JP3251340B2 - TV camera remote control - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device for a television camera in which various functions such as pan and tilt of the television camera are operated by remote control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to obtain weather information, images from above, and the like, television cameras supported by a camera platform are installed in various places such as outdoors and on a ceiling, and the photographing position of the television cameras is determined, for example. Pan driving means disposed on the camera platform, pan and tilt operations by the tilt driving means, and zoom and focus operations of the TV camera are provided so as to be remotely controllable.
2. Description of the Related Art There is known a remote control device of a television camera which is operated from a remote position by an operator.

[0003] In addition, regarding remote control of the television camera, the operation states of various functions such as pan and tilt at a specific shooting position (shot) are set and stored in advance, and the current shooting position is changed to the stored shooting position. A technique for controlling such that the movement of each function is completed at the same time when changing automatically is known as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-6163.

[0004] In the above prior art, when changing from an arbitrary photographing position to a preset memorized photographing position, a moving time is set by an operator in order to simultaneously start and stop the movement of each function simultaneously. Control is performed by outputting a drive signal to each drive means at a moving speed calculated in accordance with the instructed moving time. At that time, the movement is not always completed in the instructed time. For a function with a large movement amount, the movement may not be completed within the instructed time even at the maximum movement speed. The designated time is automatically increased and updated and corrected so that the movement of each function is completed at the same time.

[0005]

However, as described above, the moving speed of each function at the time of changing the photographing position is automatically determined by comparing the instruction setting of the transition time by the operator with the shortest possible transition time. The control to be performed by the correction has the following problems.

(1) When moving toward one pre-registered photographing position, since the start position is arbitrary, the instruction of the moving time is constant despite the amount of movement being arbitrary. Therefore, the moving speed changes in proportion to the moving amount, too fast or too slow,
In order to control to a speed suitable for the transition of the captured image, the same movement must be rehearsed several times and determined. If the start position is changed, the above operation is required again and the operation becomes complicated.

(2) If the instruction time for the movement amount from the current position to the registered position is small, the transition time is changed contrary to the intention without any notice to the operator.
Not the desired time.

(3) Originally, the request regarding the movement of the photographing position is, first, when only the video at the photographing position where the transition has been completed is required and the transition is to be completed in as short a time as possible. In some cases, it may be necessary to complete the movement at an appropriate speed because the moving image is also required.In the former case, it may be necessary to instruct the travel time to be minimized. Depending on the method of update correction, movement in the shortest time is not possible, depending on the amount of movement, it may reach the maximum speed and noise problems may occur, and in the latter case, the travel time instruction to obtain the optimum speed is specified. It is necessary to change the setting at each start position, and the instruction operation is similarly complicated.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a television camera capable of performing a good transition with a simple instruction operation for instructing simultaneous start and completion of transition of each function when moving a shooting position. It is an object to provide a remote control device.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a remote control device for a television camera according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. The pan head 4 is provided with pan driving means 6 for performing panning by turning movement of the television camera 1 and tilt driving means 7 for performing tilting by tilting up and down. The lens 3 is provided with a zoom drive unit 8 for performing zooming and a focus drive unit 9 for performing focusing. Further, a control signal is output from the drive control unit 11 to the drive units 6 to 9 for these functions, and the respective functions are output. The stop position and the drive speed are controlled.

On the other hand, a shot storage means 12 for previously storing position information of each function at a specific photographing position is provided, and a speed setting means 13 which is operated by an operator to set and instruct a transition speed of an image is provided. When shifting from the current shooting position to the target position based on the signals from the shot storage unit 12 and the speed setting unit 13, the operation speed of each of the driving units 6 to 9 is set to the time when the movement of each of the driving units 6 to 9 ends. The control amount by the drive control means 11 is set so as to be at the same time.

That is, the position information of the target position stored in the shot storage means 12 is input to the discriminating means 14, and the discriminating means 14 compares it with the position information of the current position obtained from the drive control means 11 and the like. The function having the largest moving amount in the transition from the position to the target position is determined.
The information of the function having the largest movement amount obtained by the determination means 14 is output to the transition time calculation means 15, which receives the speed signal set by the speed setting means 13, This is for calculating the transition time required for the transition. Further, the data of the transition time calculated by the transition time calculation means 15 is output to the speed calculation means 16, and the speed calculation means 16 controls the moving speed of each function so that the transfer of each function ends at the same time. Is set for each calculation.

