Autonomous Systems And Methods For Still And Moving Picture Production
First Claim
Patent Images
1. Autonomous picture production system, comprising:
- a location unit attached to each tracked object;
an object tracking device for receiving location information from each location unit;
at least one motorized camera;
a camera control device for controlling, based upon the location information, the at least one motorized camera to capture image data of at least one of the tracked objects.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods facilitate autonomous image capture and/or picture production. A location unit is attached to each tracked object. An object tracking device receives location information from each location unit. A camera control device controls, based upon the location information, at least one motorized camera to capture image data of at least one tracked object.
389 Citations
87 Claims
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1. Autonomous picture production system, comprising:
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a location unit attached to each tracked object; an object tracking device for receiving location information from each location unit; at least one motorized camera; a camera control device for controlling, based upon the location information, the at least one motorized camera to capture image data of at least one of the tracked objects. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. Autonomous picture production system, comprising:
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two or more fixed cameras for capturing image data including at least one tracked object; an object tracking device for determining location information of the at least one tracked object based upon the image data; at least one motorized camera; and a camera control device for controlling, based upon the location information, the at least one motorized camera to capture image data of at least one tracked object.
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26. A process for autonomous picture production, comprising:
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attaching at least one location unit to each tracked object at an operational field; determining location of each of the tracked objects within the operational field based upon information received from the location units; controlling at least one camera such that at least one tracked object is positioned within a field of view of the camera; capturing image data from the at least one camera; and repeating the steps of determining, controlling and capturing as the at least one tracked object moves, to maintain the tracked object within the field of view. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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29. A picture production process that captures image data of tracked objects, comprising:
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selecting one object from a plurality of objects within an operational field in response to input from a user interface, each object having at least one location unit; receiving location information from the at least one location unit attached to the one object; determining a field of view to include the one object from a camera, based upon the location information and the location of the camera; and controlling the camera to capture the field of view as image data.
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30. A system for autonomous picture production, comprising:
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one or more motorized cameras; at least one location unit attached to each object to be tracked; an object tracking device for determining location of each of the objects to be tracked based upon location information obtained from the location units; and a camera control device for determining, for at least one of the one or more motorized cameras, a field of view that includes one of the objects to be tracked based upon the location information and a location of each of the one or more motorized cameras, the camera control device controlling the one or more motorized cameras to capture image data of the field of view. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. A method for storing image data in a self-organizing database to facilitate autonomous picture production, comprising:
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receiving an image and associated annotation data; attaching tags to the image based upon the associated annotation data; categorizing the image based on the attached tags; and storing the image in the database based on the categorization. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A camera for producing a standard resolution and rate image stream and a slow-motion image stream of an action of interest to facilitate autonomous picture production, comprising:
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an imager for capturing an image stream at a frame rate of the slow-motion image stream and at a resolution equal to the maximum resolution of the standard image stream and the slow-motion image stream; a resolution down-sampler for reducing the resolution of each frame of the captured image stream if the captured image stream has a higher resolution than the slow-motion image stream; a slow-motion buffer for storing the slow-motion image stream; a rate and resolution down-sampler for reducing the frame rate of the image stream where the frame rate of the image stream is greater than the frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream, and for reducing the resolution of each frame of the image stream where the resolution of the image stream is greater than the resolution of the standard resolution and rate image stream, to produce the standard resolution and rate image stream. - View Dependent Claims (43)
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44. A camera for producing a standard resolution and rate image stream and still images of an action of interest to facilitate autonomous picture production, comprising:
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an imager for capturing an image stream at a frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream and at a resolution equal to the resolution of the still images; a rate down-sampler for reducing the frame rate of the captured image stream to a desired still image rate to produce the still images; a still image buffer for storing the still images; a rate and resolution down-sampler for reducing the frame rate of the captured image stream where the frame rate of the image stream is greater than the frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream, and for reducing the resolution of each frame of the captured image stream where the resolution of the captured image stream is greater than the resolution of the standard resolution and rate image stream, to produce the standard resolution and rate image stream. - View Dependent Claims (45)
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46. A camera for producing a standard resolution and rate image stream and a slow-motion image stream of a previously occurred action of interest to facilitate autonomous picture production, comprising:
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an imager for capturing an image stream at a frame rate of the slow-motion image stream and at a resolution equal to the maximum resolution of the standard resolution image stream and the slow-motion image stream; a resolution down-sampler for producing a continuous slow-motion image stream, the resolution down-sampler reducing the resolution of each frame of the captured image stream if the captured image stream has a higher resolution than the slow-motion image stream; a first circular buffer for continually storing the continuous slow-motion image stream; a slow-motion buffer for storing the slow-motion image stream, the first circular buffer transferring the slow-motion image stream to the slow-motion buffer upon notification of the previously occurred action of interest; a rate and resolution down-sampler for producing the standard resolution and rate image stream, the rate and resolution down-sampler reducing the frame rate of the captured image stream if the frame rate of the captured image stream is greater than the frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream, and the rate and resolution down sampler reducing the resolution of each frame of the captured image stream if the resolution of the captured image stream is greater than the resolution of the standard resolution and rate image stream. - View Dependent Claims (47)
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48. A camera for producing a standard resolution and rate image stream and still images of a previously occurred action of interest to facilitate autonomous picture production, comprising:
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an imager for capturing an image stream at a frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream and at a resolution equal to the resolution of the still images; a rate down-sampler for continually producing still images, the rate down sampler reducing the frame rate of the captured image stream to a desired still image rate; a first circular buffer for storing the continuous still images; a still image buffer for storing the still images of the previously occurred action of interest; and a rate and resolution down-sampler for reducing the frame rate of the captured image stream where the frame rate of the captured image stream is greater than the frame rate of the standard resolution and rate image stream, and for reducing the resolution of each frame of the captured image stream where the resolution of the captured image stream is greater than the resolution of the standard resolution and rate image stream, to produce the standard resolution and rate image stream. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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50. An autonomous picture production system for automatically capturing an image of a location upon request, comprising:
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one or more motorized cameras; an external interaction device for receiving the request from a requester, the request specifying the location; a camera control device for determining an optimal camera from the one or more motorized cameras for capturing the image, the camera control device controlling the optimal camera to capture the image; and a database for storing the image; wherein the external interaction device informs the requester how to retrieve the image from the database. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53)
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54. A method for automatically capturing an image of a location upon request, comprising:
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receiving a request from a requester to capture the image of the location; determining an optimal camera for capturing the image of the location, from one or more motorized cameras; controlling the optimal camera to include the location within its field of view; capturing the image using the optimal camera; and delivering the image to the requester. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57)
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58. Autonomous picture production process, comprising:
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automatically determining location of one or more objects in or adjacent to an operational field; and automatically controlling one or more cameras in response to the location to capture image data of the one or more objects. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A camera for facilitating autonomous picture production, comprising:
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an imager for capturing an image stream; a signal processor for processing the image stream into one or more image data paths; at least one image stream output; and a memory for cyclically buffering images of each image data path and for buffering one or more output image streams of the camera. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87)
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Specification