JPH06133195A - Video camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To change an optical axis direction of a camera head in the direction of the axial line of a camera main boy and in other directions without the smallest strain. CONSTITUTION:A camera main body 1 incorporating a circuit 5 and a camera head 2 incorporating a CCD 11 are separated from each other and the circuit 5 with the CCD 11 are electrically connected by an electric wire 15 having flexibility and when the camera head 2 is connected to the camera main body 1 in a manner of being attachable and detachable by a connection means 29, the deflection of th electric wire 15 is utilized and the direction of an optical axis P2 of the camera head 2 is changed in the direction of an axial line P1 of the camera main body 1 and in other directions naturally.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultra-compact video camera suitable for application to a surveillance video camera mounted on various industrial devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a surveillance video camera which is used by being attached to various industrial devices is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-26.
Single-plate ultra-compact CC as seen in Japanese Patent No. 0978
D camera is used.

In this type of surveillance video camera, an optical lens is attached to the tip of a prismatic camera body, and a CCD as a solid-state image pickup device and its drive circuit and signal processing circuit are built in the camera body. It was a one-piece type.

[0004]

Therefore, in the conventional surveillance video camera, the optical axis direction of the so-called camera head composed of the optical lens and the CCD is fixed in the axial direction which is the longitudinal direction of the camera body. When installing this surveillance video camera on a pillar or wall of various industrial equipment, the optical axis direction of the camera head cannot be changed to a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the camera body, etc. There is a problem that the conditions are likely to be significantly restricted.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and enables the optical axis direction of a camera head to be easily changed between the axial direction of the camera body and other directions. The purpose is to provide a video camera.

[0006]

A video camera of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a camera body having a built-in circuit, and a camera head which is separated from the camera body and has a solid-state image sensor built therein. , A flexible electric wire for electrically connecting the circuit in the camera body and the solid-state imaging device in the camera head, and the bending of the electric wire,
An optical axis direction of the camera head is changed to an axial direction of the camera body and a direction other than that, and a connecting means for detachably connecting the camera head to the camera body is provided. At this time, it is preferable that the connecting means is provided on a mounting bracket attached to the camera body, and the connecting means allows the camera head to be rotationally adjustable about an axis of the camera body.

[0007]

According to the video camera of the present invention having the above-described structure, the camera main body having a built-in circuit and the camera head having a solid-state image pickup device such as a CCD are separated from each other, and these circuits and the solid-state image are formed. When the camera head is electrically connected to the image pickup element by a flexible electric wire and the camera head is detachably connected to the camera body by the connecting means, the bending of the electric wire is used to make the optical axis direction of the camera head. Can be easily changed to the axial direction of the camera body and the other directions.

[0008]

Embodiments of a surveillance video camera to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, a first embodiment of a surveillance video camera will be described with reference to FIGS.

This surveillance video camera has a camera body 1 and a camera head 2 each of which is composed of a rectangular tube-shaped case having a substantially octagonal cross section, and the camera head 2 is connected to the camera body 1. , Separable.

In the camera body 1, three circuit boards 3 are connected by two flexible printed boards 4 and are folded and housed in a zigzag shape so that a circuit can be formed by these circuit boards 3. A certain drive circuit and signal processing circuit 5 are configured. A cable connector 6 is attached to the rear end of the camera body 1, and the connector board 7 and one of the circuit boards 3 are connected by a flexible printed board 8.

Further, in the camera head 2, an optical lens 10 and a single-plate type CCD 11 which is a solid-state image pickup device are integrally connected and housed, and a flexible printed circuit board 13 for input and output is provided from the CCD substrate 12. Has been pulled out.

The flexible electric wire 1 is provided between the input / output ends of the drive circuit and the signal processing circuit 5 in the camera body 1 and the flexible printed board 13 in the camera head 2.
The flexible printed circuit board 16 and the pair of connectors 17 and 18 are electrically connected so as to be separable and separable.

Next, at the front end of the camera body 1 and the rear end of the camera head 2, an axis P ₁ which is the length direction of the camera body 1 is formed.
And the connection ends 20, 21 which are cut at 45 ° to the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 is formed.

