JPH0430680A - Automatic tracking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain automatic tracking to an object while a photographer giving his eye to the object by detecting the position of a pupil of the photographer so as to obtain a moving distance, deciding the moving angle of a photographing device from the moving distance and controlling a moving device with a controller. CONSTITUTION:A comparator 5 obtains an error data En representing a moving quantity and a moving direction of a pupil based on position data Dn, Dn+1 of the pupil detected by a position detector 3. Then a converter 6 converts an error data En to obtain a data representing the moving quantity and the moving direction and the result is fed to a controller 7 as the data E'n. Moreover, the controller 7 applies drive control to a motor 8 according to the converted data E'n to change the photographing direction of the photographing device in a direction in which the pupil of the photogapher is moved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a camera-integrated videotape recorder (hereinafter referred to as
The present invention relates to an automatic tracking device in a photographing device such as a camera-integrated VTR (abbreviated as a camera-integrated VTR).

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a photographing device such as a camera-integrated VTR, the photographing direction is determined by the photographer's will, and the photographing device is directed in that direction by the photographer's operation to take a photograph. In other words, there was no means for automatically moving the photographing device in a direction according to the photographer's will.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in order to photograph a moving subject, the photographer must either operate a photographing device or move himself.
This has the problem that if the photographing device is fixed, it cannot follow a moving subject.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic tracking device that can detect the movement of a photographer's eyes and cause the direction of a photographing device to follow the movement.

Means for Solving the Problems To achieve this object, the automatic tracking device of the present invention includes a photographing means for photographing a subject, a moving means for changing the photographing direction of the photographing means, and a position of a human pupil. storage means for storing the position detected by the position detection means; comparison means for comparing the position stored by the storage means with the position detected by the position detection means; The apparatus includes a converting means for coordinately converting the error data obtained by the means, and a control means for controlling the moving means based on the output of the converting means.

The present invention has the above-described configuration to realize an automatic tracking device that detects the movement of the photographer's eyes and controls the direction of the photographing device according to the amount of movement thereof, thereby following the movement of the photographer's eyes.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an automatic tracking device according to an embodiment of the present invention. A photographing device 1 shown in FIG. 1 photographs a subject, and a moving device 2 is used to change the photographing direction of the photographing device 1, and is composed of a drive device 9 and a motor 8. Further, the position detection device 3 detects the position of the pupil of the photographer and transfers the position data to the storage device 4 and the comparison device 5. The storage device 4 stores the position data, and the stored data is transferred to the comparison device 5. is being transferred to. The comparator 5 then compares the position data with the stored data and transfers the error data to the converter 6. Next, the conversion device 6 converts the error data and transfers it to the control device 7 as command data for changing the photographing direction of the photographing device 1. Further, the control device 7 outputs a command signal according to the command data to the moving device 2 to control the photographing direction of the photographing device 1. Further, the frequency detection device 1o outputs a frequency signal according to the rotation of the motor 8, and supplies it to the control device 7.

The operation of the automatic tracking device of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation timing. (a) in FIG. 2 is a basic clock, and the position detecting device 3. Storage device 4. Comparison device 5. It is supplied to the conversion device 6. (b) is a signal obtained by dividing the basic clock (a) by two, and is a signal indicating the sending timing of data (C). (C) is the position data of the pupil detected by the position detection device 3.

(d) is a signal obtained by inverting the signal (b), and is a signal obtained by inverting the signal (b).
This is a signal indicating the timing at which position data (C) is latched. (e) is storage data stored by the storage device 4 and sent to the comparison device 5.

(f) is a signal obtained by inverting the basic clock (a) and dividing the frequency by two, and is a signal indicating the timing at which the comparator 5 compares the position data (C) and the stored data (e).

(g) is error data after being compared in the comparator 5. (h) is the same signal as signal (d), and indicates the timing at which error data (g) is converted into data in the conversion device 6 and sent to the control device 7 as data for changing the photographing direction of the photographing device. It's a signal. (i) is conversion data converted by the conversion device 6. The operation of the main part will be explained using the above signals.

First, the pupil position data (C) detected by the position detection device 3 is sent to the storage device 4 and the comparison device 5 for one cycle of the signal (b), and the storage device 4 detects the position data (C) at the leading edge of the signal (d). The position data (C) is latched and sent to the comparator 5 as stored data (e). Comparison device 1
5, the data sent from the position detection device 3 and the storage device 4 are compared at the timing of the leading edge of the signal (f), and the data obtained as a result is sent to the conversion bag -〇 as error data (g). There is. Next, the conversion bag M6 converts the error data (g) and sends a signal (i) indicating the photographing direction and movement amount of the photographing device 1 to the control device 7 (
It is transmitted at the timing of the leading edge of h).

