JP2005347987A - Camera control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize highly operative control of pan/tilt, zoom and focus of a camera by a compact control terminal having only a simple input means. <P>SOLUTION: The control terminal having direction keys 101 is equipped with a means 111 for reading the operation of the direction keys, and a means 112 for analyzing the key operation and a period of time over which the key is continuously pressed. The control is carried out by determining the directionality of the operation by the type of the pressed direction key, and determining the speed of the operation by the period when the key is continuously pressed, thereby realizing the control of the camera with a change in speed by the operation of limited keys. Thus, fine adjustment and quick movement are both possible. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

    The present invention relates to a camera control system for easily controlling an imaging direction (pan / tilt), magnification (zoom), and focus (focus) of a camera.

    A dedicated device for remote control of a video camera has conventionally used an operation lever or joystick that supports two-axis rotation, a slide lever that corresponds to each direction, etc. Many control the focus. At this time, the camera operation speed can be changed according to the angle at which the operation lever or joystick is tilted or the speed at which the slide lever is moved, and it is possible to perform sensory operations such as large movements and subtle adjustments.

  On the other hand, on a general-purpose device such as a personal computer, a diagram simulating the operation lever, stick, slide lever, etc. is displayed on the screen, and the camera can be operated remotely by operating it with a pointing device such as a mouse. It is normal to do.

    In a compact portable terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA, it is difficult to provide a lever or stick like the dedicated device. Further, even in a portable terminal having a pointing device, it is necessary to use both hands such as a main body with one hand and a pointing device with one hand in order to use this, and operation during movement is difficult.

On the other hand, it is possible to operate the camera by executing commands assigned to the direction keys of the mobile terminal and other limited keys, but this method allows panning, tilting, zooming, and focusing. It is difficult to control the speed, and inconvenience is felt when performing high-speed operation or conversely fine adjustment.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-275436 JP 2002-57935 A

    The problem to be solved is that in a portable terminal having only a limited number of keys, operability close to that of a conventional dedicated control device cannot be obtained.

    In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention recognizes the type of the direction key pressed in the control terminal and the time that the key is continuously pressed, and continues the direction indicated by the direction key in the direction of the camera operation. After converting the pressing time into the control speed, a control command that can be recognized by the camera control unit is created and transmitted to the camera control unit using a communication means, so that the operation of a limited key called a direction key is performed. Only by directing the direction of camera operation, the speed of the operation is controlled by an analog scale such as a pressing time, enabling sensory and delicate control.

    In the inventions of claims 5, 6, and 7, when two direction keys are continuously pressed, simultaneous control in two directions is performed based on the speed calculated from the respective continuous pressing times. Do. Thereby, in a compact portable terminal in which it is difficult to press two keys at the same time, control in an oblique direction can be easily realized.

    In the invention according to claim 8, the control target of the direction key can be switched by a simple operation for a camera having a plurality of analog control items such as pan, tilt, zoom, and focus. The sensory analog operation according to the first aspect of the invention can be realized with only one set of direction keys. In the invention described in claim 9, in the control terminal that can be connected to a plurality of camera control units, the control target camera of the direction key can be switched by a simple operation, and the plurality of cameras can be charged. The sensory analog operation in the invention of item 1 can be performed.

    In the invention of claim 10, when only one key other than the direction key is pressed, for example, when the key is pressed for a shorter time than the specified time, the switch between pan / tilt and zoom / focus is performed. By setting the target camera to be switched, all panning, tilting, zooming, and focusing control for multiple cameras can be performed by operating only one set of direction keys and only one other key. It can be performed.

    By using the camera control system of the present invention, in a portable terminal having only direction keys and other limited keys, conventional dedicated control can be performed with only one hand operation without using another input means. The operability close to that of the device can be obtained.

    The purpose of performing camera control with good operability by simple operation of a limited number of keys is realized by providing means for converting the duration of key operation into control speed with a minimum configuration.

    FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a camera 102 that can freely control the imaging azimuth (pan / tilt), magnification (zoom), and focus (focus) from the outside is connected to a camera control unit 120 that performs these controls and a dedicated communication line. Connected. The camera control unit 120 includes a circuit 121 that controls pan / tilt of the camera 102 with speed control, a circuit 122 that controls zoom / focus with speed control, and a circuit 121 and circuit 122 that analyzes an external control command. A means 123 for sending a signal, a means 124 for receiving a camera control command from an external device, and an interface 125 for providing means for communication with the outside. The control terminal 110 has at least one set of direction keys 101. The means 111 for reading the operation of the direction key 101, the means 112 for analyzing the key operation and determining the direction and speed of the operation, and the camera control unit 120 A means 113 for generating a recognizable camera control command, a means 114 for transmitting the generated control command to the camera control unit 120, and an interface 115 for providing a communication means with the outside for connecting to the camera control unit 120 are provided.

    When 101 is pressed, the control terminal 110 recognizes the type and timing of the key pressed at 111 and gives the information to 112. In 112, the direction indicated by the direction key is converted into the direction of camera operation, and the continuous pressing time is converted into the operating speed. The control command transmission unit 114 transmits this command to the camera control unit 120 via the interface 115. The camera control unit 120 receives the control command at 124 via the interface 125, then analyzes the control command received at 123, recognizes the type, direction and speed of the operation, and if it is a pan or tilt command If a zoom or focus command is sent to 121, a control signal is sent to 122. 121 and 122 actually control the camera 102 based on the directionality and speed indicated by the received signal.

    The key operation analysis unit 112 of the control terminal 110 converts the operation into a camera operation as shown in FIG. 2, for example, depending on the type of the key on which the direction key 101 is pressed. As shown in the figure, for example, pressing one key 201 other than the direction key toggles whether the up / down / left / right keys are assigned to pan / tilt or zoom / focus. When 201 is pressed for a predetermined time or longer, the camera to be controlled is switched.

