JPH06284425A - Pan tilt mechanism for video doorphone - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent excessive operation of a pan tilt operation section by providing a superimposing circuit superimposing a pan tilt drive enable signal received by a pan tilt drive section control circuit onto a video signal to provide an output of the superimposed signal to a monitor screen. CONSTITUTION:When a visitor calls a master set 8 from a slave set 7, A person resident in a room operates a pan tilt button. A prism drive signal from the master set 8 is sent to a prism drive section control circuit 5. The circuit 5 gives a prism control signal to a drive section 1 when a prism drive enable signal received from the prism drive section 1 indicates a drive enable state. Furthermore, the circuit 5 gives the prism control signal to a superimpose circuit 6. A video signal is given to the circuit 6. The video signal superimposed by the circuit 6 is multiplexed on an audio signal at a signal multiplexer circuit 4 and the multiplexed signal is sent to the master set 8. A graphic pattern indicating the operation enable state of the pan tilt button superimposed on the video signal is displayed on a monitor screen of the master set 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV intercom, and more particularly to a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV intercom that can display the drive limit of the pan / tilt portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a visitor presses a call button of a camera-equipped front cordless handset, a person present in the room checks the video of the visitor on the monitor screen of the TV intercom base unit and visits the front door handset. In recent years, the introduction of a camera having a pan-tilt mechanism, which has a wide imaging range and allows a relatively wide range of objects to be imaged by the camera unit, has been increasing in recent years as a door intercom of a TV intercom that makes a call.

The applicant of the present invention also proposes an improvement of such a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV intercom which is mechanically simple, miniaturized, and highly precise by using a prism in the camera section (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-3200). No. 252009, JP-A-4-139.
194). This pan / tilt mechanism for TV doorphones
As shown in FIG. 5, the slave unit 70 of the TV intercom that images the visitor 90 and displays the image 91 on the monitor screen 81 of the master unit 80 is arranged in front of the lens 21 of the camera 20 and pan / tilt for deflecting light. A prism 11 as a unit, a prism drive unit 10 as a pan / tilt drive unit that drives the prism 11, and an image sensor 22 that converts an image deflected by the prism 11 and passed through the lens 21 into an electric signal.
Is equipped with.

As shown in FIG. 4, the slave unit 70 includes an image pickup element 22 for converting an image deflected by the prism 11 and passing through the lens 21 into an electric signal, a signal processing circuit 30 for processing the electric signal, and an audio signal. It has a signal multiplexing circuit 40 that multiplexes a video signal with other signals, and a prism driving unit control circuit 50 that controls the prism driving unit 10 by the prism driving signal sent from the parent device 80.

When the visitor 90 calls the master unit 80 from the slave unit 70, the person in the room operates the master unit 80 to check the image on the monitor screen 81 and make an appropriate response. 9
Depending on the physique and position of 0, the complete visitor image 91 cannot be obtained on the monitor screen 81, so the pan / tilt button 82 is operated. The prism drive signal from the master unit 80 passes through the signal multiplexing circuit 40 and is sent to the prism drive unit control circuit 50. The prism driver control circuit 50 sends a prism control signal to the prism driver.

An image that has passed through the lens 21 from the prism 11 that has appropriately turned based on the prism control signal is converted into an electric signal by the image pickup device 22, processed by the signal processing circuit 30, and then sounded by the signal multiplexing circuit 40. Etc. are multiplexed with other signals and enter the base unit 80, and the video signals are displayed on the monitor screen 81.
Is displayed as a complete image 91 of the visitor.

[0007]

In the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone, the pan / tilt button 82 is operated until the image of the visitor 90 is properly displayed while watching the monitor screen 81 of the base unit 80. Since the pan / tilt limit, that is, the prism drive limit is unknown to the master unit 80 side, if the operation of the pan / tilt button 82 is unknown and the prism drive is continued, the pan / tilt limit is reached and the movement stops. In such a state, there is an inconvenience that it is determined that the movement of the button has stopped because the device has broken down. Further, there is also a drawback that the operation may be repeated many times if the prism operation is stopped.

