JP2011120186A - Apparatus for video camera imaging - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus capable of accurately and automatically performing imaging due to a video camera, that might be difficult at nighttime conventionally, for a relatively distant place. <P>SOLUTION: An electronic camera system apparatus has a light-emitting unit in which an infrared light emitting device is packaged on a universal head freely rotatable in panning and tilting directions; and a video camera unit wherein a video camera is packaged in another universal head freely rotatable in panning and tilting directions. The electronic camera system apparatus is characterized in that the light-emitting unit and the video camera can be cooperatively manipulated, respectively. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention comprises an infrared illumination, a video camera, and a pan / tilt head that can be mounted on them, and a video camera imaging apparatus and system that can operate the illumination apparatus and the video camera in conjunction with each other. About.

  Video camera systems have been used in diversified fields such as security cameras as surveillance cameras and security cameras, and imaging systems, captured image quality, convenience, and the like corresponding to the respective usage purposes are required. Especially for nighttime shooting in relatively distant places, it is strongly required for crime prevention and security to capture without disturbing the surrounding light environment.

  The imaging camera needs to accurately capture an imaging target, capture the target with a desired angle frame, and require an appropriate amount of reflected light from the imaging target. Especially at night when the amount of light is insufficient, the video S / N is lowered and the video quality is inferior. For this reason, it is necessary to compensate for the amount of light, and a video camera is required to accurately capture the imaging angle frame of the object and to secure the amount of light reflected from the object.

  For the performance operation of video cameras required in this way, the camera is mounted on a pan head that performs pan (left / right) and tilt (up / down) direction operations for the angle frame function. In light of this, the light-emitting device compensates for the amount of light, and Kotomi, who does not disturb the nighttime light environment, is also considered and measures for infra-red light, which is invisible light, are taken. In addition, it is not practical to integrate the camera and the light emitting device, but it has been put into practical use to secure an angle frame function and a light amount with a certain level of performance.

  However, the camera's angle frame can be freely adjusted in the pan and tilt directions, but the irradiation part of the light emitting device and the angle frame cannot be automatically shifted, and the camera and the light emitting device are integrated. This method is relatively short-distance imaging target, and there are few that support long-distance imaging, and it is difficult to correct the deviation between the irradiated part and the angle frame.

  In addition to these inconveniences, a light emitting device for night-infrared illumination that is a subject to be imaged at a relatively long distance consumes a large amount of power in a normal continuous light emission, and the device must be large in size.

  A so-called strobe light emission method has been put to practical use as a method for saving power and reducing the size of a light emitting device, and it is necessary to adapt this method to a video camera.

  As described above, it has been difficult to simultaneously realize an automatic capture of an angle frame to be captured by a camera, grasping an illumination range portion of a light emitter for light amount correction, and a power-saving small light emitter that does not disturb the light environment. An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging camera device that automatically and accurately captures an imaging target in cooperation with a light emitter capable of freely changing the irradiation direction with respect to an object at a relatively long distance.

JP 2006-128932 A JP 2008-507229 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus for a video camera that automatically and accurately captures an imaging target in cooperation with a light emitter capable of freely changing the irradiation direction with respect to an object at a relatively long distance.

  Further, in the present invention, each of the encoders for detecting the direction of the light emitter and the direction of the video camera is shared, and the data is shared, and control is performed while accurately maintaining the positional relationship between the illumination range and the imaging range. An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device for a video camera having a speedy and accurate supplementary function and capable of imaging corresponding to the movement of a target object.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 is a video camera unit having a video camera mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in the pan direction and tilt direction, and a pan direction and tilt different from the pan head. The video camera unit is based on the cooperation with a light emitter unit that mounts a light emitter on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in the direction. The video camera unit has a drive mechanism that rotates the pan and tilt directions of the video camera and a function that controls the drive mechanism. , Having a control unit for controlling the video camera, sending a video signal and video camera control information to the light emitter unit, and detecting light emission timing information and pan and tilt directions of the light emitter unit from the light emitter unit The encoder information is received, and the pan direction and tilt direction of the video camera unit are determined. The light-emitting unit receives a video signal and video camera information from the video camera unit, controls to set the light emission timing, a drive mechanism that rotates the pan and tilt directions of the light-emitting device, a function to control the drive mechanism, and the video camera unit This is done by having a controller for detecting the pan and tilt directions of the light emitting unit and a control unit for sending the light emission timing of the light emitter. According to this method, since the imaging and irradiation targets can be matched, the moving body can be easily imaged.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the video camera unit light emitter unit of the first aspect is fixed to one base, the optical axis of the video camera and the irradiation optical axis of the light emitter are mutually fixed when fixed to one base. Set to match. The encoder values for detecting the pan direction and tilt direction of the video camera unit and the light emitter unit at this time are set as the fault values of the respective units. For example, it is easy to send the direction detection encoder value when the pan direction and tilt direction of the light emitter are changed to the video camera unit, and to control the pan direction and tilt direction of the video camera so that the light emitter unit b encoder value matches. In addition, the optical axis of the video camera and the optical axis of the light emitter are oriented in the same direction, so that the irradiation range and the angle frame of the video camera can be matched quickly and accurately. Although it is possible to make the respective optical axes coincide in claim 1, the method of claim 2 can be achieved more simply.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to emit light at the light emission timing synchronized with the video signal from the video camera unit by connecting the light emitter units in series. For example, if two light emitters are used and irradiated in the same direction, twice the amount of irradiation light can be obtained, and if the pan or tilt direction is moved by controlling the encoder value by the value of the irradiation angle, the amount doubled An irradiation range can be obtained. Thus, the irradiation light quantity and the irradiation range can be obtained by using a plurality of light emitter units.

