JP3526805B2 - Objective mirror and wide-angle image input device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an objective mirror capable of continuously obtaining a wide-angle image and a wide-angle image input device using the objective mirror.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional wide-angle image input device acquires a continuous image by a plurality of images having different pointing points and partially overlapping with each other by using a photographing device having a certain angle of view to obtain a desired visual field. A method of synthesizing as a single image is adopted. Then, in order to obtain a plurality of images that are continuous images, a single photographing device changes the pointing direction to take a plurality of times, or a plurality of images are set in advance with different pointing directions. A means for collectively obtaining with a photographing device has been used.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the former,
The means for changing the pointing point cannot continuously obtain a wide-angle image, and there is a problem that a blind spot is periodically formed at a position outside the visual field of the photographing means. In addition to the problem that the pointing mechanism of the photographing means cannot follow the moving body, there is a problem that cost is high to speed up the pointing mechanism, and the reliability and durability of the mechanism are increased. There is also a problem of deterioration of the sex.

In the latter case, the means for acquiring a wide-angle image by using a plurality of photographing devices does not require a high-speed direction changing mechanism depending on the application, but a plurality of photographing devices are required. In addition to increasing the cost, it is unavoidable that the entire device becomes large-scale. Moreover, the difference in image quality occurs due to the difference in characteristics of the individual image capturing devices, and adjustment is required to correct the difference, which is a maintenance problem at the time of installation or maintenance and inspection.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an objective mirror which can continuously obtain a wide-angle image at a low cost and a wide-angle image input device using the objective mirror. To do.

[0006]

The objective mirror according to the present invention, which has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, condenses light within the angle of view of a panoramic image block while facing the front light-transmitting surface of the panoramic image block. It is characterized by arranging a convex lens that does. Further, the wide-angle image input device according to the present invention made to solve the above-mentioned problems includes a panoramic image block and a zoom mechanism located behind the panoramic image block and having an optical axis aligned with the panoramic image block. In a wide-angle image input device including an input image adjusting unit including a lens unit and a target that is an image formation site of light that has passed through the panoramic image block and the lens unit, a convex lens that collects light within the angle of view of the panoramic image block. And a tracing mechanism for moving the convex lens over the entire area of the front light-transmitting surface while facing the front light-transmitting surface of the panoramic image block. The input image adjusting means may be provided with an input image adjusting means including an optical axis adjusting mechanism for adjusting the positional relationship of the optical axis with respect to the target.

Here, the panoramic image block is shown in FIG.
In FIG. 3, a rotation made of a light-transmissive material having a front light-shielding surface 9 at the center of the front surface, a front light-transmitting surface 10 at the peripheral edge of the surface, a back light-shielding surface 11 at the peripheral edge of the back surface, and a back transparent surface 12 at the center of the rear surface. The rear light-shielding surface 11 is a reflecting mirror that can collect incident light from the front light-transmitting surface 10 to the front light-shielding surface 9 through the rotating body, and the front light-shielding surface 9 is a back light-shielding surface. This is a reflecting mirror that can collect the reflected light from 11 through the rotating body and collect it on the back transparent surface 12. As a method of arranging the convex lens in the objective mirror, there may be mentioned a constitution in which the convex lens is held or integrated with various supporting means including the tracing mechanism, or a constitution in which the convex lens is integrated with the front light-transmitting surface. May be appropriately changed according to the application.

The zoom mechanism whose optical axis coincides with that of the panoramic image block means a perpendicular line passing through the center of the back transparent surface of the panoramic image block, or a line passing through the center of the back transparent surface and its focal point, that is, the back. The zoom mechanism is formed by combining front and rear lenses having an optical axis that coincides with the optical axis of the light-transmitting surface. The target refers to a CCD or various photosensitive films when the image recognition means is an image pickup device such as a camera, and when the image recognition means is human eyes, the naked eye at the time when the image recognition means is closest to the eyepiece. Refers to.

The zoom mechanism and the optical axis adjusting mechanism may be automatic or manual, but the shift amount in the zoom mechanism and the optical axis adjusting mechanism is much smaller than the amount of moving the photographing apparatus itself, so that high precision is achieved. The mechanism of can be used. Since the displacement amount is small, a material that actively deforms in response to a given environment, such as a piezoelectric crystal, a shape memory alloy, or another synthetic material, can be used as the actuator driving means. The given environment means the supply of electricity, heat, moisture, light, sound and other energy, scientific substances, etc., and it is possible to easily generate a desired shift amount by controlling the environment. , Can be adjusted.

With respect to the positional relationship of the optical axis with respect to the target, while maintaining the optical axis perpendicular to the target surface, the relative positional relationship between the two is shifted in the optical axis direction or in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis. Say that. Such adjustment of the optical axis is 1. 1. shift the lens part 2. shift the target 3. Shift both the lens part and the target. It is possible to select from various methods such as shifting by operating the optical axis through another member such as a prism.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a wide-angle image input device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a panoramic image block 1, an input image adjusting unit 6, an image recognizing unit 8, a convex lens 20 for converging light within the angle of view of the panoramic image block 1, and the convex lens 20 for the panoramic image block 1. 1 illustrates an example of a wide-angle image input device including a trace mechanism 21 that is moved over the entire surface of the front transparent surface 10 while facing the front transparent surface 10.