[0008]

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV intercom that can display the drive propriety limit of the pan / tilt drive unit on the master unit.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention includes a slave unit having a camera, a microphone and a speaker, and a video signal and an audio signal between the slave unit. Consists of a main unit that has a monitor screen and a pan / tilt operation unit.
The pan-tilt unit that deflects the image that enters the camera lens, the pan-tilt drive unit that drives the pan-tilt unit, the image sensor that converts the image into an electric signal, the signal processing circuit that processes the electric signal, and the signal processing circuit A signal multiplexing circuit for multiplexing an audio signal with a video signal, a pan / tilt control unit that receives a pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal output from the pan / tilt drive unit and a pan / tilt drive signal output by operating the pan / tilt operation unit, and controls the pan / tilt drive unit It comprises a drive control circuit and a superimpose circuit that superimposes a pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal received by the pan / tilt drive control circuit on a video signal and sends it to a monitor screen.

[0010]

In this pan / tilt mechanism for TV doorphones, the pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal received by the pan / tilt drive control circuit is superimposed on the video signal and sent to the monitor screen. The pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal superimposed on the signal is displayed on the monitor screen to prevent an excessive operation of the pan / tilt operation unit, thereby avoiding misunderstanding as to whether it is a malfunction or repetitive operation.

[0011]

Embodiments of the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Figure 2
As shown in (c), in the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV intercom of the present invention, the master unit 8 has a handset 85, a monitor screen 81, a pan / tilt button 82 which is a pan / tilt operation unit, and the like, and The video signal and the audio signal are transmitted / received by the camera, the visitor 9 is imaged, and the monitor screen 8
The mobile device 7 that displays an image on the screen 1 is a microphone M and a speaker S.
p, a prism 11 serving as a pan-tilt unit disposed on the front surface of the lens 21 of the camera 2 for deflecting an image, a prism driving unit 1 serving as a pan-tilt driving unit for driving the prism 11, and imaging for converting an image into an electric signal And the element 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the slave unit 7 includes a prism 1
The image sensor 22 for converting an image deflected by 1 and passing through the lens 21 of the camera 2 into an electric signal, the signal processing circuit 3 for processing the electric signal, the microphone M and the speaker Sp are connected, and the video signal is multiplexed with the audio signal. Signal multiplexing circuit 4
And a prism drive section control circuit 5 as a pan / tilt drive section control circuit for controlling the prism drive section 1 which is a pan / tilt drive section by a prism drive signal as a pan / tilt drive signal sent from the master unit 8.

A prism drive enable / disable signal, which is a pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal, is sent from the prism drive unit 1 to the prism drive unit control circuit 5, and the prism drive enable / disable signal received by the prism drive unit control circuit 5 is converted into a video signal. A superimposing circuit 6 that superimposes and sends to the base unit 8 is provided between the signal processing circuit 3 and the signal multiplexing circuit 4.

As shown in FIG. 3, the superimposing circuit 6 includes an input buffer amplifier 61 to which the electric signal processed by the signal processing circuit 3 is input, and an input buffer amplifier 6.
1, the combining circuit 62, the output buffer amplifier 63 connected to the combining circuit 62, and the input buffer amplifier 6
1. A graphic signal generating circuit 64 connected to the prism driving unit control circuit 5 (FIG. 1) and the synthesizing circuit 62, and whether the pan / tilt button 82 is operable based on the prism drive enable / disable signal connected to the graphic signal generating circuit 64 is displayed. It is composed of a graphic ROM 65 in which graphic patterns 83 and 84 are written.

When the visitor 9 calls the master unit 8 from the slave unit 7,
The occupant operates the base unit 8 to check the image on the monitor screen 81 and makes an appropriate response through the handset 85. However, depending on the physique and position of the visitor 9, the monitor screen 81 is displayed.
Only the incomplete visitor image 9b can be obtained (Fig. 2
(B)), the pan / tilt button 82 is operated. The prism drive signal from the master unit 8 passes through the signal multiplexing circuit 4 and is sent to the prism drive unit control circuit 5.