The signal of the transition time calculating means 15 is output to a transition time displaying means 17, which outputs the signal.
Then, at the time of the check command, the above transition time is set in each of the driving means 6 to
9 is displayed in advance without the operation of the speed setting unit 9, for example, based on the display of the transition time.
Is to change and adjust the settings.

At the time of a drive command, a speed signal from the speed calculating means 16 and target position information from the shot storage means 12 are output to the drive control means 11, and the drive control means 11 shifts from the current position to the target position. A device which starts the operation of each of the driving means 6 to 9 at the same time so as to perform each operation of pan, tilt, zoom, and focus, moves the driving means at a predetermined speed, and outputs a driving signal so as to simultaneously stop at a target position. It is.

Note that the above function is 4
Not limited to the type, for example, a height function for moving the TV camera up and down is also conceivable.

[0016]

With the above-described remote control device for a television camera, the television camera can remotely control the change of the photographing position by operating the driving means of each function such as pan, tilt, etc. In order to obtain the position, the position information of each function at the shooting position is registered in the shot storage means. Then, when shifting from the current shooting position to the target position stored in the shot storage means, the video is moved at the speed set by the speed setting means while the above functions arrive at the target position at the same time. In order to complete the change, first, the determination means determines a function having the largest movement amount in the transition to the target position, that is, a function which takes a long time to move, and determines a function in each of the other functions based on the transition time based on the speed indicated by this function. Is calculated, and a signal based on the calculated moving speed is output to each driving means to control the movement to the target position.

Further, at the time of a check command before operating each of the driving means, a transition time required for moving at the speed set by the speed setting means to shift from the current photographing position to the predetermined target position is provided. Displayed on the transition time display means, the transition time can be confirmed, or the transition speed can be adjusted by the speed setting means so that the transition time becomes a desired value.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the remote control device for a television camera according to this embodiment.

The television camera 1 comprises a camera body 2 and a zoom lens 3, and the camera body 2 is supported by a pan head 4 capable of panning in a turning direction and tilting in a vertical tilting direction. The camera platform 4 is mounted on a fixed portion by a tripod 5 or the like. The pan and tilt operations of the camera platform 4 are provided so as to be driven by servo motors 42 and 43 (FIG. 3) described later. Similarly, zoom and focus operations of the zoom lens 3 of the television camera 1 are provided so as to be driven by servo motors 44 and 45 (FIG. 3) described later.

Then, the pan, tilt, zoom,
The focus operation is configured so that remote control can be performed based on an operation of the controller 10 by an operator.
The camera platform 4 of the TV camera 1 and the controller 10 are connected by communication means such as a cable 21 (analog signal), and a telephone line or the like may be used as the communication means.

To explain the operation members of the controller 10, a focus knob 22, a zoom switch 23, and a joystick 24 are provided for performing normal zoom, focus, pan, and tilt operations of the television camera 1. The focus knob 22 is a rotary operation member.
This is for adjusting the focus far. The zoom switch 23 is of a seesaw type. The swing switch operates a potentiometer 35 (FIG. 3) to perform wide-angle / telephoto zoom adjustment. The joystick 24 is a rod-shaped operating member capable of tilting left and right and up and down. The left and right tilts operate a pan potentiometer 36 (FIG. 3) to perform left and right pan adjustments, and the vertical tilt allows tilting. The upper and lower tilts are adjusted by operating the potentiometer 37 (FIG. 3). The zoom switch 23
And each potentiometer 35 to 37 of the joystick 24
Is provided in a structure that returns to the neutral position when the operation of the operation member is released.

