JP2007110283A - Camera control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a camera control system whereby imaging conditions are controlled with more excellent operability and states at present and after the operation can intuitionally be grasped at a glance. <P>SOLUTION: Panning control can be applied to a camera in response to a moving angle of a camera scope axis 5a in a lateral direction by pointing out a first region of an object symbol 4 displayed on a display screen and dragging the object symbol 4, zoom control can be applied to the camera in response to a moving amount along the camera scope axis 5a in a longitudinal direction by pointing out the first region of the object symbol 4 and dragging the object symbol 4, and tilt control can be applied to the camera in response to a deformed amount of the object symbol 4 along the camera scope axis 5a in a longitudinal direction by pointing out the second region of the object symbol 4 and dragging the object symbol 4, wherein pointing out of the second region and movement of the object symbol 4 along the scope axis in the longitudinal direction result in displaying the object symbol 4 deformed in the longitudinal direction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a camera control system capable of remotely controlling imaging conditions such as camera pan, tilt, and zoom.

  This type of camera control system uses a graphical user interface to simplify the operation, displays an operation screen such as a scroll bar on the computer screen, and operates the scroll bar with a mouse while viewing the video from the camera. Various cameras that can control the direction have been proposed. In order to improve operability, the camera symbol is displayed on the screen, and the symbol is rotated according to the controlled direction to simulate the current camera direction. In addition, a device shown to the operator has also been proposed. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  Specifically, in Patent Document 1, a tilt control signal can be generated by dragging a control pointer in the scope of a camera icon (symbol) displayed on the screen up and down. At this time, a display form of the camera icon is displayed. Is displayed according to the controlled tilt shooting direction, the display position of the scroll bar knob displayed side by side is also changed, and the control pointer is dragged left and right. In some cases, it has been proposed to generate a zoom magnification control command.

However, such a camera symbol and scope symbol that are displayed in a rotatable manner cannot indicate both pan and tilt states at the same time, and it is difficult to determine which operation is performed. In addition, it is not known how much the zoom magnification is controlled by looking at these symbols.
It is also possible to arrange the scroll bars and indicate the pan, tilt and zoom status according to the knob display position. However, since the scroll bars are operated and displayed independently, there is a limit to operability and pan and tilt. , It was difficult to grasp all the zoom states, and the current state could not be grasped at a glance.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-341428

  Therefore, in view of the above-described situation, the present invention intends to solve a camera that is superior in operability and can intuitively grasp the current and post-operation imaging conditions at a glance when controlling the imaging conditions. The point is to provide a control system.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is a camera control system for controlling at least pan, tilt, and zoom among imaging conditions of a camera, wherein a camera symbol representing a camera, a target symbol representing an imaging target, And a symbol display means for displaying a scope symbol representing the camera scope between them, and an operation means for indicating and operating the symbol displayed by the symbol display means or an area in the vicinity thereof. And directing and moving the first area including the central part of the target symbol or its vicinity by the operation means, and enabling pan control of the camera according to the lateral movement angle with respect to the scope axis, It is possible to control the zoom of the camera according to the amount of vertical movement along the scope axis by pointing and moving the same area of the symbol The tilt direction of the camera is controlled by instructing a second region other than the first region, including the peripheral portion of the target symbol or its vicinity, and moving it in the vertical direction along the scope axis. And the symbol display means deforms the target symbol in the vertical direction by instructing the second area by the operation means and moving the symbol in the vertical direction along the scope axis. The camera control system is characterized by being displayed.

  Here, it is preferable that the symbol display means displays the position or deformation state of each symbol in a state corresponding to the current imaging conditions of the camera.

  The symbol display means preferably displays the target symbol in a different color according to the tilt direction of the camera.

  Further, in the preferred embodiment, the symbol display means reversely displays the target symbol by deformation so that the tilt direction of the camera is directly in front when the line is displayed at the time of inversion.

  Further, it is preferable that the symbol display means displays the target symbol by transforming it from a circle to an ellipse having a short axis in the vertical direction along the scope axis, or vice versa.

