Camera control

• US 20050094019A1
• Filed: 10/08/2004
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hunter, Andrew Arthur, Grosvenor, David Arthur
• Granted Patent: US 7,483,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/335
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/00 Details of cameras or camera bodies; Accessories therefor lens hoods or caps G03B11/04
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/84 for processing colour signals

Abstract

Method and apparatus for controlling the field of view of a camera are described. The method includes processing at least one collected image so as to calculate at least two positions of at least one body part of a user, and to determine an area defined by said position; and generating a signal suitable for the control of the field of view of a camera in dependence upon said determined area.

Claims

1. A camera comprising:

a first image collection unit arranged to collect at least a first image comprising a view of at least one body part of a user;

an image processing unit arranged to process the collected first image so as to recognise from the collected first image a position of the at least one body part of the user; and

a control unit arranged to control a field of view of a second image collection unit of the camera to delimit a region of a scene visible to the second image collection unit in dependence upon the recognised position.

2. The camera of claim 1, wherein the collected first image includes a hand of the user and the image processing unit is arranged to recognise hand gestures based upon recognised orientation/positioning of the hand and fingers.

3. The camera of claim 2, wherein dependant upon the recognised hand gesture, the control unit is arranged to control a respective camera setting in a specific manner.

4. The camera of claim 3, wherein the camera settings may comprise one or more of the following camera settings:

focus, zoom, aperture, exposure, white balance.

5. The camera of claim 1, wherein dependant upon the recognised hand gesture, the control unit is arranged to control the second image collection units to capture an image of a specific object within the field of view of the second image collection unit.

6. The camera of claim 1, wherein the control unit is further arranged to control one or more settings of a plurality of second image collection unit based on the recognised position.

7. The camera of claim 5, wherein the settings may comprise one or more of the following camera settings:

focus, zoom, aperture, exposure, white balance.

8. The camera of claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the second image collection unit to capture an image of a specific object within the field of view of the second image collection unit if the image processing unit recognises that the user is deliberately occluding the specific object.

9. The camera of claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the second image collection unit to exclude a specific object from the field of view of the second image collection unit if the image processing unit recognises that the user is deliberately occluding the specific object.

10. The camera of claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the second image collection unit to align a border of the delimited region with a specific object within the field of view of the second image collection unit if the image processing unit recognises the specific object as a framing object.

11. The camera of claim 8, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the second image collection unit to exclude the framing object from the delimited region.

12. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image processing unit is arranged to compensate for parallax between the first image collection unit and a viewpoint of the user, so as to determine an area defined by the positions as viewed from the perspective of the user.

13. The camera of claim 12, wherein the parallax compensation comprises designating one of an eye of the user as a dominant eye and assuming the user'"'"'s viewpoint to be a single viewpoint as seen from the dominant eye.

14. The camera of claim 12, wherein the parallax compensation comprises assuming a single viewpoint from a position intermediate two eyes of the user.

15. The camera of claim 12, wherein a pair of viewpoints, each located at a respective eye of the user are assumed and a desired field of view of the second image collection unit is calculated based upon the field of view visible from each eye as delimited by recognised hand gestures of the user.

16. The camera of claim 12, wherein a pair of viewpoints, each located at a respective eye of the user are assumed and a plurality of second image collection units are provided, the plurality of second image collection units being arranged to capture a totality of the possible field of view of the user as viewed from each eye and delimited by gestures of the user.

17. The camera according to claim 1, wherein during set-up procedures of the camera when composing a desired picture an object selection procedure is performed during which gestures of the user are captured by the first image collection unit and analyzed by the image processing unit with the view to recognising which object or objects are intended for selection by the user so as to include or exclude such object or objects from the field of view of the second image collection unit.

18. The camera according to claim 17, wherein the object or objects recognised as intended for selection by the user are used to frame the field of view of the second image collection unit.

19. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the camera is a wearable camera.

20. The camera as claimed in claim 19, wherein the camera is arranged for mounting on at least one of a head, a finger, a hand, a shoulder and an arm.

21. The camera as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a distance determining unit arranged to determine distance between the first image collection unit and the body part.

22. The camera as claimed in claim 21, wherein the distance determining unit is arranged to determine the distance by determining size of at least a portion of the body part, and comparing this determined size with a calibration value.

23. The camera as claimed in claim 21, wherein the distance determining unit comprises a distance measuring device arranged to determine the distance by measuring a signal transmitted from or reflected by at least the portion of the body part.

24. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the field of view of the second image collection unit so as to enable the capture of an image lying within an area of the first image as defined by the recognised position or positions of the body part or parts of the user.

25. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the field of view by adjusting at least one of a digital zoom and an optical zoom of the second image collection unit.

26. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control the field of view by controlling at least one of a horizontal movement, a vertical movement and a rotation of the second image collection unit.

27. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit is arranged to control an aspect ratio of the field of view.

28. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image processing unit is arranged to determine an image lying as viewed through a defined area, and to process the image so as to determine at least one of:

distance to at least one object within the image;

speed of movement of the at least one object, within the image;

brightness of at least the portion of the image;

depth of field of the at least one object within the image; and

light sources within the image;

wherein the control unit is arranged to control image collection properties of the second image collection unit in dependence upon a determined property.

29. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second image collection unit is the first image collection unit.

30. A control device for controlling a camera, the device comprising:

a first image collection unit arranged to collect at least a first image comprising a view of at least one body part of a user; and

an image processing unit arranged to process the collected first image so as to recognise from the collected first image a position of the at least one body part of the user; and

signal generation unit arranged to generate a signal suitable for control of a field of view of an image collection unit of the camera to delimit a region of a scene visible to the first image collection unit in dependence upon the recognised position.

31. The control device as claimed in claim 30, wherein the device further comprises a signal transmission unit arranged to transmit at least one of a wireless signal and a medium guided signal for transmission of the signal to the camera.

32. A method of controlling a field of view of a camera, the method comprising:

processing a collected first image comprising a view of at least one body part of a user to calculate from the collected first image a position of the at least one body part of the user; and

controlling the field of view of an image collection unit of the camera to delimit a region of a scene visible to the camera image collection unit in dependence upon the calculated position.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the first image is processed so as to determine a desired field of view of the camera image collection unit based upon the positioning of the at least one body part.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising generating a signal suitable for the control of the field of view of the camera image collection unit.

35. The method according to claim 33, wherein the collected first image is an image including a plurality of user body parts and the image is processed to calculate the positions of the body parts and to further control the field of view of the camera image collection unit based on the calculated body part positions.

36. The method as claimed in claim 35, wherein the positions act to define edges of an area.

37. The method as claimed in claim 35, wherein the positions act to define corners of an area.

38. The method as claimed in claim 33, wherein a single collected image is processed so as to calculate a respective position of each of two body parts of the user.

39. The method as claimed in claim 33, wherein two collected images are processed so as to calculate from each image a respective position of a single body part of the user.

40. The method as claimed in claim 33, wherein the body part comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a finger;

a thumb;

a hand;

a wrist;

an arm;

at least two fingers; and

a finger and a thumb.