JP3506464B2 - TV camera remote control - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device for a television camera, in which the pan, tilt, lens zoom, focus and other functions of the television camera are operated by remote control. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to obtain weather information, images from above, etc., TV cameras supported by pan heads have been installed at various places such as outdoors and on the ceiling, and the photographing position by this TV camera is The pan drive means and the tilt drive means provided on the platform are used to remotely control the pan and tilt operations, and the zoom drive means for the TV camera lens and the zoom and focus operations are performed by the focus drive means. There is known a remote control device for a television camera which is operated.

Further, when performing remote control of the television camera, the operating states of respective functions such as pan, tilt, zoom and focus at a specific photographing position (shot) are set and stored in advance, and the present photographing position is changed. For example, there is a technology that controls the movement of each function to end at the same time when automatically changing to the memory shooting position.
It is publicly known as seen in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-6163.

In the above prior art, when changing from an arbitrary photographing position to a preset photographing position, a moving time is set by an operator in order to start and stop movement of each function at the same time. A drive signal is output to each drive means at a moving speed calculated in accordance with the instructed moving time to perform control. At that time, the movement is not always completed at the instructed time, and with respect to the function having a large movement amount, the movement may not be completed within the instructed time even at the maximum movement speed, and at this time, in the above-mentioned preceding example. The designated time is automatically increased and corrected so that the movement of each function ends at the same time.

[0005]

However, as described above, the moving speed of each function at the time of changing the photographing position is automatically determined by the operator's instruction of the transition time and the comparison with the shortest possible transition time. The control that is performed by correction has the following problems.

(1) When the instruction time for the amount of movement from the current position to the registered position is small, the movement of each function does not end at the same time, so the operator changes the transition time without any notice. It will be done and it will not be the desired time.

(2) Originally, the request for moving the photographing position is as follows. First, when it is desired to complete the shift in the shortest possible time by requiring only the image at the photographing position where the shift is completed. In some cases, moving images are needed and it is desired to complete the moving at an appropriate speed. In the former case, the instruction is to minimize the moving time, but the shortest moving time is unknown. However, it may not be possible to easily set it, or the maximum speed may be reached depending on the amount of movement, causing noise problems.In addition, even in the latter time setting, the relationship with the shortest movement time is unknown and the optimum speed is obtained. Similarly, the operation of instructing the moving time is complicated.

In a television camera, a lens having different characteristics may be exchanged and used depending on the change of the required angle of view and the like, and the lens exchange also causes a change in the photographing position. It is necessary to set the speed so that the movement of the function ends at the same time,
Depending on the lens, the moving speed changes due to an increase in the weight of the driving portion or an increase in the moving amount, and there is a possibility that the simultaneous termination function may not be obtained due to changes in these specifications.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a remote control of a television camera in which a transition time can be set by moving a photographing position by a simple instruction operation and a desired simultaneous termination function can be obtained even when a lens is replaced. The purpose is to provide a device.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a remote control device for a television camera according to the present invention has a zoom lens 3 on a television camera 1 as shown in FIG. The pan base 4 is provided with a pan drive means 6 for panning by the turning movement of the TV camera 1 and a tilt drive means 7 for tilting by vertical tilt, and the zoom is also provided. The lens 3 is provided with a zoom drive means 8 for zooming and a focus drive means 9 for focusing, and further, drive signals from the drive control means 11 are output to the drive means 6 to 9 for each of these functions, respectively. The stop position and the drive speed are controlled.

On the other hand, a shot storage means 12 for storing the position information of each function at a specific photographing position is installed in advance, and the shortest time calculation for receiving the position information of the target position stored in this shot storage means 12 is performed. The means 13 calculates the shortest time required for each function to start and end at the same time from the moving amount and the maximum moving speed of each function in the transition from the current position to the target position.

The data of the maximum moving speed of each of the above-mentioned functions is based on the set values preset in the drive control means 11 for the pan drive means 6 and the tilt drive means 7 of the platform 4, and the zoom of the zoom lens 3. The drive unit 8 and the focus drive unit 9 are obtained based on the information input from the lens information reading unit 15 about the current zoom lens 3. Lens information reading means
Reference numeral 15 is for reading information on the maximum moving speeds of the zoom driving means 8 and the focus driving means 9 of the zoom lens 3, and actually driving both driving means 8 and 9 to measure and read the speed, or the zoom lens. It is obtained by reading from the information medium mounted in No. 3, or from the operation state of the manual setting switch.

