JPH08331434A - Video camera apparatus and video camera remote controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To eliminate a complicated operation for setting at the time of photographing, to secure smooth passage between a camera and a remote controller and to enable free camera work at the site of photographing. CONSTITUTION: A control command is transmitted from a remote controller 300 to a video camera 100 by radio. A picked-up and compressed view finder image and control data are transmitted from the video camera 100 to the video camera 100 by radio while being multiplexed in time division manner.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video camera device having a remotely controlled function and a video camera remote control device for remotely controlling the video camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, the demand for one-man operation of a television camera is increasing, and in order to realize this, it is desired to allow the camera to be operated at a place away from the camera. For example, when operating the camera with himself as the subject, if the user can see the image of himself in the viewfinder of the camera while being a subject away from the camera,
Operability is greatly improved.

In order to realize this, for example, a camera control device with a monitor is provided separately from the camera (camera body and electric pan / tilt base), and this is connected to the camera by a cable to remotely control the operation of the camera. It is possible to do it.

[0004]

However, in such a wired remote control system, it is necessary to dispose a cable in addition to the camera body, tripod, and pan / tilt stand, so that the disposing work is required, so that photographing is performed. The setting for the cable may be complicated, and the cable may obstruct the passage between the camera and the remote control device. Further, there is a problem that it is difficult to freely move the position of the camera because of the existence of the cable.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the complexity of setting for photographing and to ensure smooth passage between the camera and the remote control device. An object of the present invention is to provide a video camera device and a video camera remote control device that enable free camera work at a shooting site.

[0006]

A video camera device of the present invention is a video camera device whose operation is controlled by a remote control device, and a command receiving means for receiving a wireless control command from the control device. , Image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject according to the received control command, image transmission means for wirelessly transmitting the captured image as a still image to the control device, and wirelessly transmitting control data indicating the control state of the image pickup means to the control device. And a control data transmission means. This still image can be wirelessly transmitted at a constant cycle by, for example, a spread spectrum communication method. It is also possible to compress a still image and wirelessly transmit it. Furthermore, the still image and the control data may be time-division multiplexed and wirelessly transmitted.

A video camera remote control device of the present invention is a remote control device for controlling the operation of a video camera device which is remotely arranged, and a still image receiving means for receiving a still image wirelessly transmitted from the video camera device. Command transmitting means for wirelessly transmitting a control command for controlling the operation to the video camera device, and control for receiving control data indicating a control state of the video camera device wirelessly transmitted from the video camera device. And data receiving means.

[0008]

In the video camera device and the video camera remote control device of the present invention, the image of the video camera device is wirelessly transmitted to the video camera remote control device, and the operator can monitor the imaging state there.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 shows a video camera device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Similarly, FIG. 2 represents a video camera remote control device. In this figure, a video camera device (hereinafter, simply referred to as a video camera) 100 is fixedly mounted on an electric pan / tilt base 200, and a video camera remote control device (hereinafter, referred to as a remote controller) 300.
It is remotely located in a position where wireless transmission can be mutually performed. The video camera 100 performs a predetermined process on a CCD (charge coupled device) 12 as an image sensor that converts an object image formed by the imaging lens 11 into an electrical image signal, and an image signal output from the CCD 12. And the superimposing circuit 15 for superimposing the output signal of the signal processing circuit 13 and the output signal of the character generator 14 and outputting them to the viewfinder 26 and the A / D (analog / digital) converter 16. , An A / D converter 16 for converting the output signal of the superimposing circuit 15 into digital image data, and an A / D converter 16
A field memory 17 that temporarily stores the image data output from the field memory, a data compression circuit 18 that compresses the image data read from the field memory 17, an A / D converter 16, and a field memory 17.
And a timing generator 1 for outputting a timing signal serving as a reference for the operation timing of the data compression circuit 18.
9, a time-division multiplexing circuit 21 for time-division multiplexing the image data compressed by the data compression circuit 18 and the control data (data indicating the control state of the device) output from the microprocessor 20, A modulation circuit 22 for modulating the output of the division multiplexing circuit 21 by a spread spectrum communication system,
An antenna 23 that radiates the transmission signal modulated by the modulation circuit 22 as a radio wave toward the remote controller 300.
And the remote controller 30 received by the antenna 23
Demodulation circuit 24 for demodulating radio waves (control command) from 0
And a lens control circuit 25 for controlling the operation of the imaging lens 11, the above-mentioned parts and the electric pan / tilt stand 200.
And a microprocessor (CPU) 20 for controlling the. The electric pan / tilt table 200 can change the directivity direction of the imaging lens 11 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction according to an instruction from the CPU 20.

