degree all-dimensional scanning on the indoor space is required to be carried out as far as possible in order to ensure the integrity of the indoor three-dimensional surface space profile. The laser radar collects laser point clouds, and the collected laser point clouds can be processed into highly accurate geographic registration x, y and z coordinates through a Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS).

Step two, performing laser point cloud indoor modeling: an indoor three-dimensional vector outline is constructed through laser point cloud, and indoor vector outline data with coordinate information are directly loaded into a three-dimensional geographic information system.

And step three, when patrolling is needed, patrolling the security area through the mobile acquisition equipment or the mobile robot carrying the laser radar function. Coordinate information of patrol personnel or the robot is obtained through the positioning equipment, and meanwhile the field angle and the azimuth angle information of the sensor are obtained.

The mobile acquisition or robot can perform indoor positioning through WIFI or Bluetooth technology.

And fourthly, calculating the area which can be scanned or observed by the sensor in real time according to the position of the patrol personnel or the robot and the information of the field angle, the azimuth angle and the height of the sensor, and performing three-dimensional reconstruction on the collected laser point cloud data to obtain a real-time indoor three-dimensional profile.

And fifthly, carrying out real-time three-dimensional reconstruction according to the acquisition area of the equipment, comparing the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction with model data in a safe state, finding a change condition, and calculating the difference between the two models, namely the change condition of the indoor space, through VTK _ DIFFERENCE in a vtK vtkBooleanoperationPolyDataFilter algorithm.

And setting the indoor space profile to be A in the safety state and B in the patrol state. Separately establishing A, B BSP trees, then using the BSP tree of A to perform space division on B, and dividing the B into an inner part and an outer part; then, the BSP tree of the B is used for carrying out space segmentation on the A and dividing the A into an inner part and an outer part; finally, according to different Boolean operations, the invention adopts a difference solving mode to carry out parallel operation on the divided partial models according to different Boolean operations, and the change result of B relative to A can be obtained.

And step six, marking the indoor change conditions of the key places by colors, simultaneously loading the marked indoor change conditions into a three-dimensional geographic information system, and directly checking the indoor changed positions by handheld equipment.

Because the indoor space contour is provided with an actual coordinate system, the indoor space contour can be directly loaded into the three-dimensional geographic information system. And simultaneously, independently dyeing and loading the interpolation according to the two contour interpolation values obtained in the fifth step. According to the principle of the fourth step, the situation in the visible range can be loaded in real time.

Further, in the second step, the method for performing indoor modeling of laser point cloud includes:

(1) and continuously generating a surface model from the discrete point cloud data to simulate the surface of an indoor scene, fitting each point set originally belonging to the same plane to determine a central plane, and simultaneously determining the outline of the plane. The three-dimensional coordinate information of the special line and point is extracted by utilizing the mutual relation of a plurality of planes with clear edge contour information and space position information.

Fitting a plane equation expression: ax + By + Cz + D ═ 0(C ≠ 0);

order to

Then z is a₀x+a₁y+a₂；

Knowing a set of n points (X) of data_i,Y_i,Z_i),i＝1,2,3,……n-1；

As long as makeAt a minimum, wherein a₀,a₁,a₂Is an unknown number.

Then:

namely:

comprises the following steps:

a₀∑x_i+a₁∑y_i+a₂n＝∑z_i；

solving the linear equation to obtain a₀,a₁,a₂。

(2) Determining the outline of the indoor space object on the plane:

the projected points from each point of the original real object to the fitting plane are obtained by solving the vertical line and the foothold of the point and the plane, and the contour line is fitted through all the projected points.

Suppose point A is any point in the material point set M and the coordinate value is (X)_A,Y_A,Z_A) The point a is the foot of the point A to the fitting plane, and the coordinate value is (X)_a,Y_a,Z_a) The known planar equation is z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂The normal vector of which is (a)₀,a₁,-1)。

Then the equation for the perpendicular Aa is:

the coordinates of any point on Aa are as follows: (a)₀K+X_A,a₁K+Y_A,-K+Z_A)；

Substituting the coordinate value into the fitting plane equation can solve:

the coordinate value of the point a is:

the coordinates of each point in the set N of drop foot points from all points to the fitting plane are obtained in the same way.

(3) Boundary fitting

Since the indoor environment is too complex, the curve boundary is fitted by a polynomial method, and the plane equation z is known to be a₀x+a₁y+a₂The polynomial being y ═ w₀+w₁x+w₂x²+…+w_nxⁿ。

X, Y coordinates for a set of curve boundary points:

……

in the least squares sense:

minimum w₀,w₁,w₂,……,w_nAnd the matrix form of the determined polynomial obtained through mathematical processing is as follows:

then using the boundary curve belonging to the plane z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂The coefficient w can be uniquely determined₀,w₁,...,w_nI.e. determine this curve.