Further, a transition time setting means 14 which is operated by an operator and sets a transition time from the current position to the target position is installed, and the transition time setting means 14 is equal to or longer than the shortest time calculated by the shortest time calculating means 13. The transition time is set to. That is, the transition time setting means 14 can adjust the transition time from the current position to the target position, and when the transition time is set to a time shorter than the shortest time calculated by the shortest time calculation means 13 by the adjustment. Can invalidate the setting and set the transition time only to the minimum time or more. Then, when the current photographing position is shifted to the target position based on the signals of the shot storage means 12 and the shift time setting means 14, the operating speed of each of the driving means 6-9 is moved. The control amount by the drive control means 11 is set so that the end times are the same.

The data of the transition time set by the transition time setting means 14 is output to the speed calculation means 16, and the speed calculation means 16 is arranged so that the transition of each function ends at the same time within the above-mentioned transition time. Set the moving speed by calculation. Then, the speed signal from the speed calculation means 16 and the target position information from the shot storage means 12 are output to the drive control means 11, and the drive control means 11 pans, tilts, zooms, and focuses from the current position to the target position. In order to carry out each of the above-mentioned operations, the driving signals are outputted so that the driving means 6 to 9 are simultaneously started to move at predetermined speeds and simultaneously stopped at the target position.

The above-mentioned function is described in the above 4
Not limited to the kind, a height function for moving up and down the television camera is also conceivable, and the function to be controlled is increased or decreased as necessary.

[0016]

In the remote control device for the television camera as described above, the television camera can be remotely controlled to change the photographing position by operating the driving means for each function such as pan and tilt, and the image at the predetermined photographing position can be remotely controlled. In order to obtain, the position information of each function at the shooting position is registered in the shot storage means. In addition, the maximum movement speed information of the pan and tilt drive means of the platform is registered, and the maximum movement speed information of the zoom and focus drive means of the zoom lens is currently read by the lens information reading means even if the lens is replaced. The one corresponding to the zoom lens of is read. Then, at the time of shifting from the current shooting position to the target position stored in the shot storage means, the shortest time calculating means moves from the current position to the target position and the maximum movement from the lens information reading means or the like. The speed is used to calculate the shortest time required for each function to start and end at the same time. Set a transition time setting value that is greater than or equal to this minimum time, and move the image at a desired speed while changing each function based on the transition time so that the change ends at the same time when each function reaches the target position. The moving speed is calculated, and a signal based on each of the calculated moving speeds is output to each drive means to control the movement to the target position.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the remote control device for the television camera of this embodiment.

The television camera 1 is composed of a camera body 2 and a replaceable zoom lens 3, and the camera body 2 is a pan head 4 which can pan in a turning direction and tilt in a vertical tilting direction.
Is supported by. The platform 4 is installed on a fixed portion by a tripod 5 or the like. The pan and tilt operations of the platform 4 are provided so that they can be driven by servo motors 42 and 43 (FIG. 3) described later. Similarly, zoom and focus operations in the zoom lens 3 of the television camera 1 are provided so as to be driven by servo motors 44 and 45 (FIG. 3) described later.

And, those pan, tilt, zoom,
The focus operation is configured such that remote control can be performed based on an operation of the controller 10 by an operator.
The platform 4 of the TV camera 1 and the controller 10 may be connected by a communication means such as a cable 21 (analog signal), and a telephone line or the like may be used as the communication means.

Explaining the operation members of the controller 10, a focus knob 22, a zoom switch 23, and a joystick 24 are provided for performing the normal zoom, focus, pan, and tilt operations of the television camera 1. The focus knob 22 is a rotary operation member, and rotation of the focus knob 22 operates the rotary encoder 39 (FIG. 3) to bring the focus knob 22 into close proximity.
It is used to adjust the far focus. A seesaw type zoom switch 23 is used, and the swing thereof is used to operate the potentiometer 35 (FIG. 3) to perform wide-angle / telephoto zoom adjustment. The joystick 24 is a rod-shaped operating member that can be tilted left and right and up and down. The joystick 24 tilts left and right to operate the pan potentiometer 36 (FIG. 3) to adjust left and right pans, and tilts up and down to tilt. The tilt potentiometer 37 (FIG. 3) is operated to adjust the tilt up and down. The zoom switch 23
And joystick 24 potentiometers 35 to 37
Is provided in a structure that returns to the neutral position when the operation of the operation member is released.