On the other hand, the remote controller 300 creates a control command based on the operation contents instructed by the operator from the panel switch 31, and outputs necessary display data to the panel display 32, and a CPU 33.
Modulation circuit 34 that modulates a control command from the CPU 33
And the output of the modulation circuit 34 as a radio wave, the video camera 10
The antenna 35 that radiates toward 0, the demodulation circuit 36 that demodulates the radio wave from the video camera 100 received by the antenna 35, and the reception signal demodulated by the demodulation circuit 36 are separated into an image signal and control data. Control data to CPU3
Demultiplexer 37, a data decompression circuit 38 for decompressing the image signal (image data in a compressed state) separated by the demultiplexer 37 to restore the original image data, and the decompressed image data Based on a timing generator 39 that extracts and generates a timing signal, a field memory 41 that temporarily stores image data from the data restoration circuit 38 in synchronization with the timing signal from the timing generator 39, and image data read from the field memory 41. An image signal generating circuit 42 for generating a video signal and a monitor 43 for reproducing and displaying a video based on the output of the image signal generating circuit 42.

Next, the video camera 1 having the above configuration
00 and the remote controller 300 will be described.

First, the operation of transmitting an image signal and control data from the video camera 100 to the remote controller 300 will be described. In the video camera 100, the output of the CCD 12 is converted into a video signal by the signal processing circuit 13. The superimposing circuit 15 superimposes this video signal on the characters and symbols generated by the character generator 14 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 20 to form a viewfinder image signal, which is sent to the viewfinder 20. The viewfinder image signal is also input to the A / D converter 16 and converted into digital data. Then, data for one screen (field) synchronized with the timing signal output from the timing generator 14 (for example, once every 3 seconds) is stored in the field memory 17. Field memory 17
The viewfinder image signal stored in is read in synchronization with the timing signal output from the timing generator 14 on a field-by-field basis, and is image-compressed by the data compression circuit 18. This compressed data (compressed still image) is time-division multiplexed with the control data generated by the CPU 20 in the time-division multiplexing circuit 21, modulated by the modulation circuit 22, and radiated as a radio wave from the antenna 23 to the remote controller 300. .

The modulation circuit 22 is adapted to perform modulation based on the spread spectrum modulation method, and the band of the signal is spread sufficiently (for example, 100 times). here,
The signal band will be described. The capacity of the viewfinder image stored in the field memory 17 is 768 × 240 × 8 (bits) = 1.47 megabits in the case of monochrome, so if this is read over 3 seconds as above, the transfer rate Is 492 kilobits / second. If this is compressed to, for example, 1/2 using an image compression technique such as MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), the transfer rate becomes 246 kilobits / second. Radio frequency bandwidth 2
With a processing frequency of 6 MHz, a processing gain of 20 dB or more can be obtained, which is a value that can be wirelessly transmitted practically without a license under the Radio Law at the present time.

On the other hand, in the remote controller 300, the radio waves from the video camera 100 are received by the antenna 35, demodulated by the demodulation circuit 36, and then separated by the demultiplexer 37 into image data and control data. The control data is passed to the CPU 33. CPU33
Recognizes the operation state of the video camera 100 based on this control data, and determines the next operation (for example, LED display on the panel display 32, issuance of a new control command, etc.). On the other hand, the image data is decompressed by the data decompression circuit 38 to be restored to the original data and stored in the field memory 41. The image signal generation circuit 42 uses the image data stored in the field memory 41 to monitor the monitor 4.
3 generates an image signal in a format that can be input to H.3. The field memory 41 is prepared for two fields and is connected alternately to the image signal generating circuit 42 and the data restoring circuit 38, respectively. The operation in this case is performed in synchronization with the timing signal generated by the timing generator 39.

