REMOTE STATUS MONITOR FOR HIGH SPEED VIDEO CAMERA

• US 20090096881A1
• Filed: 10/08/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Keymed Medical & Industrial Equipment, Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Keymed Medical & Industrial Equipment, Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: ROBINSON, Christopher Paul, Paris, Nicki John, Dammery, Timothy Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,164,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/221.1
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/18 Signals indicating condition of a camera member or suitability of light indicating depth of field G03B13/30
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 39/00 High-speed photography
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices

Abstract

A high speed video camera 10 comprises a camera body 20 and a camera lens 30. The rear of the camera body 20 is formed with a handle 40 adjacent to rear face 50 of the camera. Mounted upon or within the handle 40 is a plurality of status LED 60, preferably in a horizontal row. A camera micro processor controls an LED driver which drives the status LED 60 commonly but independently. This permits various different patterns or sequences to be generated, in turn to provide an indication, to a remote user, a plurality of different camera statuses.

Claims

1. A high speed video camera comprising:

a remote status indicator including a plurality of illuminatable lamps; and

a controller arranged to control, collectively, the illumination of the plurality of illuminatable lamps so that they display to a user of the camera, at a location remote from the camera, a plurality of different patterns or sequences representative of a respective plurality of different statuses of the camera.

2. The high speed video camera of claim 1, wherein the controller is arranged to control the illumination of the plurality of illuminatable lamps so that they display a plurality of different patterns or sequences each representative of one of a plurality of different modes of camera operation prior to, during and/or subsequent to the capture of one or more images by the high speed video camera.

3. The high speed video camera of claim 1, wherein the controller is arranged to cause the illuminatable lamps to be illuminated in at least two different patterns or sequences, when the controller determines or is instructed that the high speed video camera is in a respective two or more camera operation modes selected from the following camera operation mode list:

(a) the high speed video camera is determined to be ready to capture one or more images and no camera error is detected;

(b) the high speed video camera has been instructed that one or more images are to be captured but an images capture error is detected;

(c) the high speed video camera is determined to be ready to capture one or more images, or is in the process of capturing images, and a camera trigger signal is determined to have been successfully received; and

(d) the high speed video camera is determined to have completed the process of capturing images.

4. The high speed camera of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of illuminatable lamps is a multicoloured lamp, capable of being illuminated in a plurality of different colours, the controller being further arranged to cause the or each multicoloured lamp to illuminate in a particular colour in dependence upon the particular camera status to be indicated.

5. The high speed video camera of claim 1, wherein the controller is arranged to cause the or each illuminatable lamp to illuminate in a particular sequence relative to the other lamps in the remote status indicator, in dependence upon the particular camera status to be indicated.

6. The high speed video camera of claim 1, wherein the, or at least one of the illuminatable lamps is a red/green/blue LED.

7. The high speed video camera of claim 1, further comprising a video image display unit, the controller being further configured to cause an image or representative of the status of the plurality of illuminatable lamps to be captured or generated for display along with, and synchronized to, captured video images, upon the video image display unit.

8. A high speed video camera comprising a remote status indicator having at least one illuminatable light and a controller arranged to control the illumination of the or each illuminatable light so as to display to a user, at a location remote from the high speed video camera, at least three different patterns or sequences of illumination representative of at least three corresponding different modes of operation of the high speed video camera.

9. A high speed video camera comprising a remote status indicator having at least one illuminatable light and a controller arranged to control the illumination of the or each illuminatable light so as to display to the user, at a location remote from the high speed video camera, multiple different illumination modes representative of a respective plurality of different high speed video camera recording modes during a high speed video recording sequence.

10. A method of indicating the status of a high speed video camera comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of illuminatable lamps upon or immediately adjacent to body of the high speed video camera each illuminatable lamp being visible from a distance when illuminated; and

illuminating the lamps in a plurality of different sequences or patterns, each representative of a respective one of a plurality of different camera statuses.