That is, from the position data Dn+Dn+1 (n is 0 or an integer) of the pupil successfully detected by the position detection device 3, the comparator 5 calculates error data En indicating the amount and direction of movement of the pupil. Next, the conversion device 6 converts the error data En to obtain data indicating the photographing direction and movement amount of the photographing device 1, and supplies the data to the control device 7 as E'n. Further, by driving and controlling the motor 8 by the control device 7 in accordance with the conversion data E'n, the photographing direction of the photographing device 1 is changed to the direction in which the photographer's pupil has moved.

By operating according to the timing shown in FIG. 2 as described above, the movement of the photographer's eyes can be periodically detected and the photographing device can be made to follow the movement.

Next, pupil position detection will be explained.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a simple configuration of the position detection device 3. The lens 30 is made of glass, plastic, ivy, etc.
Even if you hold this lens in front of you, it will not obstruct your vision. Additionally, this lens is large enough to cover one eye. On the other hand, 31 and 33 attached to the four sides of the lens 30 are light emitting devices having a plurality of light emitting elements.
2.34 is a light receiving device having a plurality of light receiving elements. 3
1 and 32, and 33 and 34 are paired, respectively, with 31 and 32 performing pupil detection in the vertical direction, and 33 and 34 performing pupil detection in the horizontal direction.

Next, the detection method will be explained.

First, the photographer's pupil is perpendicular to the center of the lens,
Fix the lens so that it is approximately 1 cm in front of you. In the light emitting device attached to the four sides of the lens, the light emitting elements are installed in the section from the left end to the right end or the section from the top end to the bottom end, and emit light while scanning sequentially from the end. The light receiving device detects the amount of light received from the light receiving element located at the position corresponding to the light emitting element.

When the scanning of the light emitting device is completed from end to end, the position of the light receiving element where the amount of light detected by each light receiving element is the least is detected as the position of the pupil. That is, since the pupil is the darkest in the eye, the fact that it reflects the least amount of light is used to detect the pupil.

The above operations are performed in both the horizontal and vertical directions, and the position data detected from both directions is used as the pupil position data.

Next, the operation of the conversion device 6 will be explained.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the processing in the conversion device 6, and is a diagram showing the amount of movement of the photographing device relative to the amount of movement of the photographer's eyeball. A in FIG. 4 is the subject, and AI indicates the subject after movement. B indicates the position of the pupil of the photographer when looking at subject A, and B'' is the position of the pupil when subject A moves to position A''. ΔX indicates the amount of movement of the pupil, Δα is the angle of movement of the pupil at that time, and r is the diameter of the eyeball. C is the position of the photographing device when photographing the subject A (l is the position of the photographing device after movement.

F is the rotation axis of the photographing device, R is the distance from the tip of the photographing device to the rotation axis F, and Δβ is the movement angle of the photographing device. Further, L indicates the distance from the eyeball and the tip of the photographing device to the subject.

Since the movement angle Δα when the pupil moves ΔX with respect to the movement of subject A is very small, Δα=jan-' (Δx/r)...
- Obtained by (1). Here, since the distance to the subject is very large relative to r and R, △α=△β ・・
-(2) holds true. Therefore, from equations (1) and (2), the following equation holds true.

△β=tac' (△x/r) −(
3) The conversion device 6 calculates the movement angle Δβ of the photographing device 1 from the ΔX detected by the position detection device 3 and the diameter r of the eyeball according to equation (3), and outputs it to the control device 7. Note that since the position detection device 3 detects the movement distance of the pupil separately in the horizontal and vertical directions, the conversion device 6 similarly calculates the movement angle of the imaging device in each of the horizontal and vertical directions and performs control. It is output to device 7.

As described above, according to this embodiment, there is a position detection device 3 that detects the position of a human pupil, a storage device 4 that stores the position detected by the position detection device 3, and a position stored in the storage device 4. Automatic tracking can be performed by providing a comparison device 5 that compares the position detected by the position detection device 3 and a conversion device 6 that converts the coordinates of the error data obtained by the comparison device 5.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above description, the automatic tracking device having the automatic tracking function of the present invention detects the position of the photographer's pupil, determines the moving distance, and calculates the moving angle of the photographing device from the moving distance. The configuration is such that the camera is moved by controlling the moving device using the control device, so that when the photographer follows the subject with his/her eyes, the camera automatically follows the subject, which has a great practical effect. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an automatic tracking device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing chart of the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the configuration of a position detection device of the same embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the eyeball and the photographing device. 1... Photographing device (photographing means), 2... Moving device (moving means), 3... Position detecting device (position detecting means), 4... Storage device (storage means), 5... Comparison device (comparison means), 6... Conversion device (conversion means), 7... Control device (control means), 8...
Motor, 9... Drive device, 10... Frequency detection device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A photographing means for photographing a subject; a moving means for changing the photographing direction of the photographing means; a position detecting means for detecting the position of a human pupil; and a position detected by the position detecting means. a storage means for storing; a comparison means for comparing the position stored by the storage means and a position detected by the position detection means; a conversion means for converting the coordinates of the error data obtained by the comparison means; and control means for controlling the moving means based on the output of the means.