    In order to convert the continuously pressed time into the control speed, for example, a conversion formula as shown in FIG. 3 is used. In the case of FIG. 3, the speed f (t) is changed as 301 in proportion to the continuous pressing time (t). As a result, the position after the operation changes as indicated by 302 with respect to the pressing time, and the degree of movement increases as the pressing time becomes longer.

    In the key operation analysis unit 112 of the control terminal 110, a conversion formula as shown in FIG. 4 can be used in order to convert the continuously pressed time into a control speed. In the case of FIG. 4, the speed f (t) is changed exponentially as 401 with respect to the continuous pressing time (t). The position after the operation at this time changes as indicated by 402. In this case, the movement at the short pressing time becomes smaller and the movement at the long pressing time becomes larger. Thereby, fine adjustment by pressing the key for a short time and large movement by pressing the key for a long time can be realized more clearly.

    FIG. 5 shows an example of a method for performing simultaneous control in two directions when two direction keys are successively pressed. In the figure, reference numeral 501 denotes a state in which the left key is pressed, and reference numeral 502 denotes a state in which the up key is pressed. That is, immediately after the left key is continuously pressed for the time t2, the right key is continuously pressed for the time t4-t2. Reference numeral 503 denotes a change in the motion vector in the case where the velocity component of the motion in each direction is calculated according to the pressing time of each key. Reference numeral 504 denotes a change in the motion vector when the sum of the pressing times of the two keys is calculated as the velocity component of the motion in both directions. Each vector represents a motion vector whose component is a velocity in each direction at times t1, t2, t3, and t4 when 0 <t1 <t2 <t3 <t4. Based on this, an operation in an oblique direction is realized by creating a control command for executing simultaneous pan and tilt control at the control terminal.

    As described above, in the present invention, in order to control the pan / tilt, zoom, and focus of the camera, it is necessary to provide at least one set of up / down / left / right direction keys and the other only key. A compact control terminal can be prepared, and free control comparable to the operability of a conventional dedicated camera control device can be realized.

It is a block diagram which shows one Example of this invention. It is an example of the system which allocates the direction key of a control terminal to camera control. It is an example of the system which converts the continuous pressing time of a key into control speed. It is another example of the system which converts the continuous pressing time of a key into control speed. This is an example of a method of controlling two directions simultaneously by pressing two direction keys in succession.

Explanation of symbols

101 Direction key on control terminal 102 Camera to be controlled 110 Camera control terminal 111 Direction key operation reading unit in control terminal 112 Direction key operation analysis unit in control terminal 113 Control command generation unit in control terminal 114 Control command transmission in control terminal Unit 115 Interface with communication line in control terminal 120 Camera control unit 121 Pan / tilt control circuit in control unit 122 Zoom / focus control circuit in control unit 123 Control command analysis unit in control unit 124 Control command reception unit in control unit 125 Control Interface with communication line in unit 201 An example of a key other than a direction key for switching an object to be controlled 301 Concerning a continuous pressing time when a control speed is determined by a linear function of a continuous pressing time Change in control speed to be performed 302 Change in position after operation with respect to the continuous press time when the control speed is determined by a linear function of the continuous press time 401 Control for the continuous press time when the control speed is determined by an exponential function of the continuous press time Change in speed 402 Change in position after operation with respect to continuous pressing time when control speed is determined by exponential function of continuous pressing time 501 State in which left key is continuously pressed when two-way key is continuously pressed 502 Two-way State where the upper key is continuously pressed when the key is continuously pressed 503 Change in motion vector calculated with each key pressing time as the respective velocity component when the two-way key is continuously pressed 504 Sum of pressing time when the two-way key is pressed continuously Of motion vector calculated using velocity as a velocity component in both directions

Claims (10)

    For a camera having a control unit capable of controlling the speed of pan, tilt or zoom and focus as well as the direction, connected to the camera control unit through a communication line, and having a direction key for instructing up, down, left and right directions, Means for reading the operation of the direction key, means for evaluating the time when the key is continuously pressed, the direction of the camera control operation according to the type of the pressed direction key, and the control speed according to the time when the key is continuously pressed By means of determining and creating a control command recognizable by the camera control unit and means for transmitting the created control command to the control unit connected via a communication line, it is possible to operate only by the direction key. Easy control of camera orientation (pan / tilt) or magnification (zoom), focus direction and speed The camera control method according to claim and.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the camera control terminal is a portable mobile communication terminal that can be connected to the camera control unit through a wireless communication network.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the control speed is changed in proportion to a time when the direction key is continuously pressed.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the control speed is changed exponentially with respect to a time when the direction key is continuously pressed.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein when two adjacent direction keys are successively pressed, a control speed is calculated based on a continuous pressing time of each key, and pan and tilt are simultaneously controlled. A camera control system characterized by performing control in an oblique direction.     6. The camera control system according to claim 5, wherein a continuous pressing time of two types of keys is calculated as a velocity component in each direction.     6. The camera control system according to claim 5, wherein a time obtained by adding continuous pressing times of two types of keys is calculated as a velocity component in both directions.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein when the camera control unit has all control circuits for panning, tilting, zooming, and focusing, the control terminal uses the direction key by pressing only one key other than the direction key. A camera control method that can be toggled between pan, tilt, zoom, and focus.     2. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein when the control terminal is connectable to a plurality of camera control units via a communication network, the control terminal is controlled by the direction key by pressing only one key other than the direction key. Camera control method that can switch cameras.     In the camera control system having both of the systems according to claim 8 and claim 9, whether to switch the control target function or switch the control target camera according to the time at which only one button other than the direction key is pressed in the control terminal. A camera control method characterized by determining

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