In this example, the input image adjusting means 6 adjusts the positional relationship between the panoramic image block 1 and the lens portion 2 having the zoom mechanism 7, and the target 3 of the image recognizing means 8 with respect to the optical axis 4 of the lens portion 2. The optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 for performing the operation.

The zoom mechanism 7 includes a panoramic image block 1
A plurality of lenses (not shown), which are arranged in a rear stage so as to face the rear light-transmitting surface 12 and share the same optical axis 4 as the panoramic image block 1, are provided on the predetermined base along the optical axis 4. It has a structure in which it is movably fixed and the amount of movement can be adjusted mechanically or manually (by hand).
On the other hand, the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 is used for the panorama image block 1
And the target 3 of the image recognition means 8 is opposed to the optical axis 4 of the zoom mechanism 7 and is fixed so as to shift the target 3 in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis 4, and the shift is performed. It has a structure in which the amount can be adjusted mechanically or artificially.

As a structure which can be mechanically adjusted, for example, a plurality of lenses constituting the zoom mechanism 7 are fixed to a plurality of supports connected to each other, and the head lens of the plurality of supports is supported. The support and the support that supports the rearmost lens are connected via a piezoelectric material, and the displacement amount of the piezoelectric material obtained by applying an electric field to the piezoelectric material,
There is a means for moving the plurality of lenses in a zoom manner by using a piezoelectric linear actuator such as setting an appropriate clearance between the plurality of lenses constituting the zoom mechanism 7, a linear actuator using magnetostriction, and an ultrasonic motor. It is also possible to use In particular, a magnetostrictive actuator using a magnetostrictive element instead of the piezoelectric element can generate a displacement in the magnetostrictive element in a non-contact manner due to a change in an external magnetic field, which is convenient in that cableless control can be performed. good. If a cableless configuration is possible, the zoom mechanism can be further downsized, and wide-angle shooting in a narrow space can be performed, so that the zoom mechanism can be used in a wider range of applications. When using such an actuator, it is necessary to provide the control means 13 for adjusting the displacement amount by the actuator, but for the control means 13, an existing control technique may be used.

On the other hand, as the means for artificially adjusting, in order to provide a proper clearance between a plurality of lenses constituting the zoom mechanism 7, a predetermined amount of shift is generated, for example, the lenses are fixed. It is possible to use a technique such as arranging a plurality of screw holes in the optical axis direction, or a mechanism such as a spiral gear that is manually rotated to convert rotational movement into linear movement.

The mechanical adjusting means and the artificial adjusting means may be applied to the zoom mechanism 7 and the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 according to the application, but as a combination, the mechanical adjusting means or the artificial adjusting means are combined. They may be combined, or mechanical adjustment means may be applied to one side and artificial adjustment means to the other side. Generally, when it is necessary to perform adjustment with high accuracy, mechanical adjusting means may be used, and when high accuracy is not required, artificial adjusting means may be adopted. For example, when both the zoom mechanism 7 and the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 require precise adjustment, for example, a magnetostrictive linear actuator may be used for the zoom mechanism 7 and a piezoelectric linear actuator may be used for the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5. It is possible.

The image recognition means 8 has a CCD as a target 3 which receives light through the lens section 2 and an image recording section 14 for storing an image signal output by the CCD.
And an image processing unit 15 for performing processing according to the purpose on the captured image, and an image output unit 16 for converting the captured image as it is or the image subjected to various processing into an image. The image recording unit 14 and the image processing unit 15
Is appropriately configured by using a recording means such as a serial / parallel input / output port, a microprocessor or a memory or an external recording device (the control means 13 may be included), and the image output section 16 includes: An LCD, cathode ray tube, printer or the like may be used.

According to the wide-angle image input device configured as described above, the optical axis 4 of the lens unit 2 is set at the center of the CCD, and the light emitted from the back transparent surface of the panoramic image block 1 is transmitted to the CCD. When a plurality of lenses, which are the constituent elements of the zoom mechanism 7, are moved by zooming so as to fit on the upper side, the scenery of the photographing location is formed in an annular shape on the CCD as shown in FIG. Is referred to as a ring-shaped image), and a wide-angle image covering 360 degrees around the front light-transmitting surface of the panoramic image block 1 can be obtained.

On the other hand, by shifting the optical axis 4 of the lens unit 2 from the center of the CCD, it is possible to connect only a part of the annular image onto the CCD as shown in FIG. 5, and further adjust the zoom mechanism 7. By doing so, as shown in FIG. 6, it is possible to connect only a desired area of the annular image as an enlarged image over the entire light receiving area of the CCD.