A large number of shot switches 25 and writing memo switches 26 are arranged above the controller 10. The shot switch 25 and the memo switch 26 are provided as an on / off push button type. The shot switch 25 is turned on when the memo switch 26 is once pressed and in the writing mode,
The position information of the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus at that time, that is, the data of the shooting position is recorded at a predetermined address, and when it is turned on when not in the write mode, the position information recorded at the predetermined address is recorded. Is read out and functions as the above-mentioned shot storage means 12.

Further, a time adjusting knob 27 is installed, and this time adjusting knob 27 is configured as a rotary encoder,
The setting time of the moving time for moving from the current position to the target shooting position is adjusted, and the setting contents are taken in when the shot switch 25 is turned on in the non-writing mode. In addition, the controller 10 includes a time display unit 28
Is provided. The time display unit 28 displays the transition time from the current position to the target position,
The shortest transition time is displayed when the shot switch 25 is operated, and the final transition time is set by changing the time display with the time adjustment knob 27. Further, the execution switch 29 is provided and is operated when starting the movement to the target position at the time displayed on the time display section 28.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of the controller. The controller 10 has a built-in CPU 30 for performing arithmetic processing, a RAM 31 (battery backup), a ROM.
32 is connected by the data bus 33, and the signals (voltage) of the potentiometers 35 to 37 operated by the zoom switch 23 and the joystick 24 are input via the A / D converter 34, and similarly the I / O port The signal of the rotary encoder 39 operated by the focus knob 22, the signal of the shot switch 25, the memo switch 26, and the signal of the rotary encoder 40 operated by the time adjustment knob 27 are input via 38, and the time display section 28 ( LED or LC
D) is connected.

Further, the CPU 30 has a D / A converter 41.
A control signal, specifically a position signal, is output to the pan drive unit 6 and the tilt drive unit 7 of the platform 4, and the zoom drive unit 8 and the focus drive unit 9 of the zoom lens 3 via the. Servo motors 42 to 45 are installed in the respective driving means 6 to 9 to operate respective driving members to perform pan, tilt, zoom and focus operations, and their respective operating positions are for position detection. Detected by potentiometers 46-49. Then, the position command signal from the D / A converter 41 and the position detection signals from the position detection potentiometers 46 to 49 are input to the position servo amplifiers 51 to 54, and the servo motors 42 to 45 are arranged so that they coincide with each other. It is configured to perform drive control of.

The signals Sz, Sf from the position detecting potentiometers 48, 49 installed in the zoom driving means 8 and the focus driving means 9 of the zoom lens 3 are the A /
It is input to the CPU 30 via the D converter 34 for reading lens information.

The remote control of the photographing position of the television camera 1 by the arithmetic processing of the CPU 30 will be described with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 4 and 5. In FIG. 4, after the control starts when the power is turned on, the initial setting is performed in step S1, and the maximum moving speed of zoom and focus drive of the zoom lens 3 is read in the lens information reading routine of step S2. Details of the routine will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Then, the on / off state of the memo switch 26 is read (S3). Then, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the memo switch 26 is turned on, and this determination is N
When it is O, the process directly proceeds to step S6, while when the determination is YES and the memo switch 26 is turned on, the writing mode is set at step S5 and then the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, the on / off state of the shot switch 25 is read, and in step S7 it is determined whether the shot switch 25 has been turned on. When the shot switch 25 is in the OFF state and NO is determined, the operation states of the joystick 24, the focus knob 22 and the zoom switch 23 are fetched from the signals of the potentiometers 35 to 37 and the rotary encoder 39 in step S8, and the operation amounts thereof are changed. The position data of the function is converted and added to the current position (S9), and the updated current position signal is output to the position servo amplifiers 51 to 54 of the driving means 6 to 9 via the D / A converter 41 (S1).
0), if there is a deviation from the position detection signals from the position detection potentiometers 46 to 49, drive the servo motors 42 to 45 so as to match the position of the input signal, and drive the pan and tilt by operating the joystick 24. , And focus and zoom drive by operating the focus knob 22 and the zoom switch 23 are performed according to the respective manual operation amounts.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step S7 is YES and one of the shot switches 25 is turned on, whether or not the writing mode is set in step S11, that is, whether the memo switch 26 has been turned on. If it is in the write mode, the current position of the pan, tilt, zoom and focus (the position detection potentiometer) is set to the address of the memory corresponding to the number of the shot switch 25 turned on in step S12.
After writing the position information input to the D / A converter 41 based on the signals of 46 to 49, the write mode is released (S13).

