Camera remote-controlling apparatus

• US 5,235,376 A
• Filed: 01/23/1992
• Issued: 08/10/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Ide, Masataka, Inoue, Akira, Maeno, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): ADAMS JR, RUSSELL E
• Application Number:
  US07/824,335
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: 354/400, 354/402, 354/403
• US Class Current: 396/56
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/10 using transmission of interrupted, pulse-modulated waves determination of distance by phase measurements G01S17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/88 Lidar systems specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/782 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/38 Releasing-devices separate from shutter integral with shutter G03B9/08

Abstract

In a camera remote-controlling apparatus, the incident angle based on a remote-controlling signal issued from a specific object to be photographed is detected by a signal receiving unit and the position of the object is operated and specified. The photographing optical system is driven to vary the focal length so that the specified object may enter the photographed picture. Further, distance measuring information for the object is detected by a distance measuring part, the photographing optical system is focused and, at the same time, light measuring information for the luminance of the same specified object is detected by, a light measuring part to control the exposure.

Claims

1. A camera remote-controlling apparatus comprising:

a signal receiving means receiving, as a remote-controlling signal, infrared rays emitted from an object to be photographed;

an incident angle detecting means responsive to said infrared rays for measuring an incident angle of said remote-controlling signal upon said receiving means;

a focal length detecting means for detecting the focal length of a photographing optical system;

a distance measuring means for measuring object distance in a plurality of predetermined regions within a photographed picture;

an operating means for determining the position of said object within the photographed picture responsive to outputs of said incident angle detecting means and focal length detecting means; and

a controlling means specifying one region among the respective predetermined distance measuring regions of said distance measuring means responsive to the operated results of said operating means, for controlling the focal length of said photographing optical system so that the object within said specified region may enter the photographed picture and focusing the photographing lens on the object within said region.

2. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a signal transmitting means for transmitting an infrared ray remote-controlling signal to said signal receiving means.

3. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said signal transmitting means has a switch for switching between a first mode and a second mode and means responsive to said first mode for issuing a remote-controlling signal for requesting the signal receiving means to determine the position of said object within the photographed picture and responsive to said second mode for issuing another remote-controlling signal request.

4. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 3 wherein a remote-controlling signal transmitted from said signal transmitting means distinguishes a remote-controlling signal for requesting a determination of the position of said object within the photographed picture from other remote-controlling signals by generating signals having different pulse intervals.

7. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said signal transmitting means includes means for manual operation by an object for operating said signal transmitting means.

8. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a signal transmitting means for transmitting an infrared ray remote-controlling signal to said signal receiving means, said signal transmitting means including manually operable means having first and second mode positions and means responsive to said first and second mode positions for generating a plurality of pulses wherein the time intervals between the plurality of pulses generated when operating in said first mode have time intervals different from the time intervals between the pulses generated when operating in said second mode.

9. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said camera further includes means for receiving said pulses from said signal transmitting means;

and

means for determining the time intervals between said pulses and means responsive to said determined time intervals for determining the operating mode.

5. A camera remote-controlling apparatus comprising:

a signal receiving means receiving, as a remote-controlling signal, infrared rays emitted from an object to be photographed;

an incident angle detecting means sensitive to said infrared rays for measuring the incident angle of said remote-controlling signal upon said receiving means;

a focal length detecting means for detecting the focal length of a photographing optical system;

one of a distance measuring means for measuring the object distance in a plurality of predetermined regions within the photographed picture and a light measuring means for measuring the object luminance in a plurality of predetermined regions within the photographed picture;

an operating means for determining the position of said object within the photographed picture by the outputs of said incident angle detecting means and focal length detecting means; and

a controlling means for performing one of the operations including, by use of a distance selecting means, selecting the distance measuring information corresponding to the specific region in which said object is positioned from a plurality of distance informations by said distance measuring means on the basis of the operated result of said operating means and by use of a controlling means, controlling the exposure by weighting the light measuring information of the specific region in which said object is positioned and by use of light measurement selecting means, selecting the light measuring information of the specific region among the light measuring information showing the luminance of a plurality of regions by said light measuring means on the basis of the operated result of said operating means.

6. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 5 wherein a plurality of predetermined distance measuring regions of the distance measuring means and a plurality of predetermined luminance measuring regions of the light measuring means are determined as correlated.

10. A method for controlling a camera from a remote location comprising the steps of:

(a) dividing the image field to be photographed into a plurality of regions;

(b) determining an object distance in each of said regions;

(c) determining the focal length of a taking lens employed by the camera;

(d) measuring, at the photographing location, the angle of incident of infrared rays directed from an object in one of said regions to the photographing location;

(e) determining the position of the object within the image field responsive to the incident angle and focal length values obtained in steps (c) and (d);

(f) determining from the position information obtained in step (e) the region in which the object transmitting the infrared rays is located; and

(g) focusing the taking lens according to the distance value measured for said region obtained in step (b).