  In the invention described in claim 4, since emitting visible light at night leads to disturbance of the light environment, it is possible to apply light to the light-emitting element by irradiating invisible infrared light and reducing the light emission time at the same time. Both the power saving and the strong light emission in a short time can be obtained by reducing the driving flow angle. Limiting the irradiation angle is effective in terms of irradiation efficiency for imaging an object having a relatively long distance. A light emitter with an irradiation angle of 0.2 rad has a distance of 50 m and an irradiation range of 10 m, which is sufficient for security imaging. As an example, when the size of the image sensor of the video camera is 1/3 inch, the focal length of the image pickup lens is 30 mm if it is 0.2 rad. There is a close relationship between the focal length of the imaging lens and the irradiation range. For example, when it is determined that the imaging range may be 5 m at a distance of 50 m, the optimum lens focal length is 60 mm when the irradiation angle is 0.1 rad and the imaging element size is 1/3 inch.

  The invention described in claim 5 shows the relationship between the shutter speed of a video camera and the light emission time. If the light emission time is shortened, even a high-speed moving object can be captured almost as a still image by the strobe effect. For example, the light emission time is 1 msec, the shutter time of the video camera is 2 msec, the light emission time can be synchronized with the shutter opening time, and a high-speed moving object can be imaged with less image blur.

  It should be noted that any combination of the components and the apparatus according to the present invention are also effective as other modes within the scope of the invention, such as application to other methods.

  In such a camera imaging device according to the structure of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth aspects, the desired angle frame acquisition function and camera image required for the security camera are not included. It is possible to achieve an essential illumination function for an imaging object with a relatively long distance regardless of day and night, and to automatically obtain an irradiation range by a light emitter and an imaging range by a video camera in cooperation with each other.

  It is a structural diagram of the light emitting unit of the present invention.   It is explanatory drawing of pan operation | movement of the solitary unit of this invention.   It is explanatory drawing of the tilt operation | movement of the halolight unit of this invention.   It is a structural diagram of the video camera unit of the present invention.   It is explanatory drawing of the pan operation | movement of the video camera unit of this invention.   It is explanatory drawing of the tilt operation | movement of the video camera unit of this invention.   It is an example of composition of the present invention.   It is an example of composition of the present invention.   It is an example of composition of the present invention.   It is a structural example of the light emission unit control part of this invention, and the control part of a video camera unit.   It is an example of composition of the example which combined two light emitting units of the present invention, and a video camera unit.

(Embodiment 1)
Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a light emitter unit 100 according to the present invention. A light emitter 101 having a light emitting element 102 disposed on the front surface is connected to a tilt unit base 104 via a tilt shaft 103 to form a name structure capable of tilt rotation. Have. The tilt rotation unit is connected to the pan rotation shaft 105, and the pan rotation shaft 105 is coupled to the base 106 with a rotatable structure. Note that. In FIG. 1, the rotation drive unit and the rotation detection encoder are not shown. The drawing is schematically drawn for convenience of explanation.

  2 and 3 show the pan rotation angle 107 indicating the pan rotation and tilt rotation of the light emitter 101 with respect to the light emitter hot water, and the tilt rotation angle 108 is represented as θts.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a video camera 200 according to the present invention. A video camera 201 having a lens 202 disposed on the front side is connected to a tilt unit base 204 via a tilt shaft 203 to have a name structure capable of tilt rotation. The tilt rotation unit is connected to the pan rotation shaft 205, and the pan rotation shaft 205 is coupled to the base 206 with a rotatable structure. Note that. In FIG. 4, the rotation drive unit and the rotation detection encoder are not shown. The drawing is schematically drawn for convenience of explanation.

  5 and 6 show the pan rotation angle 207 showing the pan rotation and tilt rotation of the video camera 201 with respect to the light emitter hot water, and the tilt rotation angle 208 is displayed as θcs.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 7 shows an example of the present invention. The light emitting unit 100 and the video camera unit 200 are connected by a coupling cable 111 via connectors 109 and 209 arranged on the bases 106 and 206, and data cooperation between the light emitting unit and the video camera unit is performed. Yes.

(Embodiment 4)
FIG. 8 shows an example of the present invention. The light emitting unit 100 and the video camera unit 200 are connected by a coupling cable 111 via connectors 109 and 209 arranged on the bases 106 and 206, and the data link between the light emitting unit and the video camera unit is controlled. (PC) 300. It is a 400 school display part.