Subsequently, when the determination in step S11 is NO and only the shot switch 25 is turned on without being in the write mode, the process proceeds to step S14 in FIG. 5 and corresponds to the number of the shot switch 25 which is turned on. Memory (R
Pan, tilt written in the address of AM31),
Read the information of the desired position of zoom and focus Am
At the same time, the information of the current position of each function is fetched and assigned to An in step S15. Then, each movement amount obtained by subtracting the current position An from the target position Am of each function is the maximum transition speed of each function.
The minimum moving times tp to tf required for each transition are calculated by dividing by Vp to Vf (S16), and the minimum moving times tp to tf are compared with each other in step S17 to extract the longest moving time. , Set this longest movement time to the shortest movement time to when starting and stopping each function at the same time.

Then, in step S18, the moving time t is displayed on the time display section 28, but in the first stage, the shortest moving time to is displayed. Succeedingly, in a step S19, it is determined whether or not the shift may be executed by setting the moving time displayed on the time display unit 28, that is, whether or not the execution switch 29 is turned on. Proceeds to step S22. On the other hand, in the case of adjusting to another travel time instead of the travel in the shortest travel time to, by proceeding to step S20, the time of the time display section 28 can be changed by operating the time adjustment knob 27. , Set a new travel time. In step S21, it is determined whether or not the time t set by the time adjusting knob 27 is equal to or more than the shortest moving time to, and if YES, the process returns to step S18 to display the changed moving time t. Although it is displayed on 28, the setting display to the time shorter than the shortest movement time to is invalidated by the NO judgment.

When executing the movement time t set as described above, first, in step S22, the movement amount Am-An of each function is divided by the movement time t to calculate each unit time movement amount. And their current position An
To the new current position An. Then, in step S23, the unit time t is synchronized with the update timer.
= 1 (for example, several msec to several tens msec), and when the unit time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S24 to output the updated current position signal to the D / A converter 41, and each drive means 6 based on this signal. The position signals are input to the position servo amplifiers 51 to 54 of 9 to 9 to drive the servomotors 42 to 45 by comparison with the position detection signals, the moving time t is subtracted in step S25, and the moving time t is calculated in step S26. Is determined to be 0, and the above step S22 is performed until the time is up.
The processing from S25 to S25 is repeated to update the current position to drive the servo motors 42 to 45 so that the servo motors 42 to 45 are simultaneously stopped at the photographing positions corresponding to the shot switch 25 registered in advance.

The routine of the lens information reading process of the step S2 will be described with reference to FIG. 6. By the initial setting of the step S1, the position servo amplifiers of the driving means 6 to 9 will be described.
When the initial position signal is input to 51 to 54, for example, the tilt driving means 7 is driven in the horizontal state, the zoom driving means 8 is driven to the WIDE end, and the focus driving means 9 is driven to the NEAR end. After that, step S of the lens information reading routine
At 30, TELE is applied to the position servo amplifier 53 of the zoom driving means 8.
In addition to outputting the end position signal, the INF end position signal is also output to the position servo amplifier 54 of the focus drive means 9 to drive both drive means 8 and 9 at the maximum speed.

Then, in step S31, the potentiometer
Potentiometer data is sampled at predetermined intervals based on the signals of 48 and 49, and the data is stored (S32). Next, in step S33, the TELE end or I
It is determined whether or not the NF end has been reached, and when NO is determined until the NF end is reached, the data sampling in step S31 is continued. If the determination in step S33 is YES, then TEL
When the E end or the INF end is reached, the WIDE end position signal and the NEAR end position signal are output for reverse driving in step S34, and the reverse driving is performed at the maximum speed.

Also in this drive, the potentiometer data is sampled at predetermined time intervals based on the signals from the potentiometers 48 and 49 in step S35, the data is stored in step S36, and the data reaches the WIDE end or the NEAR end in step S37. It is determined whether or not it has been determined, and when the determination is NO until the determination is reached, the data sampling in step S35 is continued. When the determination in step S37 is YES and the WIDE end or the NEAR end is reached, the maximum speed is calculated by the average speed calculation or the like in step S38, and the data is stored in the RAM 31 (S39). Then, it is called and used as the maximum moving speeds Vz and Vf in the calculation of the moving time in step S16.