  According to the camera control system according to the present invention configured as described above, the first region can be instructed and operated, and it can be understood that the panning operation and the zooming operation are respectively performed by moving the target symbol horizontally and vertically, Since panning and zooming of the camera are controlled by the movement angle and movement amount, it is possible to intuitively grasp which direction and magnification are controlled by the amount of target symbols to be moved.

  In addition, since the tilt operation is performed by instructing and operating the second area and displaying the target symbol in a deformed manner, it can be understood that the tilt operation is performed by the deformation of the target symbol, and the amount of operation at the time of the deformation is determined by the camera. Since the tilt direction is controlled, it is possible to grasp at a glance which direction is controlled by the degree of deformation.

  That is, according to the present invention, only by looking at these three sets of symbols according to the position of the target symbol to be displayed with respect to the camera symbol, the degree of deformation, the length of the scope symbol, etc. It is possible to grasp intuitively at a glance whether it is controlled by the. Also, by moving the target symbol by pointing to the first area, it is possible to easily and surely control the direction and magnification for the purpose of panning and zooming, and the target symbol is deformed and displayed by pointing to the second area. Thus, the tilt can be controlled easily and reliably in the intended direction.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera control system according to the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing in the camera control system.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the camera control system 1 according to the present invention includes a storage unit 11, a bitmap display 12 that displays video data, symbol data, and the like, a mouse that is operated by an operator, etc. The computer 10 is connected to one or more cameras 14 in which at least pan, tilt, and zoom imaging conditions are controlled by signals from the pointing device 13 and the processing device 10. The processing device 10 includes a microprocessor. The program is mainly composed of a CPU, and has a storage unit composed of a RAM and a ROM (not shown), and stores programs and processing data that define procedures for various processing operations.

  Functionally, the processing device 10 functionally displays a symbol at a position, shape, etc. according to the current camera imaging conditions, and performs a process of redrawing at the position, shape, etc. after the instruction, pointing display An operation control unit 10b that controls an operation on the display by the device, a control command is generated based on an operation by the pointing device, and an output video signal from the camera control unit 10c and the camera 14 that is transmitted is captured, and the video is displayed on the display. The video display unit 10d is provided, and these functions are realized by the program. In the case where a plurality of cameras can be controlled, a specifying means for specifying a camera to be controlled and placing it under control may be added.

  The storage means 11 includes a conversion table 11a for converting a movement angle or movement amount by a pointing device and a control amount of the camera, and an imaging condition storage unit 11b for storing the current imaging conditions of the camera. Yes.

  Then, the operator can remotely control the angle, zoom magnification, and the like of the camera 14 by operating the pointing device 13 and performing operations such as moving, clicking, and dragging the cursor displayed on the display 12.

  2 to 8 are diagrams showing display examples on the display 12. FIGS. 2 to 5 are display examples for explaining pan and zoom operations, and FIGS. 6 to 8 are display examples for explaining tilt operations. .

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 denotes a video window for displaying an output video of the camera, and an operation symbol display unit 21 is provided on the side of the video window. The symbol display unit 21 displays a camera symbol 3 representing a camera, a target symbol 4 representing an imaging target, and a scope symbol 5 representing a camera scope.
Reference numeral 22 denotes a mouse cursor displayed on the screen, that is, a pointer position pointed to by the mouse.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the target symbol 4 is set with a first region 41 including the central portion and a second region 42 including the peripheral portion. Then, the display of the target symbol 4 is moved by pointing and dragging the first area 41 with the mouse cursor, and panning or zooming control according to the moving angle or moving amount becomes possible. By designating a region and performing a drag operation, the display of the target symbol 4 can be deformed, and tilt control according to the deformation amount can be performed.

The camera symbol 3 and the scope symbol 5 are rotated and displayed as the target symbol 4 is moved.
In this example, the basic shape of the target symbol is a circle or an ellipse, but it may be a semicircle, a triangle, a polygon, an irregular shape, or other shapes. Alternatively, the first area may be the target symbol display area, and the second area may be a part or the whole of the scope symbol display area.

  Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG. 10 and the display example described above, control operations during pan, tilt, and zoom operations by the camera control system of the present embodiment will be described.

