JPH08181902A - Camera control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To allow one operator to control plural cameras by controlling one camera to made other cameras pick up the image of the same object. CONSTITUTION: A relation of a pickup azimuth of a camera 32B in which the camera 32B picks up an image of the same object with respect to plural pickup azimuths of the main camera (e.g. 32A) is listed as a table and it is stored in advance in an external storage device 20. An output video image of the camera 32A is displayed on a monitor 30. Various buttons for camera operation are displayed on the monitor 30 and a mouse 24 is used to click each button. A CPU 10 reads a new pickup azimuth of the camera 32B corresponding to a new pickup azimuth of the camera 32A is read from the external storage device 20 in response to an operation of the camera 32A by the mouse 24. The CPU 10 controls a universal head 34A of the camera 32A in response to the click of the mouse 24 and controls a universal head 34B of the camera 32B in response to the information read from the external storage device 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras so as to photograph the same subject.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras from a single control device (for example, a computer) is required and currently used in a surveillance camera system and a video conference system. For example, in a video conferencing system, multiple attendees, individually or as a group,
Furthermore, prepare multiple cameras that shoot from different angles and install them at different locations. Then, the images having different photographing positions and / or angles are appropriately switched and displayed on the monitor.

When the subject is photographed up close,
Since the position of the object to be photographed may be unclear, a screen shot at a wide angle may be required separately. In that case,
A zoom camera and a wide-angle camera are prepared, and these cameras are switched or simultaneously displayed on a monitor.

[0004]

However, when controlling a plurality of cameras with a single control device or computer, it is usually necessary to control or operate them separately while checking the images obtained from the individual cameras. There is. As a result, one person can control multiple cameras simultaneously and
It was difficult to perform the tilt operation.

Further, when a plurality of people control or operate each camera separately, mutual mutual communication is required. There are problems that it is difficult to operate a plurality of cameras cooperatively and that manpower is required.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera control system that allows a plurality of cameras to be controlled or operated more easily by one person.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a camera control system in which a plurality of cameras can be simultaneously controlled by a control operation for one camera and the cameras can photograph the same subject.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A camera control system according to the present invention is a camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras whose shooting directions can be freely changed, and which corresponds to an operation of a shooting direction of one main camera. The azimuth determining means for deciding the new azimuth of the other camera corresponding to the new azimuth of the main camera, and controlling the main camera according to the operation of the azimuth of the main camera. And a control means for controlling the other camera to the new photographing direction of the other camera determined by the direction determining means.

The camera control system according to the present invention also includes
A camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras whose shooting directions can be freely changed, the other camera corresponding to a new shooting direction of the main camera according to an operation of the shooting direction of one main camera. Azimuth determining means for deciding a new photographing azimuth, first control means for controlling the main camera according to the operation of the photographing azimuth of the main camera, and photographic azimuth determined by the azimuth deciding means. And second control means for controlling the other camera.

The azimuth determining means includes, for example, a table storing means for storing a correspondence table of shooting azimuths for shooting the same subject with another camera for a plurality of shooting azimuths of the main camera, and the main camera. The information reading unit reads out, from the table storage unit, information on a new shooting direction of the other camera corresponding to the new shooting direction of the main camera according to the operation of the shooting direction. Of course, instead of such a table reference method, the shooting direction may be determined by calculation.

[0011]

When the main camera is operated by the above means, the other cameras are controlled so as to photograph the same subject in conjunction with this operation. That is, one person can simultaneously control a plurality of cameras.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. 10 is a CPU for controlling the whole, 12 is C
ROM storing the basic program of PU10, 14 is C
The RAM is a main memory of the PU 10 and stores an execution program and data, and is connected to each other via a bus 16. An external storage device 20 is connected to the bus 16 via an external storage interface 18. External storage device 20
The program and data are stored in. A mouse 24 and a keyboard 26 are connected to the bus 16 via an input interface 22, and a video monitor 30 is connected to the bus 16 via a display interface 28.

Reference numerals 32A and 32B denote cameras to be controlled, which are mounted on pans 34A and 34B, respectively. The output video signals of the cameras 32A and 32B are applied to the monitor 30 via the video interface 36 and the display interface 28. The CPU 1 will be described in detail later.
0 controls the video interface 36 via the bus 16 to control the display of images taken by the cameras 32A and 32B.