Next, a mounting plate 23a having a plurality of mounting holes 24 for screwing, and a connecting plate for the camera head 2 are mounted on a mounting bracket 23 for mounting the surveillance video camera on various industrial devices. 23b is integrally formed.
The connecting plate 23b is the connecting end 2 of the camera body 1.
Through a notch 25 formed in a part of the hole 0 to be fitted flush with the inside of the connecting end 20 and the connecting plate 23b.
The two projecting pieces 26 integrally formed with each other are fixed in the camera body 1 by a pair of mounting screws 27. The flexible printed board 16 is inserted into the opening 28 formed at the center of the connection board 23b.

A connecting means 29 for connecting the camera body 1 and the camera head 2 in a separable and separable manner is a pair of connecting portions which are substantially triangular parallel protrusions integrally formed on the connecting plate 23b. 30, a pair of screw holes 31 formed therein, a pair of screw insertion holes 32 formed near both sides of the connection end 21 of the camera head 2, and a pair of connection screws 33. There is. A tapping (tapping screw) is provided on the inner circumference of the pair of screw holes 31.

Next, the method of using the first embodiment of the surveillance video camera will be described.

In this surveillance video camera, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 5 and by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 6, the connecting end portion 21 side of the camera head 2 is on both sides of the pair of connecting portions 30 of the camera body 1. 7 from the direction of arrow a, as shown in FIG.
After the connection ends 20 and 21 are brought into close contact with each other, a pair of connection screws 33 are inserted through the pair of screw insertion holes 32 and screwed into the pair of screw fastening holes 31 to be tightened, as shown in FIG. As described above, the camera head 2 can be integrally coupled to the camera body 1 with the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 bent at a right angle to the axis P ₁ of the camera body 1.

Further, in this surveillance video camera, as shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 5 and by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 6, the connection end 21 side of the camera head 2 is connected to the pair of camera bodies 1. After being inserted into both sides of the portion 30 from the direction of the arrow b to bring the connection end portions 20 and 21 into close contact with each other as shown in FIG. 8, the pair of connection screws 33 are inserted through the pair of screw insertion holes 32. As shown in FIG. 2, the optical axis P of the camera head 2 is screwed into the pair of screw holes 31 and tightened.
_{With 2} aligned with the axis P ₁ of the camera body 1 (in the same direction), the camera head 2 can be integrally connected to the camera body 1.

[0020] Moreover in this case, the optical axis P ₂ orientation of arrow a of the camera head 2 with respect to the axis P ₁ direction of the camera body 1, when changing the direction b, the flexible printed circuit board flexible a wire 15 having a The bending of 16 can be utilized to perform the process without difficulty.

In this surveillance video camera, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a mounting bracket 23 is fixed to the camera body 1 in advance, so that the mounting plate 23 thereof is attached.
By using the plurality of mounting holes 24 a, it is possible to easily install the surveillance video camera on the pillars or walls of various industrial devices by screwing.

Moreover, at this time, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the optical axis P ₂ direction of the camera head 2 can be installed in a desired direction with respect to the axis P ₁ direction of the camera body 1, so that the installation is possible. The degree of freedom with respect to space and installation conditions is extremely high.

Next, a second embodiment of the surveillance video camera will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

In this case, two types of head cases 35 and 42, which form the case of the camera head 2 and are divided into left and right, are used. The head cases 35 and 42 are the optical lens 10 and the CC of the camera head 2.
Fitted on the left and right sides of the outer circumference of D11 etc. from the direction of arrow c,
Attach a plurality of mounting screws 36 to these head cases 35, 40.
It is assembled by being inserted through a plurality of screw insertion holes 37 formed in the above and screwed into a plurality of screw fastening holes 38 formed in the lens holder 10a and the like to be tightened.

The head case 35 shown in FIG.
Held at a right angle shape of the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 with respect to the axis P ₁ of the camera body 1, a head case 42 shown in FIG. 10
Is the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 and the axis P of the camera body 1
Hold in the same direction as ₁ .

Then, the cut surface 2 for connection of the camera body 1
A cross section in which 0 is formed at right angles to the axis P ₁ and connecting means 29 for connecting the camera body 1 and the camera head 2 in a separable manner is integrally formed at the lower ends of the head cases 35 and 42. A connecting portion 40 having a substantially octagonal shape,
It is composed of a plurality of screw holes 31 formed therein, a plurality of screw insertion holes 32 formed in the vicinity of the connection cut surface 20 of the camera body 1, and a plurality of connection screws 33.