<Pan operation>
The imaging conditions of the camera before the operation are assumed to be pan and tilt in front and zoom to be approximately the center value of the control range. When activated in this state, the computer uses the conversion table 11a to calculate the state of each symbol that matches the current condition stored in the imaging condition storage unit 11b of the storage unit 11 by the symbol display unit 10a. While being displayed on the symbol display unit 21, the video display unit 10 d captures the current video output of the camera and displays the video on the video window 20. FIG. 2 or FIG. 6 shows the display state of the current video window 20 and symbol display unit 21 before operation.

  First, when the operator designates the first area 41 of the target symbol 4 with the mouse cursor 22 using a pointing device as shown in FIG. 2 (S101) and drags it to the left, as shown in FIG. The symbol display unit 10a of the processing device 10 redraws the target symbol 4 after movement according to the amount of dragging, and redraws the camera symbol 3 and the scope symbol 5 in a rotated state in the direction (S102). ). The camera symbol 3 always faces the target symbol 4, and the camera symbol 3 and the scope symbol 5 rotate around the camera symbol 3 as the target symbol 4 moves.

  Then, the camera control unit 10c calculates the movement amount of the drag operation, here, the change in the angle of the scope shaft 5a after the operation from the scope axis 5a before the operation by the movement, that is, the rotation angle of the camera symbol 3, and this movement angle Then, the control amount of the camera pan angle is calculated using the conversion table 11a (S103), a control command is generated and transmitted to a camera control circuit (not shown) (S106), and the camera pan direction is controlled (S107). . In the video window 20 of FIG. 3, an output video from the camera directed leftward by the control is displayed by the video display unit 10d (S108).

<Zoom operation>
When the operator designates the first region 41 of the target symbol 4 using the pointing device 13 from the state of FIG. 3 (S101), and then drags it in the direction closer to the camera symbol along the scope axis, FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the symbol display unit 10a redraws the target symbol 4 after movement corresponding to the amount of movement of the drag, and redraws the shortened scope symbol 5 (S102).

  The camera control unit 10c calculates the control amount of the zoom magnification of the camera using the conversion table 11a from the vertical drag movement amount along the scope axis (S103), generates and transmits a control command (S106), and the camera The zoom magnification is controlled (S107). In the video window 20 of FIG. 4, the zoomed-up video from the controlled camera is displayed by the video display unit 10d (S108).

FIG. 5 is a display example when the first region 41 of the target symbol 4 is similarly pointed and dragged in the direction away from the camera symbol along the scope axis, and the zoom magnification is reduced by the same control. Controlled and wide video is displayed.
Conversely, when the target symbol 4 is dragged away from the camera symbol, zoom-up control is performed so that the zoom magnification increases, and the zoom magnification is controlled to decrease by moving the target symbol 4 closer to the camera symbol. Also good.

  Although the above pan operation and zoom operation have been described as being performed independently, it is needless to say that they may be performed simultaneously. That is, by instructing the first region 41 of the target symbol 4 from the state of FIG. 2 and dragging it to the position of FIG. 4, the rotational angle of the scope shaft 5a and the amount of vertical movement along the scope shaft 5a are increased. Based on these movement amounts, the control amounts of the pan and zoom of the camera are calculated and controlled in the same manner.

<Tilt operation>
When the operator designates the second area 42 of the target symbol 4 with the mouse cursor 22 using a pointing device as shown in FIG. 6 (S101) and drags it upward along the scope axis 5a, FIG. As shown, the symbol display unit 10a of the processing apparatus 10 draws the target symbol 4 that has been transformed into an ellipse according to the amount of movement of the drag (S104). At this time, the position of the center or the center of gravity of the target symbol 4 does not move and only deformation occurs.

  Then, the camera control unit 10c calculates a control amount of the camera tilt angle from the movement amount of the drag operation using the conversion table 11a (S105), generates a control command, and transmits it to a camera control circuit (not shown). (S106), the tilt direction of the camera is controlled (S107). In the video window 20 of FIG. 7, an output video from the camera directed upward by the above control is displayed by the video display unit 10d (S108).

  FIG. 8 is a display example when the second region 42 of the target symbol 4 is similarly pointed and dragged downward along the scope axis. The tilt angle is controlled downward by the same control, and Directional video is displayed. In this case, when the tilt front is controlled from the circular shape to the upward direction, it gradually transforms into an ellipse having the longitudinal direction as the short axis, and also when controlling the downward direction, the ellipse having the longitudinal direction as the short axis is also used. Although it is deformed into a shape, the upper and lower ellipse colors are displayed in different colors, and even if the same ellipse is displayed, it can be distinguished at a glance whether it is facing upward or downward is doing.