The pan heads 34A and 34B are connected to the bus 16 via the camera control interface 38, and the CPU
10 is a bus 16 and a camera control interface 38.
The pan heads 34A and 34B are controlled via the.

FIG. 2 shows an operation flowchart of this embodiment. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Here, a cubical room OABCDE as shown in FIG. 3 is used.
It is assumed that cameras 32A and 32B are attached to the corners A and B of the ceiling of F together with their pan heads 34A and 34B so as to photograph an object or a person on the floor ODCF. The cameras 32A and 32B can change their directions in a lateral direction (pan) and a vertical direction (tilt) by using the platform heads 34A and 34B.
The pan direction angle of the camera 32A is represented by θ, the tilt direction angle is represented by β, the pan direction angle of the camera 32B is represented by φ, and the tilt direction angle is represented by ψ. However, the center of the front is set to zero degree, and the right side of the pan is indicated by plus and the left side is indicated by minus. Regarding the tilt, the center of the front is set to zero degree, the upward direction is represented by plus, and the downward direction is represented by minus. FIG. 4 shows the parameters of the camera control command and their meanings.

In the present embodiment, a plurality of cameras can be interlockedly controlled. Among them, the camera which is directly controlled is called a main camera, and the camera which is interlockedly controlled according to the control of the main camera is called a sub camera. To do. Although the main camera can be arbitrarily selected, it is assumed here that the camera 32A is designated as the main camera. As a result, the camera 32B becomes a sub-camera controlled by the control of the camera 32A.

Cameras 32A and 32B are mounted on pan heads 34A and 34A.
A place where the mutual positional relationship is known together with B (see FIG.
Then, install it in the corners A and B) of the ceiling. Regarding the orientation of the camera 32A which is the main camera, the origin O (0,0,
0), the pan angle is -45 degrees and the tilt angle is zero degrees, and the camera 32, which is the sub camera,
About B, when it is directed to the origin O (0,0,0),
The pan angle is +45 degrees and the tilt angle is zero degrees (S1).

The coordinates (a, 0, a) of the installation position A of the main camera 32A and the coordinates (0, a, 0) of the installation position B of the sub camera 32B are input from the keyboard 26 (S).
2). The input coordinates are stored in the external storage device 20.

When the main camera 32A is panned,
In order for the sub camera 32B to shoot the same subject, the sub camera 32B needs to perform not only the pan operation but also the tilt operation. For example, in FIG. 3, the main camera 32A
When is panned in the plus direction by 45 degrees, the photographing center point of the main camera 32A moves on the locus of the arc OP.
On the other hand, when the sub-camera 32B is panned in the minus direction by 45 degrees, the center point of photographing of the camera 32B draws a locus like an arc OQ and moves to the point Q. In order to trace the locus of the arc OP with the sub camera 32B and move it to the point P, it is necessary to tilt the camera 32B downward by an appropriate amount.

Similarly, when the main camera 32A is tilted, it is necessary for the sub camera 32B to perform both the tilting operation and the panning operation so that the sub camera 32B can photograph the same subject.

The directions (pan angle and tilt angle) to be taken by the camera 32B with respect to the main photographing direction of the camera 32A are previously obtained from the coordinate values of the installation locations of the cameras 32A and 32B (S3). That is, the main camera 32A
The pan angle and tilt angle of the sub-camera 32B required when the camera is panned, and the pan angle and tilt angle of the sub-camera 32B required when the main camera 32A is tilted are obtained, and as shown in FIGS. Is stored in the external storage device 20 as table data (S4). In addition, φ1 to φ20 and φ1 to φ20 in FIG.
.Phi.1 to .phi.20 and .psi.1 to .psi.20 do not always have the same value.

Now, the preparation for actually starting the operation is completed.

When actually starting the operation of the camera, the program is loaded from the external storage device 20 onto the memory 14 and executed by the CPU 10. Main camera 3
The 2A output video signal is the video interface 36
And applied to the monitor 30 through the display interface 28 and displayed on the screen (S5).