Further, in the fourth step, the area which can be scanned or observed by the sensor calculated in real time is the acquisition area of the laser point cloud data.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an indoor security inspection apparatus for a key site that implements the method for indoor security inspection for a key site.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method for indoor security inspection of a key location.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a computer arrangement comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method of indoor security check of a critical location.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a lidar-mounted mobile robot that operates the method for indoor security inspection of important places for indoor security inspection patrol.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a security check information data processing terminal for implementing the method for indoor security check of important places, which is a panoramic picture generation method.

By combining all the technical schemes, the invention has the advantages and positive effects that: the method for indoor safety inspection of important places can accurately monitor the indoor environment of the important places, so that the change condition occurring in the important places can be found. The invention is applied to key security places such as government buildings and the like, can further enhance the security guarantee for the key places, better maintains public security and social stability, promotes the security guarantee work of a public security organ in the key places to be changed from a passive corresponding type to an active guaranteeing type, and is an important step of intelligent emergency command of the public security organ.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for indoor security inspection of an important place according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a visible area provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a camera orientation diagram provided by an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic point cloud diagram of an indoor object in a safe state according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the object contour after calculation and fitting in the safe state according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic point cloud during the second scanning according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the object profile of the second fitting provided by the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing the results of 2 comparisons before and after the example of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is further described in detail with reference to the following embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

In view of the problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a method, an inspection apparatus, a robot and a terminal for indoor security inspection in an important place, and the present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 1, the method for indoor security inspection of an important place provided by the embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

s101, constructing data under a secure environment: under the premise of safety of indoor environment of important places, data acquisition is carried out on a guard area through mobile acquisition equipment or a mobile robot carrying a laser radar function, and acquired data are transmitted to a background server.

S102, constructing an indoor three-dimensional vector outline through laser point cloud, and directly loading indoor vector outline data with coordinate information into a three-dimensional geographic information system.

S103, when patrolling is needed, patrolling the security area through the mobile acquisition equipment or the mobile robot carrying the laser radar function. Coordinate information of patrol personnel or the robot is obtained through the positioning equipment, and meanwhile the field angle and the azimuth angle information of the sensor are obtained.

And S104, calculating the area which can be scanned or observed by the sensor in real time, namely the acquisition area of the laser point cloud data according to the position of the patrol personnel or the robot and the information of the field angle, the azimuth angle and the height of the sensor. Meanwhile, three-dimensional reconstruction is carried out on the collected laser point cloud data to obtain a real-time indoor three-dimensional profile.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a visible area according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is provided to simulate a current visible area of a sensor in a three-dimensional geographic information system by constructing a polygonal line and a polygon. Fig. 3 is a camera orientation diagram of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the angle of view is as shown in fig. 2, and the left side is the position of the sensor, so that the current visible area of the sensor can be simulated in the three-dimensional geographic information system by constructing a polygonal line and a polygon according to the data of the angle of view.

In this embodiment, the azimuth angle is shown in fig. 3, Yaw is the Yaw angle in the horizontal direction, Pitch is the Pitch angle in the vertical direction, Roll is the rotation angle, and the spatial position and attitude of the sensor can be accurately described by matching the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the sensor. Meanwhile, the visual area of the current sensor can be accurately visualized and simulated in the three-dimensional geographic information system by combining the field angle of the sensor.

S105, performing real-time three-dimensional reconstruction according to the acquisition area of the equipment, comparing the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction with model data in a safe state, finding a change condition, and calculating the difference between two models, namely the condition of indoor space change, through VTK _ DIFFERENCE in a vtK vtkBooleanoperationPolyDataFilter algorithm.

And S106, marking the indoor change conditions of the key places by colors, simultaneously loading the marked indoor change conditions into the three-dimensional geographic information system, and directly checking the indoor changed positions by the handheld equipment.

The present invention will be further described with reference to the following examples.

The method for indoor safety inspection of important places provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps:

the first step is as follows: and constructing data in a safe environment.

Under the premise of safety of indoor environment in important places, data acquisition is carried out on a guard area through a patrol worker holding mobile acquisition equipment or a mobile robot carrying a laser radar function, and acquired data are transmitted to a background server.

The second step is that: and carrying out indoor modeling of laser point cloud.

(1) The point cloud data of the indoor laser is discrete, cannot accurately represent geometric information of a real scene, and cannot meet practical application, so that the discrete point cloud data needs to be continuously generated into a surface model to simulate the surface of the indoor scene. However, due to the error caused by laser scanning, the points that should be located on the same plane will show a random distribution with a slight deviation from the center of a certain plane.

In practical use, each point set originally belonging to the same plane needs to be fitted to determine the central plane and determine the outline of the plane at the same time. The three-dimensional coordinate information of the special line and point is extracted by utilizing the mutual relation of a plurality of planes with clear edge contour information and space position information.