On the upper part of the controller 10, a number of shot switches 25, a memo switch 26 for writing, and a check switch 29 for confirming the transition time are provided. The shot switch 25, the memo switch 26, and the check switch 29 are provided in an on / off push button type. The shot switch 25 is a memo switch 26
Is pressed once and turned on when in the writing mode, the pan, tilt, zoom and focus position information at that time, that is, the data of the shooting position is recorded at a predetermined address, and the writing mode is not set. When it is turned on sometimes, it reads out the position information recorded at the predetermined address, and functions as the above-mentioned shot storage means 12.

In addition to the above, when the shot switch 25 is turned on when the check switch 29 is turned on and a check command is issued, a time display unit 28 described later is provided.
The transition time is displayed on the (transition time display means 17).

Further, a speed indicating knob 27 is provided, and the speed indicating knob 27 is configured as a rotary encoder.
An instruction of the speed of moving from the current position to the target photographing position is issued, and the contents of the instruction are taken when the shot switch 25 is turned on in a state other than the writing mode. In addition, the controller 10 is provided with a time display unit 28. The time display unit 28 displays the time required to shift from the current position to the target position before driving, or displays the remaining time during driving.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of the controller. The controller 10 has a built-in CPU 30 for performing arithmetic processing, a RAM 31 (battery backup), and a ROM.
32 is connected by a data bus 33, and signals (voltages) of the potentiometers 35 to 37 operated by the zoom switch 23 and the joystick 24 are input via an A / D converter 34. Similarly, an I / O port The signal of the rotary encoder 39 operated by the focus knob 22 via the 38, the signal of the shot switch 25, the memo switch 26, the signal of the check switch 29, and the instruction signal of the speed instruction knob 27 are input, and the time display unit 28 (LED or LCD) ) Is connected.

Further, the CPU 30 has a D / A converter 41.
, A control signal, specifically a position signal, is output to the pan driving means 6, the tilt driving means 7 of the camera platform 4, and the zoom driving means 8 and the focus driving means 9 of the zoom lens 3. Servo motors 42 to 45 are installed in the respective driving means 6 to 9 to operate respective driving members to perform pan, tilt, zoom and focus operations, and the respective operation positions are used for position detection. Detected by potentiometers 46-49. Then, the position command signal from the D / A converter 41 and the position detection signals from the position detection potentiometers 46 to 49 are input to the position servo amplifiers 51 to 54, and the servo motors 42 to 45 are set so that they match. Is performed.

The remote control of the shooting position of the television camera 1 by the arithmetic processing of the CPU 30 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In FIG. 4, after the control is started upon power-on, initialization is performed in step S1, and the on / off state of the memo switch 26 is read (S2). Then, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the memo switch 26 has been turned on. If this determination is NO, the process directly proceeds to step S5. If the determination is YES and the memo switch 26 is turned on, After setting the writing mode in step S4, the process proceeds to step S5.

In step S5, the on / off state of the shot switch 25 is read. In step S6, it is determined whether or not the shot switch 25 has been turned on. When the determination is NO in which the shot switch 25 is in the OFF state, the operation states of the joystick 24, the focus knob 22, and the zoom switch 23 are fetched from the signals of the potentiometers 35 to 37 and the rotary encoder 39 in step S7, and the operation amount is determined. The data is converted into function position data and added to the current position (S8), and the updated current position signal is output to the position servo amplifiers 51 to 54 of the driving means 6 to 9 via the D / A converter 41 (S8).
9) If there is a deviation from the position detection signals from the position detection potentiometers 46 to 49, the servo motors 42 to 45 are driven so as to match the positions of the input signals, and pan and tilt driving by operating the joystick 24 is performed. , And focus and zoom driving by operating the focus knob 22 and the zoom switch 23 are performed in accordance with the respective manual operation amounts.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S6 is YES and any one of the shot switches 25 is turned on, it is determined whether or not the writing mode is set in step S10.
That is, it is determined whether or not the memo switch 26 has been turned on.
The current position of the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus (position detection potentiometers 46 to 49) is stored in the memory address corresponding to the number of the shot switch 25 that was turned on in step 11.
After writing the position information input to the D / A converter 41 based on the signal of (1), the write mode is released (S
12).