Next, the operation of transmitting a control command to the video camera 100 from the remote controller 300 will be described. In the remote controller 300, the instruction information input by the operator from the panel switch 31 is passed to the CPU 33. CPU33
Based on this instruction information, control commands for the video camera 100 and the electric pan / tilt stand 200 are generated. This control command is modulated by the modulation circuit 34 and radiated as a radio wave from the antenna 35 toward the video camera 100. Since the information amount of this control command is much smaller than the image data from the video camera 100 to the remote controller 300, it is not necessary to use spread spectrum communication.

On the other hand, in the video camera 100, the radio wave (control command) from the remote controller 300 is received by the antenna 23, demodulated by the demodulation circuit 24, and then input to the CPU 20. The CPU 20 decodes this control command, and instructs the lens control circuit 25, the electric pan / tilt stand 200, etc. to perform the operation of the requested content.

In this embodiment, the transmission period of the still image is set to 3 seconds, but this can be said to be a sufficient period for remote control of the video camera 100. However, as long as it is within the allowable range of the transmission band, the still image may be transmitted at a shorter cycle (for example, once every 2 seconds or once per second). In this case, the image can be monitored in a form closer to a moving image, and the remote operability is improved. Further, a color image may be used instead of the monochrome image as long as it is within the allowable range of the transmission band.

In addition to the wireless still image transmission as described above, it is also possible to separately provide a cable type image transmission by a cable. In this case, it is possible to transmit a moving image instead of a still image as needed.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the image obtained by the video camera device is wirelessly transmitted to the video camera remote control device, so that the operator is away from the video camera. Can also monitor the imaging state. Moreover, since it is performed wirelessly without using a cable, it is possible to eliminate the complexity of setting for shooting such as the work of arranging the cable, and also for the passage between the camera and the remote control device. It will not cause any problems. Furthermore, since there is no cable, it is possible to perform free camerawork at the shooting site. Also, since the captured image is wirelessly transmitted as a still image instead of a moving image,
The amount of transmitted information can be reduced.

In particular, according to the video camera device of the third aspect, since the still image is transmitted by the spread spectrum communication, the transmission band can be kept within the range permitted by the Radio Law. The effect is that you do not need a license.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a video camera device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a video camera remote control device for controlling the video camera device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 18 data compression circuit 20 CPU 21 time division multiplexing circuit 22 modulation circuit 23 antenna 24 demodulation circuit 25 lens control circuit 26 viewfinder 31 panel switch 33 CPU 34 modulation circuit 35 antenna 36 demodulation circuit 37 demultiplexer 38 data decompression circuit 43 monitor 100 video Camera 200 Electric pan / tilt stand 300 Remote controller

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A video camera device, the operation of which is controlled by a remote control device, the command receiving device receiving a wireless control command from the control device, and the imaging device imaging a subject according to the received control command. An image transmitting unit that wirelessly transmits the captured image as a still image to the control device, and a control data transmitting unit that wirelessly transmits control data indicating a control state of the image capturing unit to the control device. Video camera device. 2. The video camera device according to claim 1, wherein the image transmitting unit wirelessly transmits the still image at a constant cycle. 3. The video camera device according to claim 1, wherein the image transmitting means transmits the still image by spread spectrum communication. 4. The video camera device according to claim 1, wherein the image transmitting unit compresses the still image and wirelessly transmits the still image. 5. The video camera device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the still image by the image transmission unit and the transmission of the control data by the control data transmission unit are performed by time division multiplexing. 6. A remote control device for controlling the operation of a remotely arranged video camera device, comprising: still image receiving means for receiving a still image wirelessly transmitted from the video camera device; Command transmission means for wirelessly transmitting a control command for controlling the operation, and control data reception means for receiving control data indicating the control state of the video camera device wirelessly transmitted from the video camera device. Video camera remote control device characterized by.