Fitting a plane equation expression: ax + By + Cz + D ═ 0(C ≠ 0);

order to

Then z is a₀x+a₁y+a₂；

Knowing a set of n points (X) of data_i,Y_i,Z_i),i＝1,2,3,……n-1；

As long as makeAt a minimum, wherein a₀,a₁,a₂Is an unknown number.

Then:

namely:

comprises the following steps:

a₀∑x_i+a₁∑y_i+a₂n＝∑z_i；

solving the linear equation to obtain a₀,a₁,a₂。

(2) Only the equation of the plane is obtained at this time, and the size of the actual object cannot be determined, which requires determining the outline of the indoor space real object on the plane.

Obtaining the projection profile of the real object on the plane first requires finding the projection point from each point of the original real object to the fitting plane, which can be obtained by finding the perpendicular line and the foot between the point and the plane. Then the contour line is fitted through all the projection points.

Suppose point A is any point in the material point set M and the coordinate value is (X)_A,Y_A,Z_A) The point a is the foot of the point A to the fitting plane, and the coordinate value is (X)_a,Y_a,Z_a) The known planar equation is z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂The normal vector of which is (a)₀,a₁,-1)。

Then the equation for the perpendicular Aa is:

the coordinates of any point on Aa are as follows: (a)₀K+X_A,a₁K+Y_A,-K+Z_A)；

Substituting the coordinate value into the fitting plane equation can solve:

the coordinate value of the point a is:

then the coordinates of all points to each point in the set N of drop foot points of the fitted plane can be obtained in the same way.

(3) Boundary fitting

Since the indoor environment is too complex, the curve boundary is fitted by a polynomial method, and the plane equation z is known to be a₀x+a₁y+a₂The polynomial being y ═ w₀+w₁x+w₂x²+…+w_nxⁿ。

X, Y coordinates for a set of curve boundary points:

……

in the least squares sense:

minimum w₀,w₁,w₂,……,w_nAnd the matrix form of the determined polynomial obtained through mathematical processing is as follows:

then using the boundary curve belonging to the plane z ═ a₀x+a₁y+a₂The coefficient w can be uniquely determined₀,w₁,...,w_nI.e. determine this curve.

(4) Therefore, an indoor three-dimensional vector outline can be constructed through the laser point cloud.

The third step:

the indoor vector outline data obtained by the second step of processing has coordinate information, so that the indoor vector outline data can be directly loaded into a three-dimensional geographic information system.

The fourth step:

when patrolling is needed, patrolling is conducted on a security area through a patrol person holding the mobile acquisition equipment or a mobile robot carrying a laser radar function. Coordinate information of patrol personnel or the robot is obtained through the positioning equipment, and meanwhile the field angle and the azimuth angle information of the sensor can be obtained.

The fifth step:

according to the position of the patrol personnel or the robot, the area which can be scanned or observed by the sensor can be calculated in real time by combining the information of the angle of view, the azimuth angle, the height and the like of the sensor. Meanwhile, the laser point cloud data acquisition area is also provided. And performing three-dimensional reconstruction on the laser point cloud data acquired at this time according to the content of the second step to obtain a real-time indoor three-dimensional profile.

And a sixth step:

and (3) according to the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction of the acquisition area of the equipment, comparing the real-time three-dimensional reconstruction with model data in a safe state, finding a change condition, and calculating the difference between the two models, namely the change condition of the indoor space, through VTK _ DIFFERENCE in a vtK vtkBooleanoperationPolyDataFilter algorithm.

The seventh step:

the indoor change conditions of key places are marked through colors and loaded into the three-dimensional geographic information system, and patrol personnel can directly check the indoor changed positions through handheld equipment, so that the patrol personnel can conveniently and immediately check the indoor changed positions.

Fig. 4 is a point cloud of indoor objects in a safe state; FIG. 5 illustrates a calculated fit of the object profile in the safe state; FIG. 6 point cloud at the second scan; FIG. 7 is a second fit of the object profile; in fig. 7, the object on the table top should be located at the left side of the drawing under the normal condition, but after the second scanning comparison, the actual object is changed in position.

It should be noted that the embodiments of the present invention can be realized by hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware. The hardware portion may be implemented using dedicated logic; the software portions may be stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system, such as a microprocessor or specially designed hardware. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the apparatus and methods described above may be implemented using computer executable instructions and/or embodied in processor control code, such code being provided on a carrier medium such as a disk, CD-or DVD-ROM, programmable memory such as read only memory (firmware), or a data carrier such as an optical or electronic signal carrier, for example. The apparatus and its modules of the present invention may be implemented by hardware circuits such as very large scale integrated circuits or gate arrays, semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable logic devices, etc., or by software executed by various types of processors, or by a combination of hardware circuits and software, e.g., firmware.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the present invention and the appended claims are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, which is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents and improvements that are within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.