Automatic follow-up lighting system
First Claim
1. An automatic follow-up lighting system for automatically following an object having a mark thereon, said system comprising:
- a turntable pivotable arbitrarily in a vertical and a horizontal direction;
a lighting unit fixed to said turntable and having directivity;
an imaging means having a field of view covering at least a part of a lighting range provided by said lighting unit, said imaging means producing output signals corresponding to said field of view thereof;
a calculating controller means for processing said output signals obtained from said imaging means to determine a position of the mark on the object and to drive said turntable so as to track the mark on the object.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A mark (something like a reflecting tape which reflects light in the coaxial direction when the light is applied, or an infrared radiant) attached on an object is caught with the coaxial light (visible radiation, infrared light) by a TV camera or infrared TV camera, and video signals from the camera are processed in binary in an image processing apparatus. Consequently, a high luminous mark appears on a binary image, and the primary moment center values (so called "centroid") on the high luminous binary image are calculated on real time, for instance, every 1/60 second, and fed back to an electrically-powered driving part of a lighting unit, so that the lighting is always applied to the position. An electrically-powered turn table automatically operates the control of the lighting directions by the signals feed backed. By carrying out a series of controls precisely as mentioned above, the lighting can be applied by the lighting unit tracking automatically the position of the moving mark. The operability of a lighting unit regarded as a serious problem for an operator usually operating many lighting units can be improved to allow an effective lighting operation.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An automatic follow-up lighting system for automatically following an object having a mark thereon, said system comprising:
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a turntable pivotable arbitrarily in a vertical and a horizontal direction; a lighting unit fixed to said turntable and having directivity; an imaging means having a field of view covering at least a part of a lighting range provided by said lighting unit, said imaging means producing output signals corresponding to said field of view thereof; a calculating controller means for processing said output signals obtained from said imaging means to determine a position of the mark on the object and to drive said turntable so as to track the mark on the object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An automatic follow-up lighting system for automatically following an object having a mark thereon, said system comprising:
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a turntable pivotable arbitrarily in a vertical and a horizontal direction; a lighting unit fixed to said turntable and having directivity; an infrared irradiation apparatus fixed to said turntable; an infrared imaging means fixed to said turntable and having a field of view covering at least a part of the lighting range and irradiating range respectively provided by said lighting apparatus and infrared irradiation apparatus, said imaging means producing output signals corresponding to said field of view thereof; a calculating controller means for processing said signals obtained from said imaging means to determine a position of the mark on the object and to drive said turntable so as to track the mark on the object. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification