JP3945584B2 - Camera device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a camera device that can be arranged at an arbitrary position on a screen of a display device such as a television receiver, and in particular, is compatible with multimedia that integrates a display device, a small camera, a microphone, a communication device, and the like. It is used as a camera device for educational systems and video conference systems.

  Recently, educational systems and video conferencing systems using computers are attracting attention.

  This system is configured to include a display device using a television receiver, a small camera, a microphone, a communication device that transmits and receives video data and audio data, and the like.

  In this case, the small camera is placed on the display device or placed side by side with the display device, and is placed relatively near the line of sight. Then, the user's video imaged by this small camera is displayed on the screen of the display device of the counterpart system through a communication line.

  In addition, some recent notebook computers and mobile computers that can be connected to the Internet and have two-way communication are designed to incorporate a small camera inside the frame of the display screen to bring it closer to the user's eyes. is there.

  In addition, there is also a camera device that is devised so that it can be placed closer to the user's eyes by attaching a suction board to the small camera and directly sucking it on the display screen, so that the small camera can be placed at any position on the screen ( For example, see Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a conventional camera device, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the camera device A1 is mounted on a display screen of a display device.

This camera device A1 has an extremely simple structure in which the suction disk 2 is attached to the rear side of the camera body 1. That is, the user's line of sight and the camera's line of sight can be made to coincide with each other simply by sucking the suction board 2 to an arbitrary position on the display screen 3a of the display device 3 such as the television receiver shown in FIG. . Incidentally, the code | symbol 1a in a figure is the cable connected to the camera.
JP-A-8-163416

  However, the user usually conducts a conversation while viewing information displayed on the display device (information such as problems and answers in the educational system, video of the other party, etc.) or inputs necessary information. In this case, in the case where the small camera is built in the frame of the display screen, even though the installation position of the small camera is close to the display screen of the display device, the user's line of sight displayed on the other display device is There was a problem that it was slightly shifted from the actual line of sight.

  Moreover, in the thing of the said patent document 1, since a small camera is directly attracted | sucked to a display screen by the suction disk 2, the problem of the shift | offset | difference from eyes | visual_axis can be solved. However, when sucking with the suction board 2, the surface needs to be a hard member (for example, a glass member) such as a cathode ray tube, and a small camera is used with a soft display screen such as a liquid crystal display. When the is directly attached, there is a problem that the liquid crystal display itself may be damaged.

  The present invention was devised to solve such problems, and its purpose is to enable a small camera to be placed at an arbitrary position in the display screen, and to look at the user's eyes looking at the display screen and the camera. It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera device that can match or close as close as possible to the line of sight, and that can securely lock a support rod of a camera body to a locking member when not in use.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a camera device according to the present invention includes a locking member that is releasably locked to an upper portion of a main body of a display device, and is suspended downward from the locking member along a display screen of the display device. And a camera body attached to the lower end of the support member. The support member is provided to be movable in the vertical and horizontal directions along the display screen with respect to the locking member. The wall body is provided so as to be rotatable along the display screen, and the support member is rotated to a horizontal position so as to follow the wall body on the front surface of the locking member. A locking mechanism for locking the support member is provided.

  According to the present invention having such a feature, when the camera device is not used or transported as a product, the support rod is rotated by, for example, 90 ° from the state of use, and the front surface of the locking member is It can be made to follow along the wall.

  Further, according to the camera device of the present invention, by arranging the camera body in the display screen, the line of sight of the user who sees the display screen and having a conversation and the like and the line of sight of the camera substantially coincide with each other. Since the user's line of sight displayed on the display device matches the line of sight of the other party, it is possible to produce a situation as if the user is having a conversation with the screen.

  Further, according to the camera device of the present invention, the camera body is attached to the lower end portion of the support member. In this case, when the display screen is displayed in, for example, left and right two divisions or upper and lower and right and left four divisions, the support member may be arranged along the division line of the center. If it arrange | positions in this way, since the part covered with a supporting member is a parting line and is not information required for a user, it does not get in the way very much.

  Further, according to the camera device of the present invention, the support member is configured to be movable in the vertical direction with respect to the locking member. In this way, the camera body can be moved up and down to a position that does not get in the way according to the user's eyes and displayed contents.

  Further, according to the camera device of the present invention, in addition to the above configuration, the support member is configured to be movable in the left-right direction with respect to the locking member. In this way, the camera body can be moved left and right to a position that does not get in the way according to the user's eyes and displayed contents.

  According to the camera device of the present invention, the support member is loosely fitted in a horizontally long slide groove formed in the front wall of the locking member and slides in the lateral direction, and the lateral slide member. A support rod that slides in the vertical direction while being sandwiched between the elastic members, and an elastic body curved in an arc shape is attached to the inner side surface of the horizontal slide member, while the side surface of the support rod that faces the elastic body is attached Since it was formed into a continuous waveform with a constant pitch, the support rod can be slid up and down at a constant pitch.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the camera device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line aa, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line bb.

  The camera device A2 is roughly classified into a locking member 5 that is locked to the upper surface 31a of the device body 31 of the display device 3 such as a television receiver, and a support member 6 that is suspended downward from the locking member 5. The camera body 1 is attached to the lower end of the support member 6.

  The locking member 5 has a horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped shape, and the inside thereof is hollow, and a horizontally long slide groove portion 52 is formed in the front wall body 51 thereof. Further, the bottom wall 53 of the locking member 5 is provided with suction boards 54, 54,... At two places on the left and right sides or four places on the front, rear, left and right. The apparatus main body 31 is fixed to the upper surface 31a.

  On the other hand, the support member 6 is loosely fitted in the slide groove portion 52 of the locking member 5 and slides in the lateral direction (X direction in the drawing), and is held between the lateral slide member 61. And a supporting rod 62 that slides in the vertical direction (Y direction in the figure), and the camera body 1 is attached to the lower end of the supporting rod 62.