The data of the maximum moving speeds Vp and Vt of the pan driving means 6 and the tilt driving means 7 of the platform 4 are stored in the RAM 31 because the values obtained in advance are not changed. There is.

According to the above-described embodiment, when the power is turned on to start the remote control, each function moves to the initial state according to the initial setting, and subsequently the zoom drive and the focus of the zoom lens 3 are performed. The zoom lens 3 is driven to read the maximum moving speed.
Even when the is replaced, the speed information about the actually mounted zoom lens 3 can be read in. Then, after setting the position information of the target position, to move the image from the current position to the target position, first, when the operator operates the shot switch 25 corresponding to the target position, the current position with respect to the target position. The shortest movement time required for each function to start and stop at the same time from the position is displayed on the time display section 28, and the actual movement time is set by the time adjustment knob 27 only to a value larger than this shortest movement time, Each function finishes moving at the same time. Further, in the above-described embodiment, since the execution switch 29 is separately provided, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of erroneous operation, as compared with the case where the movement is started by operating the shot switch 25.

In the above embodiment, the lens information, that is, the maximum moving speed is actually read by zoom driving and focus driving, and the movement at that time is measured from the signals of potentiometers 48 and 49 to be calculated. However, the maximum speed information may be registered in advance in an information medium such as a ROM mounted on the zoom lens 3, and may be read and input when the lens is exchanged. You may read from the operation state of the manual setting switch set by.

[0039]

According to the present invention as described above, the shortest time required for simultaneous start and end of each function from the current position to the target position is calculated by the shortest time calculating means, and the transition time is calculated. By providing the transition time setting means for setting, the transition speed does not change against the wishes of the operator, and the movement time can be set while confirming the relationship with the shortest movement time. In addition, the moving time can be set to obtain a desired speed, the number of rehearsals can be reduced, and the operability can be improved. Further, even when the lens is exchanged, the information corresponding to the maximum moving speed of the zoom and focus drive means can be obtained by the lens information reading means, and the calculation of the shortest moving time can be performed accurately. The simultaneous termination function of the function can be secured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram for clarifying the configuration of a remote control device for a television camera of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of a remote control device for a television camera showing a specific example.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a schematic configuration of a controller.

4 to 6 are flowcharts of main parts for explaining processing of a controller.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 TV camera 3 zoom lens 4 pan head 6 Pan drive means 7 Tilt drive means 8 Zoom drive means 9 Focus drive means 10 controller 11 Drive control means 12-shot storage means 13 Minimum time calculation method 14 Transition time setting means 15 Lens information reading means 16 Speed calculation means 25 shot switch 27-hour adjustment knob 48,49 Potentiometer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-2-89014 (JP, A) JP-A-2-149073 (JP, A) JP-B-58-6163 (JP, B1) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/222-5/232

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A driving means for driving each function of a television camera such as pan / tilt of a platform and zoom / focus of a lens is provided, and position information of each function at a specific photographing position is stored in advance. A television camera provided with a shot storage means for controlling the operation of the drive means by the drive control means so that the respective functions are simultaneously started from the current photographing position to the target position recorded in the shot storage means and simultaneously ended. And a lens information reading means for reading the maximum movement speeds of the zoom driving means and the focus driving means of the lens, speed information of the lens information reading means, and a target position stored in the shot storage means. The amount of movement of each function when receiving the position information and moving from the current position to the target position The shortest time calculation means that calculates the shortest time required for each function to start and end at the same time from the maximum movement speed, and the transition time from the current position to the target position can be adjusted When the time is set to be shorter than the time, the setting is invalidated, the transition time setting means that can set the transition time only to the minimum time or more, and a signal of the transition time by the transition time setting means are received. A speed calculation means for calculating and setting the moving speed of each function so that the transfer of each function ends at the same time in the transfer time, and the speed signal from this speed calculation means and the target position information from the shot storage means are driven It is input to the control means, and the drive control means moves the drive means of each function at each speed. The remote control device of the television camera and outputs a control signal to. 2. The remote control device for a television camera according to claim 1, wherein the lens information reading means actually drives the zoom driving means and the focus driving means to measure and read the speed thereof.