JPH0624003B2 - Convergence angle adjustment device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a congestion adjusting device, and more particularly to a congestion adjusting device for acquiring stereoscopic visual information provided in a robot having two image pickup devices.

[Prior art]

In a robot that requires work in a three-dimensional space, it is desirable to have a device that allows the visual information to be acquired and recognized three-dimensionally. In order to realize such a device, it is possible to use a light cutting method, a laser projection method, a stereo method, etc. Since it takes time to process, it has not been widely put into practical use.

Among them, in the stereo method, there is a procedure in which two image pickup devices are used to find which position on the other screen corresponds to a point on one of the screens obtained from both devices. There is a problem that it is difficult, and furthermore,
In the state where the image pickup device is fixed, when the distance to the subject changes, the image ranges formed by the two image pickup devices are different from each other. Therefore, there is a drawback that it cannot cope with a wide range change in distance. Atsuta

[Object] An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, measure a distance from an image pickup means to a subject, and image the other based on the measured distance to the subject and a predetermined interval between the two image pickup means. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vergence angle adjusting device that can derive the rotation angle of the means.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention is provided in two image pickup means at a predetermined interval and one of the two image pickup means whose image pickup direction is fixed, and the image pickup means is provided with the image pickup means. Based on the distance to the subject measured by the measuring means and a predetermined interval between the two image pickup means, with respect to the other image pickup means based on the one image pickup means. And a control unit for controlling the rotation of the other image pickup unit so as to match the congestion.

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

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, where 1 and 2
Is an image pickup device provided in parallel on the flat substrate 3, and 4 and 5 are lens mechanisms mounted on the image pickup devices 1 and 2 and having the same image pickup characteristics. Then, one of these image pickup devices 1 and 2 is fixed on the substrate 3, and the other image pickup device 2 is rotatably held by the rotation shaft 6.

The rotating shaft 6 is vertically supported by the substrate 3, a worm wheel 7 attached to the rotating shaft 6 is meshed with a worm 8, and a motor 9 is used to interpose these worm gears to the imaging device 2 itself. Can be rotated together with the rotation shaft 6.

FIG. 2 shows the focusing mechanism in the image pickup devices 1 and 2 and the lens mechanisms 4 and 5 attached to them.
Reference numerals 11 and 21 denote lens bodies that are movable along the optical axis for focusing.
1 is a screw portion 1 provided on the rotating shafts of the motors 12 and 22.
3 and 23.

Reference numerals 14 and 24 are resolvers directly connected to the motors 12 and 22, and the resolvers 14 and 24 can individually detect the rotation angles of the motors 12 and 22.

Reference numeral 15 is an optical splitter provided in the image pickup optical path of the lens mechanism 4 of the image pickup apparatus 1, and 25 is a parallel provided in the image pickup optical path of the lens mechanism 5 of the image pickup apparatus 2 for aligning its image pickup characteristics with the lens mechanism 4. Glass plates, 16 and 2
A sensor array 6 is composed of an image sensor such as an image sensor such as a CCD.

Further, a semi-transparent mirror of the light splitter 15 provided on the lens mechanism 4 side.
The light separated by 15A is received by the focus detection sensor 17, and a lens 18 is arranged in the optical path of this spectroscope so that an optical conjugate relationship with the light received by the image sensor 16 is obtained. To do so. The focus detection sensor 1 used here
As the sensor 7, a sensor disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-155309 is suitable as a sensor capable of detecting the direction of defocus.

Next, the configuration of the control system provided in the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, 31 is a detection circuit for converting the detection signal from the focus detection sensor 17 into a focusing instruction signal of a direction and a distance for moving the lens body 11 for focusing, and 32 is a detection circuit from this detection circuit 31. This is a control circuit for driving the motor 12 based on the focusing signal to move the lens body 12 for focusing, and a well-known focusing control mechanism can be used. .

The rotation angle of the motor 12 is detected by the resolver 14, and the rotation angle detection signal is supplied to the distance calculation circuit 33.
Therefore, the distance calculation circuit 33 further calculates the distance to the object based on the movement amount of the lens body 11 and the movement amount based on the rotation angle detection signal, and calculates the angle by converting the calculated distance into a signal. Supply to the circuit 34.

In the angle calculation circuit 34, the center distance between the two image pickup devices 1 and 2 in advance, that is, the distance l between the two optical paths (the fifth
(See FIG. 6 and FIG. 6) is stored in the storage device. Therefore, the rotation angle of the image pickup device for matching the convergence is calculated from the distance 1 and the input distance to the subject, and the rotation angle is calculated. It is possible to drive the motor 9 by supplying a rotation signal to rotate the motor 9 only, so that the optical paths in both imaging devices converge to the subject position. Needless to say, the motor 9 is preferably a motor capable of open control such as a stepping motor.

On the other hand, the rotation angle of the motor 12 detected by the resolver 14 is also supplied to the comparison circuit 35. Thus, by detecting the rotation angle of the motor 22 driven via the control circuit 36 with the resolver 24, the detection signal is fed back to the comparison circuit 35, and the comparison circuit 35 compares both rotation angles, The control circuit 36 controls the motor 22 so that the two rotation angles match.

It should be noted that in the case of two image pickup devices 1 and 2 which are arranged in parallel while focusing on a subject at infinity, the rotation angle α when rotating one image pickup device 2 is two lens light beams. The angle at which the axes intersect (see FIG. 5), that is, equal to the convergence angle θ, and between the distance L to the subject P and the center distance l of the two image pickup devices, from the arrangement shown in FIG. The relationship shown in equation (1) holds.