On the monitor 30, the main camera 32A
As shown in FIG. 7, scroll bars 42 and 44 for pan and tilt operations are displayed around the window 40 for displaying the image of, and the pan angle and tilt angle scales are also displayed. By operating the pan operation scroll bar 42 and the tilt operation scroll bar 44 with the mouse 24, the user can instruct the CPU 10 about pan / tilt and its angle. That is, the mouse pointer is positioned on the scroll bar, the mouse is moved while the mouse button is pressed, and the scroll bar is dragged. When the button is released, the CPU 10 detects the position of the scroll bar at that time and calculates the angle corresponding thereto (S6).

The CPU 10 creates a control command for the main camera 32A using the obtained angle as a parameter, and sends the camera platform 3 via the camera control interface 38.
The control command is sent to 4A (S7). Head 34A
Directs the camera 32A to the angle specified by the control command.

The CPU 10 is also the main camera 32A.
The orientation of the sub camera 32B corresponding to the new orientation of the sub camera 32B is determined by referring to the table stored in the external storage device 20 (S
8) Generate a control command for changing the sub camera 32B in that direction, and send the control command to the platform 34B via the camera control interface 38 (S9). As a result, the camera 34B is changed to the direction in which the same object as that newly captured by the camera 32A is imaged.

For convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the control command is transmitted to the sub camera 32B after the control command is transmitted to the main camera 32A.
It is clear that the two can be controlled simultaneously.

In the above embodiment, the shooting direction of the sub camera is determined by the table reference method, but it is clear that the shooting direction of the sub camera can be determined by calculation, and this technique is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0030]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, by controlling one camera, the other cameras can be interlocked and controlled so as to photograph the same subject. This makes it easy for one person to operate multiple cameras.

If cameras with different characteristics such as zoom and wide-angle are used, it is possible to obtain up-and-down and wide-angle images with different effects by one camera operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a spatial view of a location where a camera is arranged.

FIG. 4 is a table of camera control commands.

FIG. 5 is a table showing pan / tilt angles required for a sub camera when the main camera is panned.

FIG. 6 is a table showing a van tilt angle required for a sub camera when the main camera is tilted.

FIG. 7 is an example of a user interface displayed on a monitor 30.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10: CPU 12: ROM 14: RAM 16: Bus 18: External storage interface 20: External storage device 22: Input interface 24: Mouse 26: Keyboard 28: Display interface 30: Video monitor 32A, 32B: Camera 34A, 34B: Cloud Platform 36: Video interface 38: Camera control interface 40: Window for displaying the image of the main camera 42: Scroll bar for pan operation 44: Scroll bar for tilt operation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras whose shooting directions can be freely changed, and which corresponds to a new shooting direction of the main camera according to an operation of the shooting direction of one main camera. The azimuth determining means for determining a new shooting azimuth of the other camera and the main camera according to the operation of the shooting azimuth of the main camera, and the other camera determined by the azimuth determining means. A camera control system comprising: a control unit that controls the other camera in a new shooting direction. 2. The table storage means for storing the correspondence table of the shooting directions for shooting the same subject with another camera for the plurality of shooting directions of the main camera, and the main camera. 2. The information reading means for reading, from the table storage means, information on a new shooting direction of the other camera corresponding to the new shooting direction of the main camera according to the operation of the shooting direction of the main camera. The described camera control system. 3. A camera control system for controlling a plurality of cameras whose shooting directions can be freely changed, and which corresponds to a new shooting direction of the main camera according to operation of the shooting direction of one main camera. The azimuth determining means for determining a new shooting azimuth of another camera, the first controlling means for controlling the main camera according to the operation of the shooting azimuth of the main camera, and the azimuth determining means. A camera control system comprising: a second control unit that controls the other camera in the determined shooting direction. 4. The table storage means, wherein the azimuth determining means stores a correspondence table of shooting azimuths for shooting the same subject with another camera for a plurality of shooting azimuths of the main camera, and the main camera. 4. The information reading means for reading, from the table storage means, information on the new shooting direction of the other camera corresponding to the new shooting direction of the main camera according to the operation of the shooting direction of the other main camera. The described camera control system.