The prism drive control circuit 5 sends a prism control signal to the prism drive unit 1 when the prism drive enable / disable signal received from the prism drive unit 1 is in a drive enable state. The prism drive control circuit 5 constantly sends the prism drive enable / disable signal received from the prism drive unit 1 to the superimpose circuit 6. The image that has passed through the prism 11 and the lens 21 that has rotated based on the prism control signal is converted into an electric signal by the image pickup device 2, processed by the signal processing circuit 3, and then input to the input buffer amplifier 61 of the superimposing circuit 6. Sent out. The video signal is sent from the input buffer amplifier 61 to the synthesizing circuit 62 and the graphic signal generating circuit 64. In the figure signal generation circuit 64, the figure signal output from the figure ROM 65 based on the prism drive enable / disable signal received from the prism drive unit 5 is synchronized with the video signal and output to the synthesis circuit 62 as a synchronized figure signal. This synchronous graphic signal is superimposed on the video signal in the synthesizing circuit 62, passed through the output buffer amplifier 63, and the superimposed video signal is multiplexed with the audio signal in the signal multiplexing circuit 4 and sent to the master unit 8. It

On the monitor screen 81 of the master unit 8, based on the prism drive enable / disable signal sent from the prism drive unit 5,
Synchronous graphic signals superimposed on the video signal by the superimposing circuit 6, that is, graphic patterns 83 and 84 indicating whether or not the pan / tilt button 82 can be operated are displayed. Figure 2
The graphic pattern 83 of (b) is the visitor image 9 of the left half only.
It is shown that the screen on which b is projected can be moved to the left, and the graphic pattern 84 in FIG. 2A cannot move the screen on which the visitor image 9a is projected to the left any further. Is shown.

Since the person in the room can understand the operation limit of the pan / tilt button 82 while looking at the monitor screen 81, he / she does not operate the pan / tilt button beyond the pan / tilt limit. The pan / tilt portion of the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention is not limited to the prism 11 of the embodiment.
A mechanism for rotating the camera (Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-78866, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-107946) is also suitable. Further, the prism drive enable / disable signal superimposed on the video signal is not limited to the above-described graphic pattern displays 83 and 84. Furthermore, the position of the superimposing circuit 6 is
Not only the slave unit 7 side but also the master unit 8 side is suitable.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, in the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention, the pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal received by the pan / tilt drive control circuit is superimposed on the video signal and displayed on the monitor screen. Since the superimpose circuit for sending is provided, the base unit can display the pan / tilt drive enable / disable signal superimposed on the video signal on the monitor screen, preventing excessive operation of the pan / tilt button, and misunderstanding that it is a malfunction. The occurrence of repetitive operations is avoided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention.

2 (a), (b) and (c) are diagrams for explaining the operation of the pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a superimposing circuit of a pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a conventional pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation of a conventional pan / tilt mechanism for a TV door phone.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Prism drive part (pan-tilt drive part) 11 ... Prism (pan-tilt part) 2 ... Camera 21 ... Lens 22 ... Imaging device 3 ... Signal processing circuit 4 ... Signal multiplexing circuit 5 ... Prism drive part control circuit (pan-tilt drive control circuit) ) 6 ... Superimposing circuit 7 ... Slave device 8 ... Master device 81 ... Monitor screen 82 ... Pan / tilt button 9 ... Visitor M ... Microphone Sp ... Speaker

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A slave unit having a camera, a microphone, and a speaker, and a master unit which transmits and receives a video signal and an audio signal to and from the slave unit and which has a monitor screen and a pan-tilt operation unit. A pan-tilt unit that deflects an image entering a lens, a pan-tilt drive unit that drives the pan-tilt unit, an image sensor that converts the image into an electric signal, a signal processing circuit that processes the electric signal, and the signal processing circuit A signal multiplexing circuit that multiplexes the audio signal with a processed video signal, a pan-tilt drive enable / disable signal output from the pan-tilt drive unit, and a pan-tilt drive signal output by operating the pan-tilt operation unit, and the pan-tilt A pan / tilt drive control circuit for controlling a drive, and the pan / tilt drive received by the pan / tilt drive control circuit. TV door for pan-tilt mechanism to superimpose whether signal to the video signal, characterized in that it consists of a superimposition circuit for sending to the monitor screen.