(Embodiment 5)
FIG. 9 shows an example of the present invention. The light emitting unit 100 and the video camera unit 200 are connected to each other by a coupling cable 111 via connectors 109 and 209 fixed to a base 210 and disposed on the bases 106 and 206. Data linkage of the camera unit is performed. At this time, the optical axis of the light emitter and the optical axis of the video camera are fastened to the base 210 so as to coincide with each other.

(Embodiment 6)
10 is a block diagram of the light emitter unit control unit 500 and the video camera unit control unit 600. The light emitter unit 500 includes an element drive 502 that drives the light emitting element 501 as a light emitter portion, and a generation unit 503 that generates the light emission timing. The light emitter is mechanically coupled to the tilt driving unit 503 and the pan driving unit 506 and at the same time is electrically coupled to the control unit 508. It has a tilt drive rotation angle encoder 505 and a pan drive rotation angle encoder 507. The light emitting unit control unit 508 links the unit data with the connection cable 700 in cooperation with the video camera unit 600. Inventive example of data between each unit is video unit control unit as main, light emitting unit control unit as sub, video camera unit control unit output as video signal, light emission timing setting, pan tilt control and video camera status The information is input from the light emitter unit to the video camera unit to obtain light emitter status information, pan / tilt information, and light emission timing information. The control configuration example of this embodiment enables cooperation between the light emitter unit and the video camera unit.

(Embodiment 7)
FIG. 11 shows an example of the invention in which two light emitting units 100a and 110b are coupled in series. With such a configuration, the amount of irradiation light can be doubled or the irradiation range can be doubled. This is not limited to two units, and a larger number of light emitter units can be configured in series.

  In the camera imaging apparatus according to the configuration of the invention of such an embodiment, the desired angle frame acquisition function required for the security camera and the illumination function essential for the camera image can be achieved regardless of day and night for imaging objects with a relatively long distance. In addition, the irradiation range by the light emitter and the imaging range by the video camera can be automatically obtained in cooperation.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Light emitter unit 100a Light emitter unit 100b Light emitter unit 101 Light emitter part 101a Light emitter part 101b Light emitter part 102 Light emitting element part 102a Light emitting element part 102b Light emitting element part 103 Tilt axis 103a of light emitter part Tilt axis of light emitter part 103b Tilt axis 104 of the light emitter part Tilt part base 104a of the light emitter part Tilt part base 104b of the light emitter part Tilt part base 105 of the light emitter part Pan axis 105a of the light emitter part Pan axis 105b of the light emitter part Pan axis 106 Pan portion base 106a of light emitter portion Pan portion base 106b of light emitter portion Pan portion base 107 of light emitter portion Pan angle θps of light emitter portion
108 Tilt angle θts of light emitter
109 connector 109a connector 109b connector 110 connector 110a connector 110b connector 111 connection cable 111a connection cable 111b connection cable 112 connection cable 200 video camera unit 201 video camera unit 202 lens 203 tilt axis 204 of video camera unit tilt unit base 205 of video camera unit Pan axis 206 of video camera unit Pan base 207 of video camera unit Pan angle θpc of video camera unit
208 Tilt angle θtc of video camera unit
209 Connector 210 Base 300 Control unit (PC)
400 Display unit 500 Light emitter unit control unit 501 Light emitting element 502 Element drive unit 503 Light emission timing generation unit 504 Tilt drive unit 505 Tilt angle detection encoder 506 Pan drive unit 507 Pan angle detection encoder 508 Control unit / calculation unit 600 Video camera unit control Unit 601 video camera 602 video signal 603 video camera control unit 604 tilt drive unit 605 tilt angle detection encoder 606 pan drive unit 607 pan angle detection encoder 608 control unit / calculation unit 700 connection cable

Claims (5)

  A video camera unit with a video camera mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in the pan and tilt directions, and a light emitting device that has a light emitter mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction different from the pan head. The video camera unit has a drive mechanism for rotating the video camera in the pan direction and the tilt direction, a control unit for controlling the drive mechanism, and a control unit for controlling the video camera. Transmitting camera control information, receiving light emission timing information and encoder information for detecting the pan direction and tilt direction of the light emitter unit from the light emitter unit, determining the pan direction and tilt direction of the video camera unit, and emitting light Unit receives video signal and video camera information from video camera unit Function to control, drive mechanism to rotate the pan and tilt directions of the light emitter, function to control it, encoder information to detect the pan and tilt directions of the light emitting unit to the video camera unit, light emission timing of the light emitter A video camera device characterized by having a control unit having a function of sending out video.   A video camera unit with a video camera mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in the pan and tilt directions, and a light emitting device that has a light emitter mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction different from the pan head. 2. The video camera apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unit is fixed on one base. A video camera unit with a video camera mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in the pan and tilt directions, and a light emitting device that has a light emitter mounted on a pan head that can be controlled to rotate in a pan direction and a tilt direction different from the pan head. 2. The video camera apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of units are arranged in series.   4. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein the light emitter of the light emitter unit is infrared light having a center wavelength of 800 nm or more, a light emission time of 16 msec or less, and an irradiation angle of 0.2 rad or less. apparatus.   The video camera device according to claim 2 or 4, wherein a light emission time of the light emitting unit is ½ or less of a shutter speed of the video camera of the video camera unit.

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