  As shown mainly in FIGS. 3 and 4, the laterally sliding member 61 is an L-shape that slightly protrudes forward from the left and right sides of a rectangular substrate 611 and then bends in the direction (inside). A pair of support pieces 612 and 613 are respectively formed, and a cylindrical slide shaft 614 is formed by slightly projecting rearward from the center of the back surface of the substrate 611, and on the rear end side of the slide shaft 614. A disc-shaped retaining piece 615 is formed.

  That is, the slide shaft 614 is fitted into the slide groove portion 52 of the locking member 5, and both the front and rear edge surfaces of the slide groove portion 52 are sandwiched between the substrate 611 and the retaining piece 615, thereby preventing the slide groove portion 52 from falling off. , It can slide in the lateral direction (X direction) along the slide groove 52.

  The support rod 62 is formed in a simple strip shape (vertically long flat bar) in the present embodiment, but its width W1 is slightly narrower than the width W2 between the pair of support pieces 612 and 613. The thickness D1 is formed so as to be slightly narrower than the gap D2 between the support pieces 612 and 613 and the substrate 611.

  Therefore, in this state, the support rod 62 inserted between the support pieces 612 and 613 falls, and in this embodiment, a non-slip member 616 such as rubber is attached to the inner surface side of the support pieces 612 and 613. Unless the vertical force (Y direction) is slightly applied to the support rod 62, the support rod 62 does not slide up and down.

  In addition, since the slide shaft 614 has a cylindrical shape with the above structure, the support rod 62 can be rotated around the slide shaft 614 itself as a rotation center. Therefore, when the camera apparatus A2 of the present invention is not used or transported as a product, as shown in FIG. 5, the support rod 62 is moved from the state in use (the state shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) to 90. It may be rotated so that it follows the wall 51 on the front surface of the locking member 5. Although not shown, the support rod 62 is arranged so that the support rod 62 does not rotate carelessly in a state along the wall body 51 on the front surface of the locking member 5 (the state shown in FIG. 5). It is preferable to provide a simple locking mechanism between the wall 51 and the wall 51. However, this locking mechanism is set so that it can be released if the user pushes it a little by hand so as to rotate the support rod 62.

  FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the sliding structure of the support pieces 612 and 613 and the support rod 62 formed on the substrate 611.

  That is, in this structure, an elastic body (a leaf spring in the present embodiment) 617 that is curved in an arc shape is attached to the inner side surface of one support piece 612 so as to protrude slightly, and the support rod that faces this elastic body 617 is attached. The side surface 621 of 62 is formed in a continuous waveform with a constant pitch. That is, when the elastic body 617 is fitted into the corrugated recess, the support rod 62 is stably held so as not to fall downward. In addition, when the support rod 62 is moved up or down in this state, the elastic body 617 is pushed into the inner surface side of the support piece 612 by the corrugated convex portion of the support rod 62 and elastically deformed. When the convex portion of the side surface 621 of the support rod 62 gets over the support rod 62, the support rod 62 can slide up and down.

  That is, in this structure, the support rod 62 slides up and down at a constant wave-like pitch formed on the side surface 621. However, if the elastic force of the elastic body 617 is used, the support can be supported at an arbitrary position. However, from the viewpoint of stability, the support rod 62 is positioned at a position where the elastic body 617 fits into the recessed portion. It is natural to support this.

  In the above embodiment, the suction plate 54 is attached to the bottom wall 53 of the locking member 5 so as to be fixed to the upper surface 31 a of the apparatus main body 31. However, the locking member 5 is fixed to the upper surface 31 a of the apparatus main body 31. Such a suction disk 54 is unnecessary if it can be stably placed on the surface.

  In the above embodiment, the locking member 5 is described as a mere member for locking the camera body 1, but an English conversation system or a video conference system includes a modem connected to a communication line. Since the modem is usually placed on the display device 3 in a narrow space, the case main body of the modem can be used as the locking member 5. That is, a horizontally long slide groove (same as the slide groove 52 shown in FIG. 1) is formed on the front surface of the modem case body, and the horizontal slide member 61 of the support member 6 is loosely fitted in this slide groove. May be.

  Thus, the camera device of the present invention can move arbitrarily in the horizontal direction (X direction) and the vertical direction (Y direction) with the camera body 1 placed on the display screen 3a of the display device 3. For example, when the screen is displayed in two splits on the left and right, the camera body 1 may be moved on the center split line. On the other hand, if the screen is displayed in four splits on the top, bottom, left and right, What is necessary is just to move the camera main body 1 to a crossing point (screen center).

It is a perspective view which shows embodiment of the camera apparatus of this invention. It is a side view of the camera apparatus shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which follows the aa line shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which follows the bb line shown in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the state which put the support rod along the wall body of the front surface of a locking member. It is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows other embodiment of the slide structure of the support piece and support rod which were formed in the board | substrate. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional camera apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state which attached the conventional camera apparatus on the display screen of a display apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera main body 3 Display apparatus 5 Locking member 6 Support member 51 Wall body 52 Slide groove part 53 Bottom wall 54 Suction board 61 Lateral slide member 62 Support rod

Claims (1)

A locking member that detachably engages with the upper part of the main body of the display device, a support member that hangs downward from the locking member along the display screen of the display device, and a lower end portion of the support member. The camera body,
The support member is provided to be movable in the vertical and horizontal directions along the display screen with respect to the locking member, and is provided to be rotatable along the display screen, and the support member And a locking mechanism for locking the support member to the wall body in a state where the camera is rotated to a horizontal position so as to follow the wall body on the front surface of the locking member. apparatus.

Images