In such a wide-angle image input device, for example, by using a CCD as a target, the field of view is always maximized as shown in FIG. 4, and an object (person or the like) has entered the region of the field of view. In this case, the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 is operated to change the positional relationship between the optical axis 4 of the lens unit 2 and the target so that the object can position the target 3 in the center, and the zoom mechanism is used as necessary. By operating No. 7, it can be used as an object tracking camera capable of inputting an enlarged image to which an optimum resolution is given when photographing the object. As an application of such an object tracking camera, a surveillance camera is first mentioned. When an actuator made of a piezoelectric element is used for the optical axis adjusting mechanism 5 and the zoom mechanism 7, an object can be tracked by a slight displacement of the piezoelectric element. Not only that, but also the operation speed of the piezoelectric element is fast, so if the image processing time is shortened, even an object moving at high speed can be clearly photographed.

Further, in this example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a convex lens 20 facing the light-transmitting surface 10 of the panoramic image block 1 and a trace mechanism 21 for supporting the convex lens 20 are provided to constitute an objective mirror. By doing so, as shown in FIG. 3, the intention to try to more easily and accurately grasp the situation of the specific portion by enlarging the partial region 24 while obtaining the wide-angle image is reflected.

The convex lens 20 of the example is formed by integrating the surface of the spherical transparent transparent plate (non-lens) 22 made of synthetic resin or glass so as to cover a part of the front transparent surface 10. is there. The convex lens 20 does not have to have a circular shape, and may have a partial shape of a circular convex lens including the surface as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Further, either a spherical lens or an aspherical lens may be used.

In the tracing mechanism in this example, since the convex lens 20 is set to have a shape and size that cover the full width of the front light-transmitting surface 10 of the panoramic image block 1, the center of the front light-shielding surface of the panorama block is set. It is composed of only a lens rotation means 23 that determines the acquisition direction of the magnified image by rotating a transparent plate 22 in which the convex lens 20 is integrated with a perpendicular line passing through as a rotation axis. Depending on the configuration of the convex lens, a lens unit advancing / retreating means (not shown) for moving the convex lens up and down along the surface of the panoramic image block may be required, and the image and the focus of other parts may be different. In some cases, a mechanism for adjusting the focal length is provided in case of a mismatch.

The drive mechanism of the trace mechanism 21 for moving these convex lenses 20 is the panoramic image block 1
It is arranged at a position facing the front light-shielding surface 9 or the back light-shielding surface 11 so as not to become an obstacle within the angle of view of. These movements may be stepwise or stepless, and the driving means may be selected from various actuators such as a small servo motor.

According to the wide-angle image input device, an endoscope capable of collectively acquiring wide-angle images can be configured, and since a wide area can be visually observed at one time, it is possible to perform an inspection with a low possibility of overlooking a defective portion. By using the piezoelectric element or a small actuator comparable to the piezoelectric element together with a small image pickup element such as CCD and the lens section 2, an extremely small head incorporating them is provided, and image recognition is performed instead of an optical fiber. It is possible to provide an endoscope including an ultrafine fiber portion having a signal line for sending an image signal to the means 8. Thus, in the medical field, the thinning of the head and the fiber portion alleviates the suffering of the subject, and enables accurate diagnosis without being greatly affected by the physical condition of the subject.

[0026]

As described above, when the objective mirror and the wide-angle image input device according to the present invention are used, the field of view and the image size can be determined only by adjusting the optical axes of the panoramic image block and the lens portion and the zoom adjustment. A moving mechanism for moving the entire device, which is required when inputting divided images, is unnecessary. Moreover, since you can input wide-angle images all at once,
The image acquisition time also depends only on the processing speed of the image recognition means, and so-called high-speed shooting can be performed by inputting an image in an extremely short time as compared with the conventional case. Further, for a place where it is always necessary to perform a focused check, always obtain a magnified image through a convex lens arranged so as to face the light-transmitting surface of the panoramic image block of the objective mirror. It is possible to change and adjust the location easily by operating the trace mechanism. In addition, the image of the specific region can be further enlarged by adjusting and using this mechanism with the zoom mechanism and the optical axis adjusting mechanism.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a wide-angle image input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of a disposition state of a convex lens and a trace mechanism of a wide-angle image input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a main part showing a state of an image connected to a target.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of an image connected to a target.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of an image connected to a target.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of an image connected to a target.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a panoramic image block.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Panorama image block 2 lens part 3 targets 4 optical axes 5 Optical axis adjustment mechanism 6 Input image adjustment means 7 Zoom mechanism 10 Front translucent surface 20 convex lens 21 Trace mechanism

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Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A panoramic image block (1) and a zoom mechanism (7) located behind the panoramic image block (1) and having an optical axis (4) aligned with the panoramic image block.
A wide-angle camera including an input image adjusting means (6) including a lens unit (2) including a panoramic image block (1) and a target (3) which is an image forming portion of light passing through the panoramic image block (1) and the lens unit (2). In the image input device, a convex lens (2) that collects light within the angle of view of the panoramic image block (1) is used.
0) and the convex lens (20) facing the front light-transmitting surface (10) of the panoramic image block (1), and a tracing mechanism (for moving the whole surface of the front light-transmitting surface (10). 21) A wide-angle image input device equipped with. 2. An input image adjusting means (6) comprising an optical axis adjusting mechanism (5) for adjusting the positional relationship of the optical axis (4) with respect to the target (3). Claim
1. The wide-angle image input device described in 1 .