Subsequently, if the determination in the step S10 is NO and the mode is not the write mode, the process proceeds to a step S13 to read the on / off state of the check switch 29, and in a step S14 whether the check switch 29 is turned on. Determine whether or not. If the determination in step S14 is NO
With the check switch 29 in the off state, the shot switch
When only the ON switch 25 is operated, the process proceeds to step S15 in FIG. 5, and the purpose of the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus written in the address of the memory (RAM 31) corresponding to the number of the shot switch 25 that has been turned ON The position information is read and assigned to Am, and in step S16, the current position information of each function is fetched and assigned to An. Then, the current position An is subtracted from the target position Am of each function to calculate each movement amount D (S17),
In step S18, a function M having the maximum moving amount is selected.

The selection of the function with the maximum movement amount is specifically performed as shown in the routine of FIG. In steps S40 to S43, the target position Pm of each function
ＦFm and the current positions Pn〜Fn, that is, the movement amounts Pd〜Fd. At this time, since the movement amounts of the respective functions cannot be simply compared, the coefficients K1〜K4 in consideration of the maximum movement speed and the like. To unify the comparison levels.
Then, in step S44, the pan movement amount Pd and the tilt movement amount Td
To determine whether the tilt movement amount Td is large,
If YES, T is written to the maximum function M (S47), and tilt movement Td is written to the maximum movement Dmax (S48). On the other hand, if NO, that is, if the pan movement Pd is large, P is written to the maximum function M (S4).
5) The pan movement amount Pd is written in the maximum movement amount Dmax (S4).
6).

Subsequently, at step S49, the maximum movement amount D
It is determined whether or not max is smaller than the zoom movement amount Zd.
If the zoom movement amount Zd is large in S determination, step S
At 50, Z is written to the maximum function M, and the zoom movement amount Zd is written to the maximum movement amount Dmax (S51).
The process proceeds to step S52 together with the judgment of O, and the maximum movement amount Dma
It is determined whether or not x is smaller than the focus movement amount Fd.
If the focus movement amount Fd is large in the ES determination, F is written in the maximum function M in step S53, and the maximum in step S18 is finally determined by the function names P, T, Z, and F written in the maximum function M. Select the function M to be the movement amount.

Step S19 in FIG. 5 is to fetch the instruction value V of the moving speed from the operating position of the speed indicating knob 27, and based on the instruction speed V, determine the moving amount Mm-Mn of the function of the maximum moving amount. The travel time t is calculated by dividing by the instructed speed V (S20), and the travel time t is displayed on the time display section 28 (S21). In step S22, the movement amount Am-An of each function is determined by the movement time t.
Is calculated by dividing by, and added to each current position An, and updated as a new current position An.

Next, in step S23, the process waits for the unit time t = 1 (for example, several milliseconds to several tens of milliseconds) to elapse in synchronization with the update timer, and when the unit time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S24 to update the updated current position signal. The signals are output to the D / A converter 41, and based on this signal, the position servo amplifier
The position signals are input to 51 to 54, and the servo motors 42 to 45 are driven by comparison with the position detection signals.
It is determined whether or not the target position has been reached, and the processes in steps S19 to S24 are repeated until the target position is reached, the current position is updated, the servo motors 42 to 45 are driven, and the shot switch 25 registered in advance is used. It is driven to stop at the corresponding shooting position at the same time.

On the other hand, when the determination in step S14 is YES and the check switch 29 is turned on and the shot switch 25 is turned on, the process proceeds to step S26 in FIG. 6, and the same as steps S15 to S21 are performed. Only the display of the transition time is performed by the processing. That is,
In step S26, information on the target position of each function corresponding to the number of the shot switch 25 that has been turned on is read and assigned to Am, and in step S27, information on the current position of each function is taken in and assigned to An. Then, the movement amount D of each function is calculated (S28), and in step S29, the function M having the largest movement amount is selected in the same manner as in FIG. Subsequently, in step S30, an instruction value V of the moving speed is fetched from the operation position of the speed indicating knob 27, and the moving time t is calculated based on the indicated speed V (S31). In step S32, the moving time t is displayed in time. Displayed in the unit 28.