11. The method of claim 10 wherein step (d) further includes the step of generating infrared pulses arranged at spaced predetermined intervals and the step of receiving said infrared pulses, and measuring the intervals between said pulses and enabling steps (e), (f) and (g) to be performed only when said pulse intervals meet predetermined criteria.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

(h) measuring the light illumination reflected from each of said aforementioned predetermined regions; and

(i) utilizing the information obtained in step (h) from the region occupied by the object generating said infrared rays for controlling the photographing operation.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

(h) measuring the luminance of light reflected from each of said aforementioned predetermined regions; and

weighting the light measuring information obtained in step (h) of the specific region in which said object is positioned to provide a weighted value and using said weighted value for the photographing operation.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

determining from step (e) whether or not the object transmitting the infrared rays is in one of said predetermined regions; and

adjusting the taking lens to bring the last-mentioned object into an image field.

15. A method for operating a camera from a remote location comprising the steps of:

(a) generating infrared rays in the form of pulses directed from a remote location to said camera;

(b) spacing the infrared pulses at predetermined first set of time intervals to identify a first mode of operation and spacing the infrared pulses by a second set of time intervals different from said first step of time intervals for identifying a request for a second mode of operation;

(c) detecting the infrared pulses at said camera and determining the time intervals between pulses;

(d) comparing said time intervals with first and second sets of predetermined criteria and selecting a first operating mode when said pulse intervals meet said first set of criteria and selecting a second operating mode when said pulse time intervals meet said second set of criteria;

(e) determining the angle of incidence of said infrared pulses at said camera;

(f) measuring the distance of objects within predetermined regions of the image field to be photographed;

(g) determining the focal length of a taking lens employed by the camera for the photographing operation;

(h) determining the position of the object transmitting the infrared rays responsive to the incidence angle determined in step (e) and the focal length value determined in step (g);

(i) determining, responsive to selection of said first operating mode, the predetermined region in which said object generating said infrared rays is located; and

(j) utilizing the distance information for the region selected in step (a) to focus the taking lens.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of:

(k) measuring the luminance of light reflected from each of said aforesaid predetermined regions of the image field; and

(l) utilizing the luminance information obtained in step (k) for the region in which the object transmitting said infrared pulses for use in the photographing operation.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of:

(k) measuring the luminance of light reflected from each of said aforesaid predetermined regions of the image field; and

(l) weighting the luminance information obtained in step (k) for the region in which the object transmitting said infrared pulses and employing the weighted information for use in the photographing operation.

18. A camera remote-controlling apparatus comprising:

a signal receiving means receiving, as a remote-controlling signal, infrared rays emitted from an object to be photographed;

an incident angle detecting means sensitive to said infrared rays for measuring the incident angle of said remote-controlling signal upon said receiving means;

a focal length detecting means for detecting the focal length of a photographing optical system;

one of a distance measuring means for measuring the object distance in a plurality of predetermined regions within the photographed picture;

an operating means for determining the position of said object within the photographed picture by the outputs of said incident angle detecting means and focal length detecting means; and

a controlling means for selecting the distance measuring information corresponding to the specific region in which said object is positioned from among a plurality of distance informations by said distance measuring means on the basis of the operated result of said operating means.

19. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising:

a light measuring means for measuring the object luminance in a plurality of predetermined regions within the photographed picture; and

controlling means for controlling the exposure by weighting the light measuring information of the specific region in which said object is positioned.

20. A camera remote-controlling apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising:

light measuring means for measuring the object luminance in a plurality of predetermined regions within the photographed picture; and

means responsive to said light measurement selecting means, for selecting the light measuring information of the specific region among the light measuring information showing the luminance of a plurality of regions by said light measuring means on the basis of the operated result of said operating means.

21. A camera remote-controlling apparatus comprising:

a signal receiving means receiving, as a remote-controlling signal, infrared rays emitted from an object to be photographed;

an incident angle detecting means responsive to said infrared rays for measuring the incident angle of said remote-controlling signal upon said receiving means;

distance measuring means for measuring object distance in a plurality of predetermined regions within an image plane to be photographed;

means for determining the position of said object to be photographed within the image plane responsive to an output of said incident angle detecting means; and

means for selecting one region among the respective predetermined distance measuring regions respective to the output of said determining means for adjusting the focal length of said photographing optical system.

22. A camera according to claim 21 wherein said incidence angle detecting means further comprises means for determining the focal length of the optical system at the time an incidence angle is being determined.

23. A camera according to claim 21 further comprising feedback means coupled to said optical system for providing a signal representative of the focal length of the optical system;

and

means for terminating an adjustment of the optical system when the signal from said feedback means compares with an adjustment control signal.