Next, a method of using the second embodiment of the surveillance video camera will be described.

This surveillance video camera is shown in FIGS.
As shown in 0, the connecting portions 40 of the two types of head cases 34 and 42 are selectively inserted into the inside of the cut surface 20 for connection of the camera body 1 from the direction of the arrow b, and the plurality of screws 33 are inserted through the plurality of screws. Insert a plurality of screw holes 3 through the holes 32
The camera head 2 can be integrally connected to the camera body 1 by screwing and tightening on 1.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, by using one head case 35, the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 can be bent at a right angle to the axis P ₁ of the camera body 1.

As shown in FIG. 10, if the other head case 42 is used, the optical axis P ₂ of the camera head 2 can be aligned with the axis P ₁ of the camera body 1 (in the same direction).

Further, at this time, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, when the connecting portion 40 of the head cases 35 and 42 is inserted into the connecting cut portion 20 of the camera body 1 from the direction of the arrow b, the camera head 2 The entire axis P ₁ of the camera body ₁
It is possible to rotate and adjust the direction of 360 ° in the direction of arrow d at 90 ° intervals. Particularly, in the case shown in FIG. 10, it is possible to freely reverse the photographing screen.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention.

[0033]

The video camera of the present invention constructed as described above has the following effects.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a camera body having a built-in circuit and a camera head having a solid-state image pickup device such as a CCD are separated from each other, and the circuit and the solid-state image pickup device are flexible. When the camera head is detachably connected to the camera body by the connecting means, the optical axis direction of the camera head is set to the axial direction of the camera body and other than that by utilizing the bending of the electric wire. Since it can be easily changed to the direction of, the optical axis of the camera head can be installed in the desired direction with respect to the axis of the camera body when installing the video camera in various industrial equipment, etc. The degree of freedom of installation space and installation conditions will be extremely high.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, since the connecting means is provided on the installation bracket attached to the camera body, the connecting means and the installation bracket can be combined into one component, and the number of components and the number of assembling steps can be increased. In addition, the mounting bracket allows the video camera to be easily installed in various industrial devices and the like.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the camera head can be rotated and adjusted about the axis of the camera body by the connecting means, the range of change of the optical axis of the camera head with respect to the axis of the camera body can be increased. It is easy to reverse the shooting screen.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a state in which an optical axis of a camera head of a surveillance video camera for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention is bent at a right angle to a camera body.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a state in which an optical axis of a camera head of the above surveillance video camera is aligned with an axis of a camera body.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the above surveillance video camera.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an internal structure portion of the above surveillance video camera.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view illustrating a connecting means of the above surveillance video camera.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating a mounting bracket and a connecting means of the surveillance video camera of the same.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of FIG.

FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view showing a state in which the optical axis of the camera head of the surveillance video camera according to the second embodiment of the present invention is bent at a right angle to the axis of the camera body.

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view showing a state in which the optical axis of the camera head of the surveillance video camera is aligned with the axis of the camera body.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Camera Main Body 2 Camera Head 5 Drive Circuit and Signal Processing Circuit (Circuit) 10 Optical Lens 11 CCD (Solid-State Image Sensor) 15 Electric Wire 16 Flexible Printed Circuit Board 17, 18 Connector 20, 21 Connection End 23 Installation Bracket 29 Connection Means 30, 40 Connection part 33 Connection screw 35, 42 Head case P ₁ Camera body axis P ₂ Camera head optical axis

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A camera body having a built-in circuit, a camera head which is separated from the camera body and has a built-in solid-state image sensor, a circuit in the camera body, and a solid-state image sensor in the camera head. A flexible electric wire that is electrically connected to the camera head, and the bending of the electric wire is used to change the optical axis direction of the camera head to the axial direction of the camera body and other directions, thereby A video camera having a connecting means detachably connected to the camera body. 2. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein the connecting means is provided on an installation bracket attached to the camera body. 3. The video camera according to claim 1, wherein the camera head is configured to be rotationally adjustable about an axis of the camera body by the connecting means.