After the display of the transition time in step S32, the routine is terminated without outputting a drive signal. The display of the transition time is confirmed. When the corresponding shot switch 25 is turned on, the drive signal is output and the drive is performed as described above, and when the transition time is changed to the desired value, the speed instruction knob 27 is operated to change the movement speed. Things.

According to the above-described embodiment, when moving the image from the current position to the target position, the operator instructs the moving speed with the speed indicating knob 27, and the position of the current position is determined based on the indicated speed. Even if the video shifts to the target position at a predetermined speed even if it shifts in a short time as much as possible, and when shifting while needing an intermediate video, only a simple speed instruction The desired operation can be obtained by the above operation. At this time, even before the start of the transition, the time required for the transition is displayed in the time display section 28.
Is displayed and recognized by the operator, and has both advantages of the speed setting and the time setting, thereby further improving the operability.

In the above embodiment, when the shot switch 25 is operated in order to move to the target position, the speed indicated by the speed indicating knob 27 is taken in. The instruction speed at that time may be written at the time of recording the target position information at the address of the memory, and may be read at the same time as the target position information.

In the above embodiment, when the time display accompanying the operation of the check switch 29 is performed, the display of the transition time that changes in accordance with the adjustment of the speed indication knob 27 is performed continuously. May be set. Further, in the above embodiment, the transition time is displayed in accordance with the operation of the check switch 29. However, an execution switch is provided in place of the check switch, and the actual driving is performed by a combination of the execution switch and the shot switch. On the other hand, the transition time may be set to be displayed simply by operating the shot switch.

[0040]

According to the present invention as described above, the speed setting means for setting and instructing the moving speed of the image is provided, and the function having the largest moving amount in the transition from the current position to the target position is selected by the determining means. The moving speed of each function is calculated and set so that the transition of each function is completed simultaneously with the transition time required for the transition of the function with the largest movement amount, and only the transition time is displayed at the time of a check command. By setting and instructing the transition from the current position to the target position at the transition speed, the movement speed to the target position is not affected by the change in the start time compared to the case where the movement to the target position is set in time. The speed can be adjusted at a speed suitable for moving the image, depending on the indicated value. The instruction operation is simplified, the number of rehearsals is reduced, the operability can be improved, and the transition time is displayed in advance, so that the time setting function can also be provided. Things.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram for clearly showing the configuration of a television camera remote control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of a TV camera remote control device showing a specific example;

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a schematic configuration of a controller.

FIG. 4 to FIG. 7 are main part flowcharts for explaining processing of a controller;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Television camera 3 Zoom lens 4 Pan head 6 Pan drive means 7 Tilt drive means 8 Zoom drive means 9 Focus drive means 10 Controller 11 Drive control means 12 Shot storage means 13 Speed setting means 14 Judgment means 15 Transition time calculation means 16 Speed calculation Means 17 Transition time display means 25 Shot switch 27 Speed indication knob 28 Time display section 29 Check switch

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A camera according to claim 1, further comprising: a driving unit for driving each function such as panning and tilting of the television camera; and a shot storage unit for storing position information of each function at a specific photographing position in advance. A remote control device for a television camera, wherein the operation of each of the driving means is controlled by a driving control means so that each function is simultaneously started and ended simultaneously from a current shooting position to a target position recorded in a storage means, Speed setting means for setting and instructing the transition speed of the target, and determination means for receiving the position information of the target position stored in the shot storage means, and determining a function having the largest movement amount in the transition from the current position to the target position, Receiving the signals from the discriminating means and the speed setting means, the function having the largest moving amount is shifted by the instructed speed. A transition time calculating means for calculating a required transition time, a transition time display means for receiving a signal from the transition time calculating means and displaying the transition time in advance at the time of a check command, and a transition time signal from the transition time calculating means. Speed calculation means for calculating and setting the movement speed of each function so that the transfer of each function is completed at the same time during the transfer time. When a drive command is issued, a speed signal by the speed calculation means and an object by the shot storage means are provided. A remote control device for a television camera, wherein position information is input to the drive control means, and the drive control means outputs a control signal for moving the drive means of each function at a respective speed.