Therefore, it is obvious that L can be calculated by knowing the angle α, and this example follows the principle of L and θ.
Therefore, it is easy to focus on the subject.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this example, the image pickup apparatus 1 and the lens mechanism 4 thereof are supported together with a support shaft 41 on a support base 42.
The substrate 3 is rotatably supported by the support shaft 41. 43 is a gear fixed to the support shaft 41, and 44 is a gear fixed to the rotating shaft 6, and both gears 43 and 44
Has the same number of teeth so that they mesh with each other. In addition,
The worm wheel 7 provided on the rotary shaft 6, the worm 8 meshing with the worm wheel 7, and the worm drive motor 9 are the same as those in FIG.

In the congestion adjusting device configured as described above, the motor 9
When is driven, the rotary shaft 6, the image pickup device 2 attached to the rotary shaft 6, and the lens mechanism 3 thereof are rotated via the worm gear. Therefore, when the rotation angle is now α °, the rotation of the rotation shaft 6 by α ° causes the gear 4 attached to the rotation shaft 6 to rotate.
When 4 also rotates by α °, the gear 43 meshed with the gear 44 is fixed to the support base 42 together with the shaft 41 thereof. Together with the support shaft 41, an angle α of 1/2 of the convergence angle θ
It will rotate only.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, in the case of this example,
At this time, the relationship between the rotation angle α and the distance 1 between the image pickup devices and the distance L from the focus of the lens mechanism to the subject is Since it is expressed by the equation (2), if the distance L to the subject is calculated as described above, the rotation angle α is calculated based on the equation (2).
Then, the rotation shaft 6 may be rotated by the motor 9 by the angle α °.

By doing so, the two image pickup devices 1 and 2 can capture the subject on the vertical bisector of the line connecting these devices, and in the example of FIG. In this case, there is a difference in the distance measurement distance between the image pickup devices 1 and 2, but in the present example, such a difference does not occur, and the accuracy can be improved accordingly.

In the above description, an example in which the focusing operation of the lens and the turning operation to the convergence angle are performed separately has been described, but it is clear from the above equations (1) and (2) between these two operations. As described above, there is a unique relationship, and therefore, it is possible to cause these operations to be interlocked with each other via a mechanical mechanism such as a cam.

Furthermore, in the above description, only one of the image pickup devices 1 has the autofocus function, but both image pickup devices 1 and 2 have the same function and perform automatic focusing. Of course, the convergence angle can be calculated based on the subject distance obtained from one of the devices.

Furthermore, in FIG.
Although it is arranged inside, an automatic focusing device may be separately provided outside.

Further, in the control system shown in FIG. 3, the motors 12 and 22 can be directly controlled only by the control circuit 32.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, one of the two image pickup devices capable of focusing on the same plane is fixed, and at least the fixed image pickup device is set within the set area within the field of view. Is provided with a means capable of measuring the distance to a subject, and the other image pickup device is rotatable about an axis orthogonal to the plane so that these two image pickup devices are arranged at a predetermined interval. Are arranged side by side, and a means for calculating the convergence angle between the two image pickup devices from the distance to the subject and the above-mentioned predetermined interval is provided, and one of the image pickup devices is rotated by the convergence angle calculated by this calculation device. Since the convergence is executed by moving the two, the corresponding points of the images can be easily obtained between the two imaging devices, and the shift of the visual field range between the two imaging devices due to the change in the imaging distance can be suppressed. To accommodate a wide range of distance changes It is possible to provide a that congestion device.

Furthermore, it is also possible to apply such a convergence adjustment device to the shooting of a stereoscopic movie, and in this case, since it is possible to perform shooting close to the movement of the human eye, eye fatigue when tracking the screen is avoided. Can be reduced.

[Effect] As described above, according to the present invention, the two image pickup means at a predetermined interval, and the two image pickup means among the two image pickup means are provided.
Measuring means provided on one of the image pickup means whose image pickup direction is fixed, for measuring a distance from the image pickup means to the subject, a distance to the subject measured by the measuring means, and a predetermined distance between the two image pickup means. Since the control means controls the rotation of the other image pickup means so as to match the congestion of the other image pickup means with reference to the one image pickup means based on the interval, the image pickup means is provided in the one image pickup means. By measuring the distance to the subject by the measuring means and then rotating the other imaging means via the control means, it is possible to easily carry out the convergence on the subject.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the congestion adjusting device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a model diagram showing the configuration of the focusing mechanism of the two image pickup devices as an example, and FIG. 3 is the congestion adjusting device of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control system as an example, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the angle of convergence in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the convergence angle in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, 2 ... Imaging device, 3 ... Substrate, 4, 5 ... Lens mechanism, 6 ... Rotating shaft, 7 ... Worm wheel, 8 ... Worm, 9, 12, 22, ... Motor, 11, 21 ... Lens body, 13, 23 ... Screw part, 14, 24 ... Resolver, 15 ... Optical splitter, 15A ... Semi-transparent mirror, 16, 26 ... Image sensor, 17 ... Focus detection sensor, 18 ... Lens, 25 ... Glass plate, 31 ... Detection circuit, 32 ... Control circuit, 33 ... Distance calculation circuit, 34 ... Angle calculation circuit, 35 ... Comparison circuit, 36 ... Control circuit, 41 ...... Support shaft, 42 ...... Support base, 43, 44 ...... Gears.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A measurement for measuring a distance from an image pickup means provided to two image pickup means having a predetermined interval and one of the two image pickup means having a fixed image pickup direction. Means for adjusting the congestion of the other image pickup means on the basis of the one image pickup means on the basis of the distance to the subject measured by the measuring means and the predetermined interval between the two image pickup means. And a control means for controlling the rotation of the other imaging means.