In addition to the color, the image may be identified by the presence or absence of a pattern or a difference.
Also, as shown in FIG. 11, when dragging upward along the scope axis, the target symbol 4 is deformed into an ellipse with the longitudinal direction gradually shortening as described above and dragged downward as described above. In such a case, as shown in (b), it is also a preferable example that the display is deformed into an ellipse having the longitudinal direction as a long axis that gradually increases.

  Further, in this example, it is deformed into an ellipse with the vertical axis gradually shortening in the vertical direction from the circle in the front state shown in FIG. 6, but the tilt direction is changed as shown in FIG. The front is in the state of “line” (vertical length is 0), and this state is reversed to the upper and lower direction and transformed into an “elliptical shape” with the vertical axis gradually increasing. A preferred embodiment is one that displays in a “circular shape” where the vertical axis is equal to the horizontal axis. In this case, as in the present example, the identification display may be made based on the difference in color in the vertical direction or the presence or absence of the pattern. The first region in the “line” state may be a region having a predetermined vertical width including the line, and the second region may be a region within the scope symbol that does not include the first region.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 13, the state in which the tilt direction is directly in front is displayed as a “line”, and by vertically dragging, the vertically asymmetric figure is reversed with this state as a boundary so that it gradually becomes longer in the vertical direction. If the display is modified, it is possible to identify the vertical direction without attaching a color or pattern, which is a preferred embodiment.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and can of course be implemented in various forms without departing from the gist of the present invention.

Explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the camera control system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. Example of display. Display example when panning. An example of display on the zoom display. Example of display on the same zoom operation. The display example of the display. An example of display on the display when tilting. A display example when the tilt operation is performed. (A), (b) is explanatory drawing which shows a 1st area | region and a 2nd area | region, respectively. The flowchart which similarly shows the processing operation in a camera control system. (A), (b) is a modification of the display on the display when the tilt operation is performed. (A)-(c) is another modification of a display display. (A)-(c) is another modification of a display display.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera control system 3 Camera symbol 4 Target symbol 5 Scope symbol 5a Scope axis 10 Processing apparatus 10a Symbol display part 10b Operation control part 10c Camera control part 10d Image | video display part 11 Storage means 11a Conversion table 11b Imaging condition storage part 12 Display 13 Pointing Device 14 Camera 20 Video window 21 Symbol display 22 Mouse cursor 41, 42 area

Claims (5)

Among camera imaging conditions, a camera control system for controlling at least pan, tilt and zoom,
A symbol display means for displaying on the screen a camera symbol representing a camera, a target symbol representing an imaging target, and a scope symbol representing a camera scope between the two,
Operation means for enabling operation by instructing a symbol displayed by the symbol display means or an area in the vicinity thereof;
Instructing and moving the first region including the central portion of the target symbol or its vicinity by the operation means, and enabling pan control of the camera according to the movement angle in the lateral direction with respect to the scope axis,
Instruct and move the same area of the target symbol, enabling zoom control of the camera according to the amount of vertical movement along the scope axis,
The tilt direction of the camera can be controlled by instructing a second region other than the first region including the peripheral portion of the target symbol or its vicinity and moving it in the vertical direction along the scope axis. Control means, and
The symbol display means displays the target symbol by deforming it in the vertical direction by instructing the second area by the operating means and moving it in the vertical direction along the scope axis. Control system.   The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the symbol display means displays a position or a deformation state of each symbol in a state corresponding to a current camera imaging condition.   The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the symbol display unit displays the target symbol in a different color according to a tilt direction of the camera.   4. The camera control system according to claim 1, wherein the symbol display unit reversely displays the target symbol by deformation, and the tilt direction of the camera is directly in front in a state where the line display at the time of the reverse is displayed. . 5. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the symbol display unit displays the target symbol by transforming the target symbol from a circle to an ellipse having a longitudinal direction along the scope axis as a short axis, or vice versa. Control system.

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